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Lost all my fish !!!!

Bilbo

By Bilbo

11 comments


Hello. Long time since i have written a blog. Can anyone help me with a recent trauma!! I have a fish pond in my garden which up until the last few days had 16 beautiful godfish, now they are all dead. I have had the water tested for ph,nitrite and amonia which has come back perfect. It appears they may have been poisened. I have a lot of flowers,grasses and some shrubs around the pond and also nearby does anyone know of any plant flower or leaf that would be fatal to fish??? A fed up Bilbo

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Comments

 

Oh, how sad, I have fish too, they are the only pets I have. I am thinking about mine now. Hope someone can advise you soon.

24 Oct, 2008

 

Sorry to hear that the fish have died.
First of all, how long have the fish been in the pond and are they very old? How many fish were living in the pond and is the water well oxygenated?
If the numbers were high for the size of the pond they would all be competing for space and air. Do you have any aquatic plants in the water to help increase the oxygen levels?
Which plants are growing in the garden near the pond?.- If they have been there for a long time its unlikely that they have harmed the fish.
It might be that the oxygen levels have dramatically dropped in the pond as you mention the ph is ok along with the levels of Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate.
Sometimes an accumulation of lots of leaves falling into the pond can also cause problems at this time of the year.Have you got a filtration system in the pond?. This can help to increase the Oxygen levels. It sounds like you will need to clear the pond and set it up again. Make sure you use water conditioner if you are using tap water to disperse the Chlorine and heavy metals in the tap water, and include a filter if you are not using one.The running water will help to keep the Oxygen levels up.
Good luck, and I hope you can sort things out soon.Let me know how you get on.
Best wishes,
Grenville.

24 Oct, 2008

 

Thankyou for your help Grenville. The pond is 3 years old, and the fish were between 3 years to 1 year old. Have lots of oxygenating plants in the water and a filter system. Not sure of the names of the plants around the pond but they have been there since last summer and have grown more this summer. I keep the filter system clean and take all leaves off the pond.

24 Oct, 2008

 

It sounds like the water has either become polluted or perhaps one of the fish may have transferred a disease to all the others.
It's probably best to wait until the Spring and set it all up again. It's getting too cold to introduce new fish now.

Try to get the water circulating through your filter box, preferably one with a built in Ultra -violet light to 'zap' the water before it returns to the pond and your aquatic plants will also help as well.A water cascade or fountain will keep the oxygen levels up. Get yourself a pond test kit, and do partial water changes until the system settles down.
Hope this helps.
It's such a shame when these things happen.
Good luck, and hope you can sort it out.

24 Oct, 2008

 

Hi Bilbo - my knowledge of keeping fish is absolutely NIL - but I was sorry to hear about your problem and hope that you can sort it out. It sounds as if Grenville has a lot of experience and knowledge on this subject so I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

Good luck.

25 Oct, 2008

 

Hi Bilbo, sorry to hear of your loss. I had the same problem once when I lived in Britain and it turned out to be a disease, probably brought in by one of the birds who loved to have a bath in the shallow end and had probably bathed in another pond already holding the disease. I checked it all out with the lovely people who ran the "fish shop" nearby and then, after draining and refilling the pond, gave treatments to the water at certain intervals. Can't recall exactly what the disease was called! It was like a fungus and the fishes' scales opened up. Anyway, while treating the water following the disaster I never had the problem again and, after starting with six fish, I ended up with 28 so something must have been right! Good luck!

25 Oct, 2008

 

This happened to me a few years ago Bilbo. Cement is toxic to fish and we were mixing concrete, not near the pond but the wind blew the cement dust onto it. I did not realize this had happened, nor did I know such a fine layer landing on the pond would be so fatal.It was a deep but fairly small in circumference pond. Could something like this have happened?

25 Oct, 2008

 

Bilbo, sorry to hear that you lost all your fish,, i would be hate to lose any of mine.
did the fish all die at the same time?

25 Oct, 2008

 

I've only got 2 fish in my small pond, had them quite a few years now, so all what as been said i've taken on board, as my fish have also got names.

25 Oct, 2008

 

Hi Irish.

No all the fish died over 3 days, i found the last dead one this morning as i drained the pond, funny thing is none of the frogs who live in and around the pond have died.

Now the pond is re filled with a complete new filter system, i have moved all the bushes to the back of the gardenand am starting to landscape yet again!!!!

I have now come in out of the rain, soaking wet, fed up and drinking a Baileys coffee planning the landscaping and whether i should just leave as a wild life pond and not introduce new fish in the spring.

25 Oct, 2008

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