Discovered fish in new pond, please help!

[TheresFishInThere!]

Hi there,

I just bought a home in Oakland, CA with a small (

 

[bettasngoldfish]

How cool to find baby fish in your pond : ) Any idea how many you have? Pictures would be great!

You will need to treat your tap water with something to neutralize the chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metals in the water. I use Tetra AquaSafe.

Try to match temperature of new water going into pond as close as you can to temperature of pond water.

Test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph. You will want a liquid test kit which you can get right around $20-$25

What are you going to use for filtration? Any idea on the size of the pond?

Probably wouldn't hurt to feed but try to feed lightly until you get the pond back in order.

 

[shakaho]

I wouldn't recommend feeding much if anything. Adding food to a pond which is probably loaded with debris, is low on water, and has no filtration may push it to toxicity. If it were me, I would not start by filling the pond with water. Rather I would clean it out. Get a large tub, put in some clean dechlorinated water then bail the water out of the pond with a bucket, if there are fish in the bucket pour them in the tub. As you expose them, remove debris and plants. You can put any plants you might want to keep in a separate container. When you get to the bottom, rinse until you get all the muck and debris out. Don't scrub just clean out debris. Then fill the pond with fresh dechlorinated water allow the water temperature to equilibrate then return the fish to the pond.

 

[ellisr63]

When I had my first pond... I bought a electric power washer for cleaning the pond. I used it for other items too, but never used any chemicals in it.

 

[dieselplower]

I tend to agree with Shakaho. It would be a good idea to get the fish out of there and into a container with half water from the pond and half treated tap water that is near the same temperature they are in now. I would want to drain the pond so you can see what is in there. Is there a pump? A filter? Is the water only 8" deep because there is a hole in the liner? Is it a preformed tub or a sheet of pond liner forming the pond? Are there rocks or gravel on the bottom? I would be inclined to take those out if so. Can we get a picture?

 

[HARO]

Since you say the fish are 'very small', they are probably mosquito fish rather than baby goldfish.
John
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[TheresFishInThere!]

Thanks for all the advice! I will get photos and start cleaning it out as soon as I can. Unfortunately, we haven't closed on the property yet so I can't even be there without a realtor. I'll just have to hope that these little survivors can make it a little longer.

 

[shakaho]

In that case, I would recommend adding some water (with dechlorinater) if you can get permission to do so.