All our Fish Died???????????

[Shadelina]

Hello! Pretty upset right now We have a 3300 Gallon Outdoor fish pond. We clean this pond every 2 years. This was our 4th time cleaning it. We do the same thing every time. Empty the pond (Catching fish as we go, and placing them in a pool of 50% pond water and 50% Clean water) Once they are all out, we pressure washed the sides of the rocks etc, cleaning it out. We left some of the rocks dirty and left some dirty water in the pond. (Again, exact same as every other year) We then had a water truck come in and fill the pond. The water was supposed to be from an underground lake that was really clean. When the truck was done, we still needed to fill the last 1/4 with our well water (Which is normally what we fill the whole pond with) As we finished filling the pond, I had been tempering the water, transitioning it so it was the same temp as the new water and then we put them back in the big pond. We also added a specific pond rock salt that we where told to help protect the fish etc (Which we normally do each time as well) The waterfall did not get turned on until this morning as the pond finish filling.

Well as of now (Almost 24 hrs later) They have all died 87 of them gone. 15 full grown and the rest where babies and in between. I honestly don't know what happened. All the fish have been taken out as they died over the last couple hrs.

Any thoughts on what could have happened? All I can come up with is Lack of oxygen.

 

[barryian]

Quite a drag .... very sorry! I really don't think you'll find a specific answer as there are too many variables. Doing this is quite a shock to the fish re: pH of water they were put into, ammonia buildup in water with no biofilm of which btw, power washing removes from the rocks and liner. Adding salt, removing the fish are all stressing the fish. Did you do any testing prior and after the cleaning? Oxygen deprivation is a definite depending what they went into.

A suggestion for the future... With good filtration, water quality and testing, there is no need to power wash a pond. The process does more harm than good. There are people on the forum that don't even do water changes depending on their pond filtration systems.

I'm not sure how long you've been doing this but I assume with 87 fish, you must have had quite a large pond. How many gallons? What type filtration system? What did you move all the fish in? They've grown over the 2 years, and the previous 2 years, etc, so if you are putting 87 larger fish in the same quarters, the oxygen level could have not been adequate.

Like I said, many parameters to know so it doesn't happen again. Get back with more information possibly testing the old water vs the water they were moved to along with the size of each! Good luck.

 

[Big Lou]

So very sorry. It also happened to us. With ours it was some kind of virus.

 

[Smaug]

Stop cleaning the pond like that for sure. Your getting new pond syndrome every two years. The stress that is causing is also a lifespan shortener. My pond has been up for over 8 years with zero cleanings other then just netting out debris and cleaning filters. My small pond before that was just as long with same maintenance.

 

[ashirley]

So sorry that you lost your fish. My pond is 6 years old and we just net the bottom and clean the filters.

 

[falconut]

Sorry about your loss. Agree with what others are saying. Full pond cleaning shouldn't be necessary in an established pond. Water changes if the levels are building up, but all the rest is just striping out all the good bacteria and restating the cycle.

 

[Smaug]

One more thing,I just saw you had 87 fish. Unless they were all small,like under 4 inches or so then you were massively overstocked.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

One more thing,I just saw you had 87 fish. Unless they were all small,like under 4 inches or so then you were massively overstocked.

This begs the question- How large (capacity) was the temporary holding facility that they were placed in while the pond was being cleaned? Did it have available adequate biofiltration and circulation?
These fish were evidently subjected to heavy acute from multiple sources.

 

[barryian]

This begs the question- How large (capacity) was the temporary holding facility that they were placed in while the pond was being cleaned? Did it have available adequate biofiltration and circulation?
These fish were evidently subjected to heavy acute from multiple sources.

Exactly. Sounds like they grew for about 6 years...

 

[Troutredds]

Quite a drag .... very sorry! I really don't think you'll find a specific answer as there are too many variables. Doing this is quite a shock to the fish re: pH of water they were put into, ammonia buildup in water with no biofilm of which btw, power washing removes from the rocks and liner. Adding salt, removing the fish are all stressing the fish. Did you do any testing prior and after the cleaning? Oxygen deprivation is a definite depending what they went into.

A suggestion for the future... With good filtration, water quality and testing, there is no need to power wash a pond. The process does more harm than good. There are people on the forum that don't even do water changes depending on their pond filtration systems.

I'm not sure how long you've been doing this but I assume with 87 fish, you must have had quite a large pond. How many gallons? What type filtration system? What did you move all the fish in? They've grown over the 2 years, and the previous 2 years, etc, so if you are putting 87 larger fish in the same quarters, the oxygen level could have not been adequate.

Like I said, many parameters to know so it doesn't happen again. Get back with more information possibly testing the old water vs the water they were moved to along with the size of each! Good luck.

Well said, barryian. I'm sorry for your losses, Shadelina. An "Aquascape" type of cleaning procedure subjects fish to multiple stressors, compounded in time by growth and overcrowding.

 

[Tula]

Very sorry you lost all your fish, I think I'd be stunned Even if we do things as we've always done, the fish are growing and their needs change. I'm curious about the water brought in on the water truck, it could have had very different parameters than the water they were used to, your well water. I once had my pond partially pressure treated, thinking I was doing the right thing.

Again, I'm so sorry about your loss. I hope you'll continue ponding and post more, on our forum.

 

[Nepen]

I wonder how much oxygen was in the water that's put in to the pond, since it's underground water. How much oxygen level well water normally have? With 86 fish suddenly go into the new pond (with hardly any beneficial bacteria) and if there's not enough oxygen to begin with, and the water fall wasn't turned on until later, the fish might not get enough oxygen? Plus all the ammonia the 86 fish created in a span of a night.

 

[Smaug]

Water usually oxygenated pretty quickly. The op has a 3300 gallon pond so there is a good amount of surface area for air exchange. When I first built my pond I looked into water delivery and I asked if it was chlorinated, the answer was yes,my answer was no thanks. I wonder if this isn't the case here. Whatever the case is the op hasn't chimed in so I suppose we may not know.

 

[Nepen]

Water usually oxygenated pretty quickly. The op has a 3300 gallon pond so there is a good amount of surface area for air exchange. When I first built my pond I looked into water delivery and I asked if it was chlorinated, the answer was yes,my answer was no thanks. I wonder if this isn't the case here. Whatever the case is the op hasn't chimed in so I suppose we may not know.

ok thank it might be fast but is it fast enough for 86 fish? just wondering

 

[pecan]

I am very sorry.

Like the others, the extreme cleaning you do every two years is not good. I found it takes about 3 years for a pond to find it's natural echo balance. draining and power washing every two years is like getting a new pond every two years and the pond never gets a chance to balance.

I've had my pond for 5 years and it gets a big water change each spring and fall (about 30%-40% of the water) and small water changes throughout the summer (about 10%). Net the gunk off the bottom and its good to go.

I would recommend letting the pond set for about 6 weeks, testing the water and slowly adding fish. with 3300 gallons I wouldn't put more than about 6 koi in there or about 20 comets depending on your filtration.