Chlorine Poisoning...Anything I should do for them?

[RoyalFeather]

I'm so bummed...Came home to dead fish and come to find out, the pond was looking low and dad topped it off with hose water. He thought he was doing me a favor, but he didn't add any dechlorinator and it was nearly a 30% water top off. My poor fish were all gasping and bleeding from their gills.

I instantly added Dechlor and added a second aerator and increased the flow in the waterfall to raise the DO levels for them. The ones that seemed less severely effected improved within an hour or two, but in the end I lost all 6 of my babies and 2 of my adults. The remaining 8 fish seem to be doing just fine, aside from still having sores on their gills and some having slight discoloration of the tail fins.

Is there anything I can do for them to help their gills heal or do I just let it be and they will heal on their own? They are all swimming normally and none are gasping and everybody ate without seeming stressed.

 

[Waterbug]

Damaged gills normally scare so they never work as well. Depends on the damage.

 

[capewind]

Sounds like the same effects as ammonia burns. Increase air as you have done, and maintain PRISTINE water quality is about the best you can do right now. I dont know which dechlorinator product you use, but look for one that encourages slime coat (with Aloe) if yours doesnt. We use Pond Care Stress Coat Plus ... Time will tell how severe the damages are. We took in some fish last June with ammonia burns to the gills ... they had a mucus discharge, and the gills were pretty grey, and not a healthy pink by any standard, and act completely normal now.

 

[RoyalFeather]

Thanks guys! I put some Dechlorinator in there that has aloe, so that seemed to help.

Everyone is doing just fine now and their gills looked a bit better today.