Dead fish in goldfish pond

[CountryEscape]

Wow, I never thought about the test kits being old and no good any longer! Will get new kit today. I have had it 2 years, when I built the koi pond. Thanks, MM for the pointer. I have no idea how to treat flukes, and need to get my 55 gal set up in the garage, but have had stuff going on each evening after work, company coming mid afternoon today .... will try to get that done tomorrow a.m. Ironically, once the company gets here, all cleaning will have to be completed, and I will relax, but for now, stressed to the max, and the fish issue is not helping, and I feel like a terrible fish owner at the moment.

Dave, thanks for warning me of what NOT to use for flukes, and steering me to the internet to search what to use. My problem is that I will likely get 100 ideas of what is needed, and won't know which is good and which is a "guess". Maybe flukes is not something that is dead set for cure, I'm assuming. When I get the new test kit, I will ask at the pet shop, pretty sure they will know what I should use. Then, tomorrow, catch any fish that look stressed, and put them in the 55 gal and treat them.

Also, haven't mentioned this, but I have 3 koi in this pond, from 7-10" long, and all are doing fine. Probably doesn't mean anything, they are the largest fish, and most often the smaller fish die, but the largest goldfish are the ones being affected by whatever is going on, only lost 2 or 3 small goldfish, rest have been in the 6-7" range, large for my pond.

Another fish died today. Again, one of the larger fish in the pond.


I am going to try to find fittings for my huge air pump, so I can have air going to both ends, as right now I have a "volcano" effect only in the middle. The white fish that has been sluggish continues to be so but still alive and hangs out among the lily pads.

Again, thanks EVERYONE for pointers for me. I'm continuing to battle this, although not very intensely like I should be, due to work and other schedules keeping me far too busy right now, but I do appreciate all your help. I, too, consider myself a newbie, only having had ponds for 2 years. Probably will feel like a newbie forever, or at least until I have gone 10 years or so and learned how to treat problems, or more importantly, how to avoid problems. As Larkin says, I should have quarantined all new fish before introducing them into the pond. I bought the 55 just for that reason, and have filters and so forth to easily set it up, just have have done it. Learning the hard way ...

 

[addy1]

One of the reasons I don't buy fish any more. Have plenty pretty ones of my own, this way keep yucky stuff from happening.

Sure hope you figure it out CE, sad to lose your fish.

 

[j.w]

Sorry you are all stressed out w/ too much stuff going on right now CE. Hoping no more die. I am always afraid to add new fish to my pond so now I am glad I have the bathtub pond to put the new ones in for several weeks before adding to the big pond. On checking my pond I found so much mulm build up on the bottom I had to get busy and suction it out. Did some water in, water out slowly and looks better now. Disturbing the bottom created a horrid mess and I was worried how it would affect the fish. I must keep a better eye on this and be more diligent in netting out the gunk before it gets so bad. The fish were not dying and hope by stirring all this up they remain that way.

 

[sissy]

most test kits say to store them in a cool dark place and that most are not as good after 1 year .No uv on them at all .plants you can do like I do take them out knock off the old stuff hose them off good and soak in a solution of peroxide and fertilizer and water .I always do that with all new plants .Clean soak and repot .The fertilizer cuts down on the plant dieing because of the peroxide .

 

[Dave 54]

Maggie gill flukes and body flukes are somrthing you scrape for strangely the body flukes hang around near the same area .

rgrds

Dave

 

[mtpond]

My fish from last year did really good never lost one so there is no way I'm going to add anything more . Even tho I would like to :

 

[Mmathis]

CE, for what you're dealing with (sick fish) and having to confront the realities of life (work, family, etc.), I think you are doing the very best you can, and I think you're doing a pretty darn good job of it! Somewhere through all of this, it's going to make sense. And you as well as all the rest of us are learning.

HANG IN THERE!

 

[Dave 54]

Wow, I never thought about the test kits being old and no good any longer! Will get new kit today. I have had it 2 years, when I built the koi pond. Thanks, MM for the pointer. I have no idea how to treat flukes, and need to get my 55 gal set up in the garage, but have had stuff going on each evening after work, company coming mid afternoon today .... will try to get that done tomorrow a.m. Ironically, once the company gets here, all cleaning will have to be completed, and I will relax, but for now, stressed to the max, and the fish issue is not helping, and I feel like a terrible fish owner at the moment.

Dave, thanks for warning me of what NOT to use for flukes, and steering me to the internet to search what to use. My problem is that I will likely get 100 ideas of what is needed, and won't know which is good and which is a "guess". Maybe flukes is not something that is dead set for cure, I'm assuming. When I get the new test kit, I will ask at the pet shop, pretty sure they will know what I should use. Then, tomorrow, catch any fish that look stressed, and put them in the 55 gal and treat them.

Also, haven't mentioned this, but I have 3 koi in this pond, from 7-10" long, and all are doing fine. Probably doesn't mean anything, they are the largest fish, and most often the smaller fish die, but the largest goldfish are the ones being affected by whatever is going on, only lost 2 or 3 small goldfish, rest have been in the 6-7" range, large for my pond.

Another fish died today. Again, one of the larger fish in the pond.

Dead fish.JPG

dead fish 2.JPG

dead fish tail.JPG

I am going to try to find fittings for my huge air pump, so I can have air going to both ends, as right now I have a "volcano" effect only in the middle. The white fish that has been sluggish continues to be so but still alive and hangs out among the lily pads.

Again, thanks EVERYONE for pointers for me. I'm continuing to battle this, although not very intensely like I should be, due to work and other schedules keeping me far too busy right now, but I do appreciate all your help. I, too, consider myself a newbie, only having had ponds for 2 years. Probably will feel like a newbie forever, or at least until I have gone 10 years or so and learned how to treat problems, or more importantly, how to avoid problems. As Larkin says, I should have quarantined all new fish before introducing them into the pond. I bought the 55 just for that reason, and have filters and so forth to easily set it up, just have have done it. Learning the hard way ...

You can quickly learn to take a grasp of things by buying some goldfish/health books they can be picked up on Amazon US quite cheaply and once you have red them your knowledge of health problems in your fish will be bettered and your going to understand where you have gone wrong and b able to identify and treat problems .
The first book I suggest though not exclusively on goldfish is called :-
The Interpet Manuel of fish health by Dr Chris Andrews Adrian Exell and Dr Neville Carrington ISBN 1842860674.
The econd book I recomend you get is this :-
Fancy Goldfish "A Complete Guide to Care and Collecting by Dr Erik L Johnson DVM and Richard E Hess Photographs by Fred Rosenzweig ISBN 1859749577.
I've found reading up on a subject helps you really get a grasp of your hobby, you Get to know Parasites, Deseases and Viruses and there effects on your fish but more importantly it helps you understand just how to treat them .
There is another side to fish keeping and thats the Microscopic side of things , learn to scrape your fish see under the microscope just what nasties your up against, you van as Maggie its all worth it in the end, and no it doesnt turn you into a golfish Geek , just a well informed fish owner .

rgrds

Dave

 

[Neo]

Thanks for the book suggestions Dave, I'm going to check and see if any of them are on my kindle loaning library list since they're on amazon! Scraping sounds a little scary but I'd still like to learn how to do it.

 

[Dave 54]

Scraping is relatively easy nick all you do is take say a bank card or something like that
Place the fish at the side of the then moving from head to tail (never the other way) and gently scrape a thin film of mucus off,thats all you'll need
You dont need that much then stick it on a slide.
Then place the whole thing in your microscope and veiw look for anything that moves whilst moving the slide from side to side.
If your going on Kindle make sure its a health book with pictures of slides for identification
It's a whole new world under a microscpe that I can promise you.
However you'll find it takkes the guess work out of treating your fih with the correct treatmentplus you can build your own picture library of the ten most wated list lol

rgrds

Dave

 

[CountryEscape]

Thanks for the book suggestions, Dave. Right now, I don't have time to check on here or post on here or anything. Busy weekend with sister and her family, and it continues tomorrow and Tuesday.
What I can tell you all is that I bought a new test kit, and ammonia is zero, nitrite is zero, and nitrate is zero to .5ppm, so all is well in that regard. Totally forgot that the GH/KH is not even in that test kit, so didn't get new on that, but thinking that's not my problem anyhow. Did an addition to the water, about 4" added, as temps been in high 80's, losing water due to evaporation, and with the air bubbler going, things are evaporating little faster, too.
The white goldfish that had been a little slower than most died this morning, along with another one that I had been watching. Sadly, I didn't get the 55 gal aquarium "hospital tank" set up until this morning, too late to save them. Good news is the red/white/black speckled fantail that had been staying toward the top among the lilies was finally spotted later this morning, and caught, put in the hospital tank. Treated the tank with a general treatment, and was able to catch total of 7 or 8 fish (forgot to count them, inside, it's dark outside now, can't see them) to treat. I watched and the ones that seemed to not keep their dorsal fin up and seemed to move slower, more sluggish, are the ones I caught to put in the treatment tank. No time to even get the product out and let you know what it is, but concerned that IF this is the issue, that I will have to treat the entire pond, and that's going to cost a bunch, but losing all the fish will be a greater loss. I guess if these 7 or 8 fish get bright and chipper in the 6 days of treatment, I will know what to treat the pond with anyhow.
I don't own a microscope, and I know, I should buy one, but no time to even do that. Spending time with my sister and her family is taking precedence right now, even though BIL and niece and nephew left at noon today. At least I got the tank set up, so that's at least one step in the right direction. The medicine I got was what my local pet shop suggested at this point. See if this takes care of individual fish, then go from there. They have no way to test a scrape either, don't specialize in just fish.
Will post more when I know more. Thanks again everyone for your suggestions, and especially Turtle Mommy for your very kinds words. I really appreciate it all!!! :blueflower:

 

[Dave 54]

You can dip ypur fish in a salt solution but it can be very dangerous you'll need someone with prior knowledg to do it for you.
Did you salt your pond , I think you did am I correct?.
If so you'll have to get that out of the way before treating the pond especially with some chemicals.
As I've explained it dosent evaporate so you need to do this by water changes I'm affraid.
Remember a salt dip is a good thing but not in the pond, 2 messuring bowls one with salt the other with fresh would be perfect (dipping the fish first in salt then in the fresh water), before returning it back to your QT unit
If however you are ever advised by a professional to treat the pond with salt, it works out at 25ib US per 1,000 gallons , it may seem a heck of alott but it isn't again removing the salt from the pond aftewards.

rgrds

Dave

 

[CountryEscape]

I didn't do a high dose of salt, Dave. I think I put in 4 large cups of rock salt into a netted basket, and according to the pet shop, that would have been enough for maybe a 600 gallon pond. So, yes and no. Probably worse that I did anything, since I didn't do the right dose. :-( So, I probably added about 8-10# and the pond is 2500 gallons plus the bog.
The fish are in an aquarium, the pet store suggested I try the "general" medicine for dosing it, thinking it would take care of the most wide variety of problems. Well, doesn't seem to be working. One was dead this morning, others look worse than when I took them out of the pond. Sooooooo frustrated! Was gone all day to State Fair, tomorrow Holiday World. My sister has no idea how stressed I am, not staying home, but I sure can't make her go home early! Ho hum .... Only good news I can say is that no more dead fish in the pond, all seem to be ok. Did put the battery operated aerator on the aquarium, so at least they are getting some extra oxygen. Time will tell ... second dose is due tomorrow morning, then water change of 25% on Thurs, if I have any fish left alive in there by then.

 

[mtpond]

I hate having to quarantine fish, in my experience I haven't had many fish make it. Last spring I did have that goldfish that had fungus on both sides of its body that made it. It was quarantined for about 2 months and I was using two different medications. I hope you can figure out what is going on in your pond. Like mmathis said HANG IN THERE!

 

[Dave 54]

In reality we all should keep a dedicated tank or pond for QT purposes, then far fewer fish would succumm to their problems.
This QT tank/pond should have filtration and an air pump and at the end of each QT period then they should be disinfected and held in readiness for the next new fish or one of your/our own sick fish,.something I learned very early on in fishkeeping
A microscope is also a must helping in the fight against infection/parasitical attack on our fish plus we should all have a rudimentary grasp of heath matters parasites diseases etc.
Some of us choose to go down this path others dont but that is each to their own but if you choose to go down the route taken by our goodselves and others then you'll find that there is a whole differnt world to fish keeping besides that of just keeping fish.

rgrds

Dave.