I put the garden hose in the pond about 2 pm this afternoon to bring the water level up a few inches. I always add water from the hose with the nozzle in shower mode. The pond is about 800 gallons. I have 4 koi from 6-14 inches and a few goldies. I got distracted and was unable to return to turn the hose off for two hours. It was overflowing. And, I forgot to add dechlorinator to the water. Two of the fish were floating and the rest were in distress. I immediately added the dechlorinator to the water, turned the waterfall to full, and added two aerators to the pond. It's now almost 7 pm and the fish are all still alive but they are staying near the bottom of the pond and not moving around a lot. Any suggestions on what else I can do to improve their chances of living? What can I expect to happen over the next day or two? Will it help them recover from the chlorine poisoning if I add some salt to the water? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Help - I think I poisoned my fish.
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Really sorry this happened to you, but you're not alone. I'm not sure about salt helping your fish , I think it can be helpful as a medicated bath.
Sorry to hear about that. Sounds like you did everything possible at this point. No doubt they are still recovering from the shock and will hopefully be back to normal soon. The water conditioner acts fast so it should be just a matter of time depending on the severity of the damage the chlorine caused.
cafishvet.com
Chlorine Toxicity in Fish - Fish Vet
Chlorine toxicity in fish occurs most commonly when an owner leaves a hose running and walks away. Chlorine toxicity in fish has no treatment and is preventable.
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I think you’ve done what you can Daver. Fingers crossed they recover.
We’ve all done this at least once… I have learned to never start a hose without also starting a timer.
Not much you can do now but wait and see.
Not much you can do now but wait and see.
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So sorry to hear this...any one of us could make that mistake...I think you have done everything you can at this point but if the remaining fish survive you might think about enlarging the pond since an 800 gallon pond is too small for koi...
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Don't be too hard on yourself. There are so many daily tasks out in the yard each day in the summer--adding water to the pond is just another in the long line. It's happened to me more than once, to the point of killing a beloved 15 year old koi once. And those of us with smaller ponds are in more danger since a forgotten flowing hose can change the water chemistry quickly. I find the best approach is just to sit down and admire the pond as the hose flows...I'm too old to trust my memory to come shut it off later.
UPDATE: We lost 4 small goldies overnight (8 survivors: 4 koi and 4 goldies). Survivors seem to be okay, but a little sluggish and staying near the bottom of the pond. Due to running the waterfall full out and adding two aerators, the pond is down about 300 gallons from evaporation. I need to add water, but I'm afraid to. I'm thinking that adding a little at a time; maybe 100 gallons every 12 hours or so, with declorinator added immediately. And, I'll set timer of course so I won't forget to turn off the water. And, I'll continue added aeration for a day at least. Does this strategy sound reasonable?
There is one thing you can do . The aquarium trade has a product in my area called start right. It's basically aloe it helps the fish rebuild the slime coat that was striped by the chlorine. Any time your fish get stressed out like that it can help. Just remember it too is a medication and too much of a good thing can be detrimental too.
The last piece of advice I'd give is to buy a garden timer for the hose. That and to throw away the rubber garden hose.
Garden hose if you have ever taken a drink from you'll find they have a unusual taste it's because they leach and give off residue into the water . The smaller the pond the more it can be a problem for the fish. Anyone who has an Camper knows exactly what I'm talking about. But even here I'm sure less than 50 % do.
I should add they have drinking water hoses very much like those sold at the box stores but they do not leach into the water . They are not much more than a standard garden hos.
The last piece of advice I'd give is to buy a garden timer for the hose. That and to throw away the rubber garden hose.
Garden hose if you have ever taken a drink from you'll find they have a unusual taste it's because they leach and give off residue into the water . The smaller the pond the more it can be a problem for the fish. Anyone who has an Camper knows exactly what I'm talking about. But even here I'm sure less than 50 % do.
I should add they have drinking water hoses very much like those sold at the box stores but they do not leach into the water . They are not much more than a standard garden hos.
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I don’t own a camper but drink from garden hoses and yeah I know what you are talking about. Fortuantely there are healthy foods that you can eat to detox your body of various substances that we ingest from water and processed foods.
Anyhow, to the OP hopefully you don’t lose anymore fish, everyone here myself included has walked off an left a hose running too long, fortunately I don’t have chlorine in my water, but there are other issues that can arise from flooding a small pond. As was mentioned by everyone the damage is done, the ones that are still going should be ok, just depends how bad there gills were burned/damaged by the chlorine and impeding the transfer of oxygen into there bodies and can they recover.
I'm assuming that the sudden infusion of COLDER chlorinated water went to the bottom and displaced most of the balanced WARMER water in the pond to the top and out the spillway. Kind of like starting anew but putting the fish in the pond before the new water has time to be treated and balanced. I'm hoping by turning up the waterfall to full it put a lot of the good bacteria in the pond and returns it to a well-balanced state quickly. When I first turned up the waterfall to full, lots of murky water came out and repopulated the pond with good bacteria from the waterfall. The pond is still a little murky.
Sorry to say if you had fish loss well before that point in time most of your bacteria was irradiated. That's what chlorine or chlormine do best . That's why it is added to our water .
It's also why it's said it's much harder to be successful with smaller ponds. Any changes even small ones can be drastic to the fish