fox poisoned my pond

[dawniemb]

hi im dawn and have had a pond for about 10 years. it was really nice with a waterfall and a nice amount of fish. i went away for a weekend and when i got back found a large dead fox in the pond it had obviously died over the weekend! it had polluted the water and my fish all died.its been neglected ever since and is still full of water leaves and sludge,the pump doesnt work anymore so please id love some advice on how i can get it back to how it was before and where do i start?

 

[sissy]

welcome and cleaning it would be a good start .Get all the muck out and make sure there are no baby fish still left .There may have been eggs that became fish .How long ago did this happen and just how bad is the water .It may even require emptying the pond if it is that bad .

 

[Mmathis]

Welcome, but so sorry to hear about your pond! That had to be a shocker! Hope you can get things going again. When you say the pump doesn't work any more, have you pulled it and tried to clean it? It might have to be replaced. As Sissy suggested, cleaning the pond would be the best start, and if it was me [since there was a dead critter in there for a while], I'd drain it [if that's possible for you]. Have a kiddie pool available, or something that could hold any fish you might find [lots of folks think their pond is fishless, but find fish when they drain and get the muck out]. What size is your pond? Did/do you have a filter?

You'll get lots more good advice from the members here. Best wishes!

 

[capewind]

Welcome to the group. Sorry about the fox/pond ... I dont like the sounds of something so big dying in there, so would totally strip the pond down, clean and start over.

 

[Dave 54]

Hi Dawn welcome from sunny Plymouth yuk that sounds awful it makes me wnder what that fox was up to to get into the pond,are you sure nobody put it there to spite you whilst you where away ?
First off I would drainthe pnd completely then clean it and thats everything get some fish disinfectant top up the pond and put the bottle in leaving it standing for a few days before emptying it again.
Strip oit your filter and do the same throw away the filter medium and get some new, strip down any working parts just to mmake sure you get evrything .
Test the filter with the disinfected pond going through it again for a week then drain the pond completely making sure everything is clean.
Only then would I top up the pond and get the filter running again, do you have plants in the pond?
Throw them away and start again only that way can you tell if the pond iis ready to go.
If it doesnt work strip it down and take a closer look to see what is Jamming it.
Once its all clea........................try puting it back together sgsin

rgrds

Dave

n it rn some warm water through the pond

 

[j.w]

Dawn