Goldfish Dying... Someone Help!

[Calley]

SOS. I need some help!! I have a lot of goldfish in my pond and am not new to ponds, this one has been established for 5 years. Last night someone left the hose on in the pond filling it up.. Someone must have forgot it and never turned it off. It was running for at least 6 hours and it was overflowing... We just now caught it and turned it off. This wouldn't be a problem normally except now my goldfish are dying in mass numbers! I just pulled out 4 dead ones, and all of the others are floating on top, trying to swim. My water is well water, and every other time we've used it to fill up the pond the fish have been fine..... We've never kept the hose on in there for 6 hours before. The only thing I can think of is maybe a temperature change with the hose filling it up, but I've never had trouble before! Help someone who might know what's going on and/or who knows how to save my fishies!

 

[dieselplower]

Ph swing maybe?

 

[Dave 54]

Hi Cally please could you tell me just how long the hose was left on for my friend please?
Can tell me if you can you smell any chlorine in the air around the pond or a bleach like smell ?
It may well be that your fish are succumming to chlorine/chloromines that has gone into the pond.
You probably treated the water for the right amount of pond water, but the amount of fresh water over that has gone into the pond has most probably has diluted it .
Re-treat the pond with a dechlorinator/chloromines liquid water conditioner, then add some extra airstones to the pond and hope that you can reverse this awful accident.
It may well be that the goldfish have damaged their gills ?
We use a differing form of removing chlorine using instead a number of canisters that remove it for us , it also treats thousands of gallons , so it may be something for you to look into perhaps :-

http://www.absolute-koi.com/cat23.html

I only hope this helps you with the remainder of your goldfish accidents happen ......



Dave

 

[dieselplower]

Dave, it's well water aka ground water. Should be chlorine free. Should be...

 

[Dave 54]

Dave, it's well water aka ground water. Should be chlorine free. Should be...

I stand corrected having missed that bit , what's your Ph reading at the moment if its down around 6.0 or lower I'd set about trying to stablize it ,
I'd still get airstones into the water asap as they will be of some help .
I'm that used to having chlorine in our water diselplower that we take it for gtranted others have especially in the UK . not so in the US ith both sorts of supply's an easy mistake to make I'm affraid

Dave

 

[Calley]

Just did a pH test.. pH is 7.0 and chlorine is 0... Before this I had a total of 19 goldfish, 2 koi, and 2 creek chubs I put in the pond a few years ago... After the catastrophe I now have 4 healthy goldfish and 1 still struggling to hang on..... the water is crystal clear, everything looks fine, I just can't figure out why they would have died when the hose was on last night for at least 6 hours.... maybe it changed the temperature too quickly when it kept filling up the pond?
This morning my mom and I discovered it, we found all of the fish floating on top barely breathing... I just feel so bad for them!
My mom has had a pond in that location since '93 and she never had problems. The one night she (or someone) leaves the hose on and they start dying.
@dieselplower @Dave 54

 

[Dave 54]

what about acatastrophic oxyjen depletion event , it can and does happen in the summer momths and has everyone nervous when it starts happening ,
Just a guess if your Ph was normal ....what about the rest of your readings ?

Dave

 

[Lisak1]

Is it just the goldfish dying - the koi are OK?

 

[Calley]

what about acatastrophic oxyjen depletion event , it can and does happen in the summer momths and has everyone nervous when it starts happening ,
Just a guess if your Ph was normal ....what about the rest of your readings ?

Dave

0 Chlorine/Bromine
7 pH
240 Total Alkalinity
100 Hardness

 

[Calley]

Is it just the goldfish dying - the koi are OK?

No my 2 koi died and 14 goldfish died. 2 little creek chubs died also.
I have 4 healthy goldfish and 1 is still alive but keeps floating to the top when i try to get him to swim.

 

[Fishylove]

Calley, can you put them in another tank, and really get some oxygen in there; air stone a pump that really bubbles the top. Also what is the ph of the pond before you fill normally, ph swings combined with temp swings sometimes bad news. And aren't you guys in the middle of all those storms that went through the mid west and eastern us? Barometer swings I have noticed effect o2 sats too. Get some air to they Hun, and if you put them in a smaller tank it will be easier. Goodluck!

 

[Calley]

Calley, can you put them in another tank, and really get some oxygen in there; air stone a pump that really bubbles the top. Also what is the ph of the pond before you fill normally, ph swings combined with temp swings sometimes bad news. And aren't you guys in the middle of all those storms that went through the mid west and eastern us? Barometer swings I have noticed effect o2 sats too. Get some air to they Hun, and if you put them in a smaller tank it will be easier. Goodluck!

I have a fish tank somewhere in my basement but I'm afraid if I take them out it might just make them worse. Everything seems to be stable now. The damage has been done and I have 5 (maybe 4, we'll see if this one hangs on) healthy goldfish.
I do have a pump in the pond pumping water up to a waterfall.
I don't usually check the pH of my water, ever. The only difference with this fill up is that the water kept overflowing for at least 6 hours last night. We actually didn't get any of the storms here in western PA... the last time we had any rain was Monday night.
I just can't figure out why this happened... Well water should be good for fish! Even having the hose running for that long didn't even run the well dry!

 

[Troutredds]

SOS. I need some help!! I have a lot of goldfish in my pond and am not new to ponds, this one has been established for 5 years. Last night someone left the hose on in the pond filling it up.. Someone must have forgot it and never turned it off. It was running for at least 6 hours and it was overflowing... We just now caught it and turned it off. This wouldn't be a problem normally except now my goldfish are dying in mass numbers! I just pulled out 4 dead ones, and all of the others are floating on top, trying to swim. My water is well water, and every other time we've used it to fill up the pond the fish have been fine..... We've never kept the hose on in there for 6 hours before. The only thing I can think of is maybe a temperature change with the hose filling it up, but I've never had trouble before! Help someone who might know what's going on and/or who knows how to save my fishies!

Welcome to our forum, Calley. No one has mentioned the possibility of toxic runoff. You say your water was overflowing; what did that overflow come in contact with? What did it flow into/onto? Could the runoff have leached fertilized soil, weed killer, or other toxic substances into your pond? Even manure or compost in your landscape introduced into the pond in large enough quantities can deplete available oxygen levels or result in rapid Ph swings.

 

[Calley]

Welcome to our forum, Cally. No one has mentioned the possibility of toxic runoff. You say your water was overflowing; what did that overflow come in contact with? What did it flow into/onto? Could the runoff have leached fertilized soil, weed killer, or other toxic substances into your pond? Even manure or compost in your landscape introduced into the pond in large enough quantities can deplete available oxygen levels or result rapid Ph swings.

Thank you for the welcome!
My pond is actually above ground level. Basically, it is a very large tub that we placed right next to the hillside and we built up around it with bricks and rocks so that it would blend in well. All of the overflow just spills over the tub and goes right into my yard and down to the creek.

 

[Fishylove]

I always trickle water into the pond, and we've all been there with the long running top offs Heck I left mine on all night once, and I have chlorinated water and don't normally treat it. ( that time I did after the fact though, fish were fine). Key is to trickle water, very very slow.
I know you said you have a waterfall, but sometime that is not enough. I've had to add a spitter from the pump to really hit the water hard getting the o2 moving. At night the algae in your pond sucks O2 out of the pond to replenish. Oxygen is the key

See the spitter? I have a spill over from my bog to the right of the spitter and the water fall.
My water fall was not putting putting enough movement in there so I added this and no more gasping at night.