Fish dying help!

[archimedes]

I've had my pond for 8 years with no problems (I've only lost one fish in all that time).

For some reason my fish have started to die. I had two seemingly health beautiful shubunkins suddenly die this week. And at least two more are looking very sick - probably won't make it through the weekend.

The water is crystal clear as always and the tests I've done, to the best of my knowledge, are all in the normal range. I find those water tests hard to read but the ammonia levels all seem to read zero.

I don't know what's wrong or what my next step should be.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[brokensword]

I've had my pond for 8 years with no problems (I've only lost one fish in all that time).

For some reason my fish have started to die. I had two seemingly health beautiful shubunkins suddenly die this week. And at least two more are looking very sick - probably won't make it through the weekend.

The water is crystal clear as always and the tests I've done, to the best of my knowledge, are all in the normal range. I find those water tests hard to read but the ammonia levels all seem to read zero.

I don't know what's wrong or what my next step should be.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

beyond water tests, there's a bunch of issues that might affect your fish;

** what kind of behavior are the sick ones showing now?

1. any new arrivals to infect the old ones?
2. pH swing? You can check morning and night and have different readings. Plants, over time, can also affect pH.
3. what are your kh readings? This can affect pH.
4. any sudden influx of new water that had chlorine in it that wasn't neutralized?
5. any runoff get into the pond, bringing fertilizers, pesticides, etc into it?
6. how do the fish look; are they healthy looking or obvious signs of distress?
7. fish behavior, both of the ones that died (behavior before they died) and those that are not affected?
8. any sudden temp swings? As in; if your pond is shallow and the air temps have yo-yo-ed, sudden temp swings can affect fish.
9. any new foods being fed?
10. did you add any chems to combat what you think is a disease/pest?
11. did you do water changes and if so, how much? Frequency?
12. how many fish in how many gallons and fish size?
13. type of filtration and maintenance schedule?
14. airstones? waterfalls? floating plants on the surface and what percent is covered?
15. age of fish that are affected?
16. any possibility someone/thing put something in the water? If all are not affected, probably not.
17. if using test strips, they are not accurate most of the time; use only liquid test kits and ones that are not old/expired. Take multiple readings to confirm.
18. any salt in thte water?
19. have you recently mucked around and stirred up the bottom which might have harbored toxic gases?

There may be other questions but those came to mind first.

 

[archimedes]

What's challenging is that nothing new seems to be going on.
1.Same filter that I have had for years - is clean
2.No new fish or plants.
3. My pond is elevated (and has a canopy over it) so no run off can get in.
4. The fish that died seemed fine the day before. One was seven years old, the other was an offspring of the first (probably 5 years old)
5. The fish that are sick now seem very lethargic and cloudy eyed. One has a severely bulging eye.
6. I have two water lilies that are starting to decline due to fall arriving. But that happens every year without event.
7. Most of the rest of the fish are behaving normally for now.
8. I have a liquid ammonia test and that shows no ammonia. I only have test strips for the other water parameters. As best as I can tell they seem ok.

When the first fish died I didn't get alarmed. But within a day or so another died - both had previously looked healthy. Now two more are in serious distress even though most of the other fish look fine. If there was something wrong with the water chemistry wouldn't it affect all the fish. Whatever is going on seems to be affecting just one or two fish at a time.

Murphy's law, it's always the prettiest fish first too.

Should I pull the sick fish out and isolate them?

I feel helpless not knowing what to do next.

 

[brokensword]

What's challenging is that nothing new seems to be going on.
1.Same filter that I have had for years - is clean
2.No new fish or plants.
3. My pond is elevated (and has a canopy over it) so no run off can get in.
4. The fish that died seemed fine the day before. One was seven years old, the other was an offspring of the first (probably 5 years old)
5. The fish that are sick now seem very lethargic and cloudy eyed. One has a severely bulging eye.
6. I have two water lilies that are starting to decline due to fall arriving. But that happens every year without event.
7. Most of the rest of the fish are behaving normally for now.
8. I have a liquid ammonia test and that shows no ammonia. I only have test strips for the other water parameters. As best as I can tell they seem ok.

When the first fish died I didn't get alarmed. But within a day or so another died - both had previously looked healthy. Now two more are in serious distress even though most of the other fish look fine. If there was something wrong with the water chemistry wouldn't it affect all the fish. Whatever is going on seems to be affecting just one or two fish at a time.

Murphy's law, it's always the prettiest fish first too.

Should I pull the sick fish out and isolate them?

I feel helpless not knowing what to do next.

if you can, isolate just in case they have something that can spread. If you think the water is okay, use the pond water so you don't stress the sick ones more than you have to. Gently net them, etc.

Definitely watch the others now. A bulging eye/cloudy eye could be internal issues or exterior wound; I'd opt for the former. That is concerning but you say it's only one? Did the two that died have something similar or did their bodies look perfectly healthy?

Yes, if something got into the water or the conditions were not good, most or all the fish would be affected, but this may just be the beginning. Your water results don't suggest anything immediately wrong, though.

I've had fish suddenly look bad and disappear--it happens. The bulging/cloudy eye is more obvious. If your fish were coming out of spring, I could understand it easier but your fish sound like they were doing fine all summer. If you can, I'd do a pH test (morning and night) for a couple of days to see if that's fluctuating and if your first test (do it multiple times to confirm) is an extreme, I'd water change immeidately with the appropriate chlorine neutralizing.

pH is something that should be stable, not necessarily any perfect number. Fish adapt and if the others act fine, I don't think this is an issue but you should know just for knowing what your water is.

Any answers for the other 10 or so questions? It helps to have a rounded out picture of what you're dealing with.

Not sure if you can, but especially if you isolate the sick ones, video and upload to Youtube, then link here as that can tell a lotf as then we can SEE the behavior as well as any body issues. Pics otherwise, at least. Take multiple angles.

 

[snoozer]

I had the same thing happen earlier this year. Tested water and everything was right where it should be but I would find one or two dead fish a day. It was suggest that it may be parasites. I bought and dosed the pond with Prazipro and within two days the die off ended. Maybe you can give that a try.

 

[Lisak1]

I agree with @snoozer - same thing happened to us a few years ago. Very distressing to watch otherwise healthy fish die, day after day! Prazipro ended the die off and we've had no issues since then!

 

[Faebinder]

I’m paranoid. If this happened to my pond I’d do a water change. You never know what got in the water.

 

[Laaf]

Did you recently get new fishfood? In case there is something too strong/harmful in it?

 

[barryian]

I've had my pond for 8 years with no problems (I've only lost one fish in all that time).

For some reason my fish have started to die. I had two seemingly health beautiful shubunkins suddenly die this week. And at least two more are looking very sick - probably won't make it through the weekend.

The water is crystal clear as always and the tests I've done, to the best of my knowledge, are all in the normal range. I find those water tests hard to read but the ammonia levels all seem to read zero.

I don't know what's wrong or what my next step should be.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

BrokenSword had a great comprehensive list. You didn't mention the kH or pH results. Did You test them as a low kH can cause a drastic pH drop and that could easily kill your fish/Koi! Ammonia at 0 is fine but not the only concern.