fish keep dying

[ssexter]

Need some help why fish keep dying about one per week. Read the post about eggs and no males and it sort of fits but I can't imagine my pond has no males. five fish came from an established pond. One was a 3 year survior from my pond last year and two were new feeder fish. Nitrates seem fine according to test. The only thing might be is the filter change is about once every three weeks. any ideas

 

[koidaddy]

Welcome. Sorry for your fish loss. How long has the pond been set up? What are the other readings?

 

[fishin4cars]

How about posting a introduction, show us some pics and tell us in more detail about your pond. Makes trying to answer a problem of this type a little easier.

 

[ssexter]

ponds been set up for at least 8 years. ph looks to be about a 6 and nitrites about 0 and buffering 80. Still looks like I have three older fish and one new feeder swimming around.

 

[DrDave]

Welcome to the Forum!
Is the bottom clean?

 

[fishin4cars]

Any signs on the fish themselves?

 

[sissy]

welcome ssexter and ph is (6) that's rather low .I'm not sure of the fish you have and why it's so low

 

[addy1]

welcome to our group, when my ph was that low, it killed the test goldfish I put in last year.

 

[j.w]

ssexter
Sorry you are having trouble w/ your fish

 

[CometKeith]

Hi ssexter. Feeder fish typically carry disease. I don't know if you see the tanks at odd times, but the store employees are always taking out dead fish from those tanks. Feeders are usually super stressed out and have low resistance to disease.
They may look fine, but may be carrying viruses from other sick fish. Once in a while you hear about stories where someone started out with all feeders and they did great, but usually the opposite is true.

 

[ssexter]

I did start out with feeders years ago, and the did survive for about three years. But I understant what you're saying. Bottom is pretty clean, there is some algae and dirt on the bottom. Most of the fish now are 4" and are goldfish. Any good way to raise PH a little?

 

[addy1]

I added baking soda when mine was real low, since then I have added 100 lbs of crushed oyster shells to bring up the hardness which helps make the ph stable. My ph has stabilized around 7.6 or so unless I ever need to add a bunch of water, then it will drop due to our well water being around 5.4