Accidental Massacre....so upset

[elizabeths]

Why is everything with my pond always one step forward and ten steps back?

A few days ago i was surprised with an unbelievable delight in my pond - my goldfish had babies! Its the best thing that has happened to me in a long time, and made me very very happy.

Today I decided to clean out my biofilter (its the big sister biofilter) in order to get the water to clear up. I emptied out the filter compartment with the bio-mats and when the water had drained out I saw something weird looking on the drained biomat..... I looked closely and to my shock and horror..... it was a baby gold fish. ? ! ?

I tried to grab him and throw him in the pond. Then I noticed a bunch more of baby fish all gasping or flopping in the drained tank.....


I grabbed the hose and tried to water them down, but blasting the hose on them no doubt only injured them. I was trying to grab them and throw them in the pond and wet them down with the hose at the same time.....

Suffice it to say it was a massacre. After all was said and done I saw an injured baby floating on the top of the pond. No doubt he needed to be euthanized, but there was no way I could that.

Ugh..... I feel horrible, could just cry......

I guess the fish eggs went thru the oase pump, thru the uv filter, and hatched in the biofilter. I have no idea how this is possible?

I wish I had never thought to clean the filter....... this sucks..... is there an emoticon for shock/horror? :sad:

 

[callingcolleen1]

That's why I have these smaller pumps with pre-filters to prevent this from happening. Could you hook a pre-filter before the pump??? Don't know much about your filter type, hope someone can help you.

Don't feel too bad, we all have had our mess-ups at one time or another. It's not your fault, how were you supposed to know they were there? I'm sure there will be some in the pond that made it. They most likely got sucked up threw the pump when they were real small. Try to cheer up, have a better day tomorrow!!!!

 

[sissy]

had that happen to me but was not so lucky mine died .So easy for it to happen and nothing you can do to prevent it .

 

[j.w]

Sorry that happened :sad:

 

[sissy]

problem with prefilters they do need cleaned often or they make the pumps work harder and can burn them out if you don't clean them often .I use a prefilter housing but not the foam insert .At least it has smaller slits but does not clog up as fast .I burned a pump out with a prefilter because I was gone for 4 days .Lucky it still had the warranty and it was replaced .I then made up a home made pump box and put the pump in and lined it with lava rock and it works better a little heavy but i only have to clean it once every 2 or 3 months ,

 

[callingcolleen1]

Lava rock sounds good, I got big prefilters that I specially bought that work real good. Their big and round that have two inserts that don't condense and are very sturdy and don't slow down the pumps too much. I get about four years or five years out of my pumps, running continious year round.

Ps. I never use the filters the pump comes with.

 

[addy1]

Last summer, I had our pump running, finally got the better flow one hooked up. Cut many 1/4-1/8 inch holes in a piece of pvc to spread out the sucking power of the water. The pump slowed down so pulled the pvc to see what was going on, every hole had a fry sucked in it. Big fish were fine, fry weren't. It happens to all of us, a goof. Don't beat yourself up. I still ended up with many many fry that made it. Went from 5 fish to over 150.

The pump intake is now wrapped with that plastic gutter guard stuff. Many wraps to keep the critters in the pond where they belong. Mine is an external pump

 

[don't ask]

yes
elizabeths we are all sorry for your loss and as stated try not to beat yourself up, figure it as a tough learning experience and now you know to try and plan ahead so the next time it doesn't happen again

 

[elizabeths]

Thanks everyone! My fish have never had babies before, so it was a thrilling surprise. I can't believe how excited I was, felt like a little kid instead of an adult. When things are going great with the pond its so gratifying, but when things go wrong its demoralizing.

 

[JenH]

Oh man, so sorry for you! What a huge disappointment!

 

[Mucky_Waters]

This probably happens more often then people realize, thing is you just don't know about it until you check your pre-filter, and often by then and anything stuck in there has long since died and deteriorated beyond recognition. Heck, a lot of people have very open screens on their pre-filter that are designed to just stop large objects from going through the pump and plugging the impeller. Often small fish, and other critters, get sucked right through the pump with very poor survival rates.

This is one reason I went to a bottom drain with a vortex settling tank. Anything that does get sucked through the bottom drain ends up in the vortex tank where I have window screen material near the top of the tank preventing anything from progressing further through the system and getting any closer to the pump. I have already netted many of my small fish out of the vortex tank this year with no harm done.

 

[brandonsdad02]

Last year my pump was horrible on frogs. I think I had to clean out 5 frogs from the impeller. Not a fun job. Don't beat yourself up, it happens to all of us. No matter how hard we try, it will still happen. I have been finding baby tads in my bog water. The only way they could have gotten into the bog was past the intake screen, thru the pump, thru all the pvc and then have to work there way up thru all the gravel in the bog.

I'm sure your fish will have more fry that made it. Our gold fish had fry this year, but I'm not sure how many made it. I just let nature do its thing.

 

[HARO]

Last year my pump was horrible on frogs. I think I had to clean out 5 frogs from the impeller. Not a fun job. Don't beat yourself up, it happens to all of us. No matter how hard we try, it will still happen. I have been finding baby tads in my bog water. The only way they could have gotten into the bog was past the intake screen, thru the pump, thru all the pvc and then have to work there way up thru all the gravel in the bog.

I'm sure your fish will have more fry that made it. Our gold fish had fry this year, but I'm not sure how many made it. I just let nature do its thing.

OR the toads/frogs spawned in your bog!
John

 

[brandonsdad02]

I thought about that but my bog is only a week old today and there were already in the pond before the bog was made. These tads were hatched a few days before bog was built.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I have a "confession" to make. I killed someone too.... It was this year, only last week!!! I haven't told my husband or anyone yet....
I had two real big "tin foil barbs" and they live in the house in the house most of the year. I only put them out when the weather is nice and the water has warmed. Well I was in a rush to "kick"them out cause the big tank in the house is not big enough anymore and they were hitting the side of the tank quite hard when they get excited and they always seam excited these days. So on a nice warm day I put them outside and then it got real cool cause of lots of cold rain and the temp dropped too much for them cause they are "tropical" and the smaller one died! Found him dead at the bottom of the pond when my husband was outside in the garden. So I pulled him out quickly with the net and then my husband walk by and I quickly threw some leaves over him to pretend I was taking leafs out and quickly rushed him to the back garbage and hopefully my husband does not notice any time soon!!! I'm thinking of telling him a" little white lie" when finds out one of the tin foil barbs are gone..... HELP any ideas for a "little white lie" ????