Continued loss of fish

[ArthurBClark]

I am at my wits end. Two years ago I put in a preform garden pond. After struggling with various issues I removed it and put in a round dug pond that is about 8 ft across and about 28 inches deep about 8 months ago. It has a strong pump on it pushing water through a tuba center piece and a filter. The filter is electric that is supposed to have ultraviolet light to kill algae. Over the past 8 months I have probably put in excess of 100 fish. A mixture of koi and goldfish. They have all come from pet stores and were mostly 35 cents. Two days ago someone gave me 3 large koi/goldfish. They were about 12 inches long. I was so hoping that these would make it. They were transported about 45 miles in a tub filled with water and an air pump. They seemed to be ok. One was dead less than 20 hours later. The other 2 were dead this morning less than 48 hours later. I have had the water tested by the pet stores and everything was in the normal range. I want fish in this pond so bad. After putting the fish in 2 days ago I put some water clarifier in that said it was safe for fish. My daughter said she did some research and said it could be the copper and zinc in the brass of the tuba. I suppose that could be it. I don’t know what else to do. I would buy as many as 30 of the 35 cents ones knowing at least half of them would be gone within two days. I am open to any suggestions. I just don’t know what else to do.

 

[ArthurBClark]

I am at my wits end. Two years ago I put in a preform garden pond. After struggling with various issues I removed it and put in a round dug pond that is about 8 ft across and about 28 inches deep about 8 months ago. It has a strong pump on it pushing water through a tuba center piece and a filter. The filter is electric that is supposed to have ultraviolet light to kill algae. Over the past 8 months I have probably put in excess of 100 fish. A mixture of koi and goldfish. They have all come from pet stores and were mostly 35 cents. Two days ago someone gave me 3 large koi/goldfish. They were about 12 inches long. I was so hoping that these would make it. They were transported about 45 miles in a tub filled with water and an air pump. They seemed to be ok. One was dead less than 20 hours later. The other 2 were dead this morning less than 48 hours later. I have had the water tested by the pet stores and everything was in the normal range. I want fish in this pond so bad. After putting the fish in 2 days ago I put some water clarifier in that said it was safe for fish. My daughter said she did some research and said it could be the copper and zinc in the brass of the tuba. I suppose that could be it. I don’t know what else to do. I would buy as many as 30 of the 35 cents ones knowing at least half of them would be gone within two days. I am open to any suggestions. I just don’t know what else to do.

I should also add that I have an automatic water filler valve in the fountain but it lets very little chlorinated city water in it at one time. It has had a lot of rain water in it that has kept the water level up to the highest point.

 

[Tula]

Welcome to the forum, but sorry for the reason. Number one, stop adding fish until you learn how to manage the pond's water quality.

Could you please post some pictures of your pond, filter and pump ....so we can better help you?

 

[doobry]

chlorine and fish dont mix, chlorine also kills the good bacteria that may have colonized your pond/filter which is very important for your ponds health,it takes time to replenish the good bacteria after been washed/killed/erradicated with your chlorine water(which is a no no)
so i would treat any water with chlorine present with a suitable conditioner or use rain water only to top up your pond, aternatively i believe you could fill a container with chlorine contaminated water and leave to dissolve /evaporate or dissipate for a few days or so
before adding it to your pond

 

[Sparky]

I realize the pet store said your water is fine but that doesn’t float my boat. Please purchase a master kit from API or the pond kit #1. #2 if there are still fish in there and you can’t remove them elsewhere to empty the pond, get some activated charcoal in there pronto. This is an aquarium product and you’ll need a lot. Only time I use the stuff is on questionable toxicity situations. Google it. The tuba is the oddball out here and as cool as it sounds, might be your culprit. There might be an alloy in there containing copper and that’s a death sentence with long enough exposure. NO MORE FISH til we figure this out. Hope for the best. I’m always wanting to put cool stuff in my pond but shy away as you just never know.

 

[Lisak1]

A tuba? An actual tuba? Copper will definitely kill fish - I think you need to lose the tuba STAT!

I doubt it's chlorine. If you're adding small amounts of water, there's not enough chlorine in it to hurt your fish. Does your water contain chloramines? Chloramines don't dissipate like chlorine, so you should check on that.

Could be that the fish aren't being properly acclimated - too big of a temperature or pH change can shock fish.

But honestly at the rate and speed these fish are dying, my money is on the tuba!

 

[LarryM]

I think it's the tuba.

 

[LarryM]

Just did a quick check on google. If the tuba is made of brass, as most brass horns are, it is toxic. The components of brass are copper and lead. So bingo, there's your copper and there's your your problem. Lose the tuba and keep your fish alive. Definitely completely change all of the water before adding fish.

 

[JamieB]

Another point to make that will help, is size of the pond. Avoid koi as they will definitely get too big for that pond, once full grown, they’ll need roughly 1000 gallons each, where goldfish only need 60 gallons each ( general rule of thumb, the 1 gallon per inch only helps with small fish, goldfish and koi get big, with a lot of mass) and 2 ft deep doesn’t give a lot of room for fish to find deeper water to hide from predators or seek cooler waters.

 

[j.w]

@ArthurBClark

 

[addy1]

Welcome!

Get rid of the tuba, change the water like said above. Stick with only goldfish, the koi will outgrow the pond quickly.