Foam on water and dying fish

[englishgal]

Hello,
I'm new to this group. Although I've had a pond for about 18 years I've never had any major issues before.
My pond is about 6'x4' and I had 20 goldfish that I purchased as feeder fish back in the beginning which have reproduced over the years.

I had to replace my liner after a tree branch poked a hole in it this winter. It was trial and error as I started with a 20 mil that had holes before I even finished reconstructing the pond...so I ordered a 45 mil liner. In this process I had to move the fish several times. So that itself caused them some stress. They were in a kiddie pool which overheated and I had 4 that died. (Bad mistake. I should have known better).

I got the new liner in and put the fish back in while I was working on finishing the edging stones etc. It was taking long and I didn't want to leave them in the kiddie pool for fear of more problems). I added 2 new fish which I got from a pond garden center along with some new plants. A bog planter with 3 different plants and I bought some pond planter soil for waterlily plants that I had saved from my first pond. They had taken over and I read that they need to be contained in planters for that reason. Fast forward a few days (yesterday); I found a dead fish. Today there was foam bubbles on the surface and through out the afternoon I have had 5 more die. I drained most of the water and replaced it with non chlorinated water. We have a well and never had issues in almost 20 years of cleaning out the pond 2x a year.

My next step will be to get a water testing kit, but I'd be interested if anyone has any other suggestions as well. Thank you!

 

[JRS]

Welcome to the forum, sorry to hear about your troubles. What kind of filtration did you have running while you were working on the pond? How long did all this go on?

Besides the heat stress, if your filtration is disrupted, ammonia and nitrite can build up rapidly, especially if you were feeding them the whole time. Another cause could be that the new fish introduced some type of pathogen to the others.

Will be interesting to see the results of your tests. Instead of massive water changes, it would probably be less stress if you just did a continuous trickle water change into the pond and let if overflow. This will also help remove the foam, which is usually some type of proteinaceous compound.

 

[Lisak1]

So much potential for problems along the way here... yes, stress from all the moving, different environment, etc, but also new filtration that needed time to get established. And then the addition of new fish at probably not a great time for that to happen.

I'm guessing the white bubbles you're see is related to organic compounds breaking down and releasing phosphates in the water - you can get some foamy bubbles from that process. It's not harmful to the fish and should clear up on its own. Common after water changes, springtime, spawning, etc.

 

[englishgal]

Welcome to the forum, sorry to hear about your troubles. What kind of filtration did you have running while you were working on the pond? How long did all this go on?

Besides the heat stress, if your filtration is disrupted, ammonia and nitrite can build up rapidly, especially if you were feeding them the whole time. Another cause could be that the new fish introduced some type of pathogen to the others.

Will be interesting to see the results of your tests. Instead of massive water changes, it would probably be less stress if you just did a continuous trickle water change into the pond and let if overflow. This will also help remove the foam, which is usually some type of proteinaceous compound.

I have a tetra filter with a box attached to the pump by a hose. It's more than ample for my size pond.

 

[englishgal]

I'm thinking now after reading your responses that starting over has been too much stress on the fish because it disrupted the natural balance too much. When I've drained it in the past I left the pebbles in the bottom which retained the natural good bacteria and was able to restore balance rather quickly!

 

[j.w]

@englishgal
Yep I think all that new startup process w/that many fish and all new water could have messed things up. I never drain my ponds but If I were to ever have to I would try and save a lot of the old water as this is what the fish were used to and has all the good beneficial stuff in it. I have done some slow old water out and new well water in at times but do it slow so the fish aren't shocked by temperature or quality of water. Sorry this happened and hope some of your fish survived.

 

[englishgal]

Thank you!

 

[englishgal]

Now that all (but 1 possibly) of the fish have died I've received the testing kit...it is a 7 in one, and everything was in range except free chlorine which was one box over above none. This is wierd to me because 1). we have well water and 2).even if i did have city water, I hadn't even added any fresh water in over 24 hrs. I'm going to retest today and wait a few weeks for the pond to stabilize before I add any fish.

 

[j.w]

Now that all (but 1 possibly) of the fish have died I've received the testing kit...it is a 7 in one, and everything was in range except free chlorine which was one box over above none. This is wierd to me because 1). we have well water and 2).even if i did have city water, I hadn't even added any fresh water in over 24 hrs. I'm going to retest today and wait a few weeks for the pond to stabilize before I add any fish.

Is that a liquid test kit? Hope so as they are the best rather than the strip ones. I think this could just be due to all the new water and over cleaning that shocked the fish. Pond had to start all over trying to get good bacteria going and the fish just could not handle it. I would not drain out good established water ever. Just use your filter to keep things clean and clean the filter only. Do not take harsh methods of trying to get the whole pond spick and span like brand new. Let the fish keep the good water they are used to w/all it's good bacteria in it. If stuff builds up on the bottom of the pond just use a fine long handled big net to scoop it out. Same w/algae, use a clean toilet brush on a pole if you get string algae. Leave the good short carpet algae on the sides and bottom alone as it's good for the pond and shows the water is good for plant life and fish. Only add a couple fish at a time and wait quite awhile till your pond gets going w/the good stuff again. Best of luck to ya

 

[englishgal]

Thank you-the only reason I had to "start over" was because we had a tree come down over the winter and made several holes in the liner, so we had to replace it. But I agree I wouldn't have done a major cleaning like that for any other reason... I just didn't expect it to take such a toll on the fish. It's up and running now but I'll wait a few weeks before trying some new ones.