We have two ponds, one is around 1,700 gallons ("small pond"), and the "big pond" is around 5,000 gallons. We have our fish (~40 goldfish and 2 small koi) in the big pond during the summer time, and winter them in the smaller pond. We have had no problems with our fish in the past, but this summer has brought some problems. About a week after transferring the fish from the small pond to the large pond, we noticed a dead fish floating. We thought nothing of it, fish die of course. But then over the next couple of weeks, we noticed more deaths. I would guess that 25 of the fish have died within the past month. We don't know what could be causing this. We had our water tested, no abnormalities. So we decided that we should clean out the big pond. We transferred the fish into the smaller pond so that we could drain and scrub the larger pond. We added water back into it, along with pond water treater. That was about three days ago. I started transferring the fish back into the large pond last night. I spent about five minutes catching fish before it got too dark to see. I netted five goldfish. This morning I came to find one dead. This afternoon I was transferring more fish into the pond, and netted a large black goldfish. I put it in the larger pond, and when I got home from work today, the fish was dead! It was in the larger pond for less than 4 hours, and something had caused it to die. Please, please, please, help?!
Pond fish are dying! Help!
- Thread starter elijahkoller
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I forgot to add that I put 5 fish in the big pond, and out of the five, three of them have died since last night.
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
Please, please, please post a introduction. Tell us more about where you live and who you are introduce your self and you'll get a lot more responses. Thanks
fishin4cars said:
I don't know how to. I made this account hoping that somebody could help, so I was in a rush. Can you help me figure out how?
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
Post a introduction here, I'll move it for you, or you can go to Introductions in the main forum and post one there.
As for figuring out what is going on, have you retested the water since you cleaned it out? Did you clean the filters too? Why are you moving them back into the big pond if the small pond is keeping them alive and the big one is killing, better stop adding fish until you know whats going on. You said the water tested good, what is good? Did you test or did someone else test for you. Lots of questions, Lot of possibilities.
As for figuring out what is going on, have you retested the water since you cleaned it out? Did you clean the filters too? Why are you moving them back into the big pond if the small pond is keeping them alive and the big one is killing, better stop adding fish until you know whats going on. You said the water tested good, what is good? Did you test or did someone else test for you. Lots of questions, Lot of possibilities.
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
are you noticing anything on the fish that have died that looks unusual?
fishin4cars said:
What do I put in an introduction?
No, we have not had the water tested since the water change. I don't know, my stepdad could have. We're moving them back because we have a better filter hooked up to the larger pond. We haven't added fish for a while. I don't know what the water test results were. My parents took the water to PetSmart.
fishin4cars said:
One of the fish was barely recognizable as a fish. All I could see is what looked like a side of a fish fillet with a fin on it.
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
Ok, we have a cleaned out pond with a better filter, but no idea if we have actually bacteria breaking everything down, they cleaned the pond, Who advised to do that? How bad was it? Petsmart can tell you that the water is fine, but if they don't know what they are reading it doesn't do much good, OH, and I have taken water to petsmart myself to see what answers I got, 75% of the time they don't have a clue!!!!!!!
the fish that wasn't recognizable, probably been dead a while, need to look at one that has just died, If 25 have died it would be nice to know what they had in common. this could be chemical, it could be parasite, it could be viral, it could be bacteria. Need to get with your parents and get us as much information as you can possibly get.
the fish that wasn't recognizable, probably been dead a while, need to look at one that has just died, If 25 have died it would be nice to know what they had in common. this could be chemical, it could be parasite, it could be viral, it could be bacteria. Need to get with your parents and get us as much information as you can possibly get.
fishin4cars said:
Nobody advised us to clean the pond, we just thought that we should change the water that had been sitting there all winter long. What do you suggest about water testing?
I still am stuck on the fact that the black fish died in less than 4 hours.. what could it be?! Nothing looks too unusual when I pull a dead one out, just the fact that they look dead. The "fillet" fish was white.. we only had one white fish.. and it was put back into the pond last night. That means that it had only been there for 1 day.
you should buy a test kit that at least checks ammonia levels, nitrites, and pH. You will probably be using this fairly often, so it is worth doing it yourself. It could be in the fresh pond (no bacteria yet), that the ammonia level or nitrites are high. I had a similar experience and it turned out to be high ammonia.
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
Still trying to get enough information to make a conclusion what it could be, it started before breaking the pond down, so Don't know what started it, no gill scrapings or skin scrapings so nothing to go by there, no water parameters, so nothing to go by there. My guess, would be just that a guess, Anyone can make a guess, I would get a fish that is still live to a vet and get them to do a gill and skin scraping and see if they can find. Water problems, such as ammonia could be whats killing them now but what started the whole process and is that still a factor???
Welcome.
Before switching fish to a different pond you should test the water. High nitrites or ammonia could kill them fast. Also if the ph was a huge change it could cause stress and weaken them.
Did the pond have much muck in the bottom? Might have stirred up some bad bacteria.
And is there a waterfall or some other thing adding oxygen? If the pond had very high ammonia or nitrites when you moved the fish then you could have burned thier gills. Once done, even moving to a new pond can still cause them to die. Even more so if they are highly stressed.
A freshwater test kit is about 30 bucks for all the major tests. Test Ph, ammonia and nitrites and post what you have.
Before switching fish to a different pond you should test the water. High nitrites or ammonia could kill them fast. Also if the ph was a huge change it could cause stress and weaken them.
Did the pond have much muck in the bottom? Might have stirred up some bad bacteria.
And is there a waterfall or some other thing adding oxygen? If the pond had very high ammonia or nitrites when you moved the fish then you could have burned thier gills. Once done, even moving to a new pond can still cause them to die. Even more so if they are highly stressed.
A freshwater test kit is about 30 bucks for all the major tests. Test Ph, ammonia and nitrites and post what you have.
Hi Koller, I am so sorry to hear about the death of your fish. Normally when you see fish dying this quickly it is due to some toxin that has somehow entered the pond or the fish had been sick for a while without you knowing it.
I normally find that when fish are lost like this, if the pond owner is using a normal EPDM 45 mil liner and no fish have been introduced from someone else's pond it could be that water conditions are poor even though test kits say that things are fine in the pond. I had problems with test kit readings years ago and I quit using them and would just look at my fish so that they could tell me how they are feeling.
Also, many people when introducing fish to a new pond just put them in without making sure that the bag or container has been acclimatized to not only temperature but pH.
Fish should be introduced to the pond by first acclimatizing for temperature which means that you can open the bag while it is in the pond and add an airstone if necessary. Then, add some of the pond water to the bag and wait about five minutes, add more water, wait another five minutes and continue this process until the bag is full and then let the fish go.
Many times I have gone to a place to purchase fish and they fill the bag up with so much water that there is little oxygen for the trip hope which can really stress a fish out. When we were selling Koi we would add only enough water to cover the top of the fish and the rest would be oxygen.
Your's Koily, Lorraine
I normally find that when fish are lost like this, if the pond owner is using a normal EPDM 45 mil liner and no fish have been introduced from someone else's pond it could be that water conditions are poor even though test kits say that things are fine in the pond. I had problems with test kit readings years ago and I quit using them and would just look at my fish so that they could tell me how they are feeling.
Also, many people when introducing fish to a new pond just put them in without making sure that the bag or container has been acclimatized to not only temperature but pH.
Fish should be introduced to the pond by first acclimatizing for temperature which means that you can open the bag while it is in the pond and add an airstone if necessary. Then, add some of the pond water to the bag and wait about five minutes, add more water, wait another five minutes and continue this process until the bag is full and then let the fish go.
Many times I have gone to a place to purchase fish and they fill the bag up with so much water that there is little oxygen for the trip hope which can really stress a fish out. When we were selling Koi we would add only enough water to cover the top of the fish and the rest would be oxygen.
Your's Koily, Lorraine
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When you scrub clean the pond you are starting out the new pond cycle also.
It is best to just vacuum the bottom, pulling out any junk that has collected, make sure your filters are clean, (wash them with pond water)
Like they say above get a liquid test kit, test your water, and post the results. Everybody here will help you with what to do next.
It is best to just vacuum the bottom, pulling out any junk that has collected, make sure your filters are clean, (wash them with pond water)
Like they say above get a liquid test kit, test your water, and post the results. Everybody here will help you with what to do next.
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