Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[fishin4cars]

obedience plant, I just saw a post that Addy made on another forum about this same plant.

 

[Fishylove]

Nope.... Not from me either but it does look like an obedient plant

 

[addy1]

marsh betony has a rough feel, almost like stickers, purple flowers, spaced out.
obedience plants, smooth stems, closer spaced purple flowers. Marsh b blooms first, obedience blooms now later in the season.

I have tons if anybody needs some, best to send in the spring when they are small. Right now 3-4 feet tall.

 

[CometKeith]

CE, how are your goldfish doing? Are things better now?

 

[j.w]

Am wondering too CE if your fish are all staying alive and looking well.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes. Me too, worried about you and the fishies, hope things are getting better soon!

 

[CountryEscape]

Hey, guys, thanks, glad to know this IS the Obedience plant! I love it, and have these 2 that I am guarding with my life. LOL I think they multiply well, so will have some next year then. The rough ones must be the marsh one, and I don't care for them as well, and they have few purple flowers, but not nearly as showy. Love this plant.
The goldfish are doing ok, but not good. Lost I think 3 more last week, but then I was gone from Fri at 4 a.m. until last night at 12:30 a.m. niece's wedding in MN. Glad I'm home! I have been e-mailing with Dave54, and he asked me to recount all the info again, thinking there was the answer in all the info staring us in the face, but we were missing it. Then he told me about a chemical that may very well have been in the fungicide that was sprayed, that effects goldfish, but not koi, thus the "staring us in the face" fact, as there are 3 koi in that pond, totally fine still, and why would the koi pond not have been affected by the spray, if that is what the problem was! So, going to call the farmer tomorrow and see if they will tell me the chemical that was used. Neighbor that is my friend, her husband farms, warned me about farmers not wanting any change, and "city folk" that move to the country piss them off! LOL Well, I've been a country girl since I was 23, so I'm pretty sure I will guard the farmers well, but I feel IF this is the problem, then all I have to do is remind the farmer to please let me know when they will be spraying the fields, and I will cover my ponds tightly so nothing will drift into the ponds. That's an easy fix!!! And, I do have the right to protect my fish. I will know more once I find out what the chemical is, and then can ask Dave. He has been a godsend to me on this whole issue, asking more questions with private e-mail, sent me a friend's whole book about fish diseases, although it won't open for me ... and asking more questions. That's why I've not been posting much about it on here. But, thanks for your worry and concern. I'm still working on the problem, and adding more water today, slowly, will let it overflow.
And, if this chemical is an issue, I have not helped the goldfish pond, as I've allowed the koi pond to overflow into the goldfish pond twice since this all started. Now, that doesn't seem like it would be a problem, koi are not dying, right? Well, IF the chemical is in both ponds, and I've done big water changes in the goldfish pond and they were getting better, I just introduced more of the chemical tainted water into the goldfish pond! Geesh ..... but now I know not to allow that, and if I find that is what the problem is/was, I will do water changes in the koi pond, too, to get rid of any residue in that pond as well. Time will tell ....

 

[j.w]

Interesting about that chemical and hope you can find that this is the answer cuz you can prevent it from happening again. Let us know what you find out!

 

[addy1]

CE here is a shot of happy obedience plants, they relocated themselves to the base of the shubbie tank waterfall, just rooted into rocks, must love the water movement. They put a huge mass of roots into the water, the fish love to spawn in those roots. I think I read up there somewhere you only had a few sprigs, I could send you a bunch in the spring, I have plenty if you want more.

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, Addy, those are sure blooming beautifully. The blooms look very pink, whereas mine are light blue. If there are different colors, I would love to have a few of each. I think someone said they spread like crazy, so if that's the case, I will have plenty by next year from the two that I have now. :blueflower: But, if they are easy to keep under control, I would love to have different colors of them, too. I'm pulling penny wart by the wheelbarrow full! OMG, it keeps making such masses of roots that it is climbing up on the edge of the koi pond bog, where I don't have enough extra liner, and then seeping water over the edge. I have figured out to pull the plants that are too close to the edge, and problem gets fixed ... for now. Keep having to tweak the edges, next project, after I get the stream redug and rocks on the edge, will be to remove all invasive plants from the koi pond bog, so that bog can have more individualistic type of plants, and I'll know what is in there. Only have penny wart that is going crazy, but it's really going crazy! If anyone wants a bunch of it, I'd be happy to ship it off for return of postage costs. It's a beautiful plant, love the leaves and so forth, but really goes crazy, and I didn't keep it in check earlier this year, didn't know it would grow so fast once it got established, and now it has taken over the whole bog. But, it does pull out pretty easy, just hard to pull it and NOT the plants I want left in there. So far, just pulling it from around plants I want left in there.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I used to have penny wort, had it for a couple years, then one hard winter it disapeared. It is a nice plant that spreads very quick under the right conditions.

CE hopefully that is just the problem, cause finding the problem is half the solution! I also think that when neighbors are spraying chemicals they should have the courtesy to knock on your door and let you know, people shouldn't have to wonder why there fish are dying!

 

[CometKeith]

CE, It sounds like you found the problem. I guess it would be better if your neighbor was an organic farmer!

 

[CountryEscape]

Well, in the country, farmers will do what they have been doing for over 100 years, so I'm not going to try to change that. What I AM going to change is if chemicals are possibly hazardous to my ponds, to request that they notify me a day ahead, so I have the option to cover my pond. They had sprayed by plane earlier in the year, probably a herbicide, no problems. So, this fungicide seems to possibly be my target. The farmer is very nice, they will be VERY concerned when I tell them I am losing fish, but they will understand I'm not going to report them, or the chemical, just want to keep my fish safe. If it's safe for all other fish, which it seems to be, then only my goldfish are at risk, and I'm the only one that has a goldfish pond. Now, if I tell them to tell the chemical spraying company, MAYBE they will be a little more cautious when spraying in other areas, if they see a small pond in the backyard of neighboring property. That's my hope. I know that you cannot move to the country and ask the pig farmer to move his pigs, because they stink, and I would not do that, but I'm just being cautious, and that is allowed! Not asking them to change, asking them to allow me to change. :blueflower:

 

[CountryEscape]

OK, I got the name of the fungicide, the farmer is VERY concerned it may have been the problem, and is more than willing to let me know in the future of any spraying by plane. I read up on the chemical, and keeping in mind that the "caution" area will have ANYTHING and EVERYTHING possible that could cause problems, it does say that it is NOT to be sprayed within 100' of any water source or where water runoff could get into water or ponds. Well, I did giant strides (I'm only 5', so I'm sure my giant strides were less than 3' ...) and figured approx. 126' to the south is the corn field from my ponds, and 120' to the west (over the house and across the road). The east is over 200' and the north is maybe 800' or more. So, as you can see, I am concluding without even knowing for sure, that the fungicide is the cause of the goldfish deaths. I'm not mad, I will be thrilled if I find out it has the chemical in it that Dave indicated is deadly to goldfish, but no problem with koi. At least then I will have closure and know why they died, and keep it from happening in the future. A simple tarp over both ponds and weighted down should keep any chemical or drift from entering my ponds. There is definitely no run-off that could possibly get to them, as all sides are above ground level. We shall see ... the saga continues, but no dead fish for about 6 days now!!!

 

[j.w]

We are all waiting and hoping this was the cause also CE. I know you will let us know when you find out. Glad no more fish are dieing!