Devastated, lost most of my pond goldfish

[addy1]

Good luck Maria. I hope it all goes well for you and your fish.

Luckily our pond is hundreds of feet from any neighbor, I never spray with anything so no runoff issues.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

thank you addy

 

[MitchM]

Does Canada have much of a mosquito problem? ......

I don't know about all of Canada, but in the City of Calgary, it can be quite bad when we go on our local Hort Society tours.
When cities were being built, swampland was typically drained and I think they're now realizing that that was a mistake.
On our property here in the foothills, we have plenty of areas where water collects and can be a perfect breeding area for mosquitoes. The difference is that these are muddy areas where dragonflies can also reporduce. Mosquitoes can take advantage of course of small water collection areas like improperly installed rain gutters where dragonflies cannot breed.
This year I think I count on one hand how many mosquitoes I have seen - but we've had a very dry spring. Usually there will be a population explosion of mosquitoes and we need to hide indoors until the dragonfly population catches up. That maybe a week or 2 of a high mosquito population problem.

 

[addy1]

I have not seen any since we put the pond in.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

All this talk of mosquitoes and this was in the news today

http://fox8.com/2015/08/19/ohio-man-dies-of-west-nile-virus/

 

[Mmathis]

All this talk of mosquitoes and this was in the news today

http://fox8.com/2015/08/19/ohio-man-dies-of-west-nile-virus/

Sad. He was in the high-risk age bracket, too.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Yes, He was elderly. This was the other part of the article that I found interesting and scary too

There have been eight reported human cases of the mosquito-borne disease in Ohio this year. The other cases have been in Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas and Lorain counties.

Ohio reported 11 human West Nile virus cases in 2014; 24 in 2013; and 122 in 2012.

Cuyahoga county is right next to where I live. At least it looks like the numbers are going down though.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Okay so just a quick update. Been working on removing all my plants and moving them to a stock tank. Drained all the water from the pond and vacuumed all the stuff on the bottom of the pond so that it could dry out (I ended up dumping lot's of the planting media as I was trying to lift the pots from the bottom of the pond)

Anyway after removing everything from the pond I drained most of it and then had to get cleaned up to leave and do some shopping. I didn't get back out to work on the pond until the next morning. After draining most all of the water there was something laying on the bottom of the pond that I wasn't too sure what it was......I got my grabber tool and reach down to pick it up (at first as I was grabbing a hold of it I thought it was a squirrel) it was a RAT and a BIG one at that! I assume it got into the pond during the night and couldn't get out as I had drained it too low for it to get back out. Which brings me to my question. I know this particular rat didn't have anything to do with the loss of my fish (or at least I don't think so) but is it possible if I had rats (unknown to me) going into my pond during the night and peeing in the pond that they could spread some type of disease to my fish?

I have to say both my husband and myself were shocked to see a rat in the pond. We have never seen a rat anywhere in the neighborhood and I have lived here for 20 years. What scares me is normally where there is one there are more.....

 

[Meyer Jordan]

There may be a remote possibility of some obscure disease, but generally fish are not affected. This is what FishChannel.com has to say about Leptospirosis, the most common disease transmitted by rat urine-
"The incidence of potentially deadly Leptospira bacteria in ponds seems set to rise, as rat populations grow in suburban areas. The rats spread the infection when their urine enters the water, and while pond fish are not affected, these bacteria are particularly dangerous to people."
I would be more concerned with personal safety.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

thanks meyer

Good to know that it shouldn't affect the fish and believe me I am still freaked out about finding a rat. I had my hands in the pond water and to top it off my goofy dog was drinking the pond water as it was draining (before I knew there was a rat in the pond)

 

[Meyer Jordan]

thanks meyer

Good to know that it shouldn't affect the fish and believe me I am still freaked out about finding a rat. I had my hands in the pond water and to top it off my goofy dog was drinking the pond water as it was draining (before I knew there was a rat in the pond)

Keep a close eye on your puppy.

 

[Mmathis]

@bettasngoldfish Rats! Gross! You know, maybe a rat got in the pond and died back before your fish started dying. Wonder if the decaying body would have affected the water quality to the extent that it killed fish..... That thought had crossed my mind, but was too far-fetched at the time to mention it.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Keep a close eye on your puppy.

Yes, I will.

He actually has an appointment for his yearly check up on Saturday so I will mention it to the vet. Unless of course he shows any unusual symptoms before then.

Leptospirosis is one of the vaccines he gets, If anyone is interest in reading about the disease in dogs http://www.2ndchance.info/leptospirosis.htm

 

[bettasngoldfish]

@bettasngoldfish Rats! Gross! You know, maybe a rat got in the pond and died back before your fish started dying. Wonder if the decaying body would have affected the water quality to the extent that it killed fish..... That thought had crossed my mind, but was too far-fetched at the time to mention it.

Maggie, I know! So gross. I still can't believe it

I have a plant shelf and a floating log as well as a duck decoy so I think if that stuff would have been in the pond it would have been able to get out especially if I hadn't dropped the water level so low (I also left the pond uncovered as I don't have any fish in it)

Anyways I now have visions of rats swimming in my pond during the night while we are sleeping. Never in a million years would I have guessed this one.

 

[Dave 54]

Dead rats yuck be careful , I doubt that caused your losses though Maria , there is one way to find out if they had been spraying around your area ask the local authorities .
They can give you a difinative answer on that , then we can rule it either in or out .

Dave