Hello to all, HELP I am way out of my depth!

[Azalea]

Good evening everyone.
I'm Emma and I have recently purchased a house with my partner and we have inherited a beautiful pond with around 21 fish (I think there are some Koi, Goldfish and some others; black ones, white ones all small and big and I am sure some froggy newty things too).

I dont have exact measurements but it looks like it is nearly 10x5 foot and pretty deep (again, pardon my lack of knowledge). It gets sunlight for the majority of the evening (when we get good weather haha).
I dont think the pond is in a good way at all, but as i know nothing about it i was hoping to get some advice. It has plant life in it and basically the whole pond is murky green. At present we do not have a pump (as we have no electrical access to it, something we have made a priority). I have no idea on how much to feed them (it is beautiful to watch them feeding) but due to them having plant life so i give them a fairly good handful once a day in the evening, is this enough?

Unfortunately in the 31 days we have had this pond, we have had 1 fish fatality (Very upset it was a beautiful fish that became egg bound according to my local aquarium), 1 is on its last fin tonight (as in it is on its side) - this fish has green stuff growing all over the tail end which is completely stuck (my partner tried to 'clean it'), and we also have 1 fish that looks like it has a massive tumour growing on the side. Some of the fish are starting to look like they have a greeny tinge to them I understand if I am infuriating you, the fish are completely wasted on me at the moment but i am trying to get some knowledge.

My priority at the moment i think is to completely clean the pond. However i have no clue on how to do this, and i think this is the main thing i am seeking advice for. I am ashamed to admit that i am not the best person to do this as i am a tad sqeumish with it comes to moving things so i am a little apprehensive about doing it.

So this is me and my pond. I am sorry to bombard you but i really feel out of my depth, (I just hope i am not the only person to have such little understanding) It is something i hope to learn about and enjoy for many many years to come.

I appreciate your time and your forum.

Thank you
Emma x

 

[addy1]

to our group!

Can you post some pictures of the fish?
Do you have a test kit, to test the water, see what the ammonia, ph, etc levels are and post them for us to see.

Can you post a picture of your pond.

The more information given the better people here can help you.

Fish can live in green murky water as long as they have had some fresh water off and on. OW the ammonia levels might be too high.

Feeding once a day is fine, mine get fed maybe 2-3 times a week, they live fine off the stuff in the pond.

 

[Azalea]

Thank you so much for your time.

I have a day off in a couple of days, i will go to watermarque and get some testing kits (£24.99 - :O nearly fell off my sofa in shock haha) and also try and take some photos for you. I should be able to post again on thursday or Friday.

The only additional water they have had is the rainfall... but i am guessing that isnt what you mean by fresh water!

I will get the info to you ASAP.
Again thank you for your time in reading and replying to this post.

Emma x

 

[addy1]

No problem, glad to try and help. I would be careful about doing a total clean job, that can harm the fish also. If there is a lot of muck on the bottom you can slowly start to net it out, I use a swimming pool net to get the muck out.

It is hard to get involved in a pond you know nothing about, but with some time and knowledge it will be fine.

 

[capewind]

Welcome ...

Water quality can be a huge issue .. the green growing on the fish COULD be a fungus outbreak from stress, with the green literally being algae attached ... the priorty is on checking the water quality ...

 

[adavisus]

Cleaning a bucket or two at a time, gently, should reduce the backlog of organic stuff polluting the water.

A little often, so as to not release too much noxious gases at any time, from among the muck

Setting up a paddling pool might be useful as a short term refuge for applying pricey meds, or just separating out the invalids, the keepers, from the hurly burly of a struggling pond

It will turn around, when the muck volume is less than 5%, a spring sprucing, thinning out winters debris, is fairly usual for an ornamental pond with still water

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[Becky]

Hello and welcome to the forums! :wave:

 

[taherrmann4]

Welcome to the forum and Hello.

 

[Mmathis]

Welcome!

 

[Azalea]

Hello again everyone.
Thank you for all the welcomes, what a lovely community this is

So unfortunately on my day off the local water place was closed so i have been unable to test the water and give you the results.

Bit more history... the husband of the woman we bought the house from left three years ago and from this point the pond has not been touched and been without any form of pump or filter. I feel absolutely awful and do not know how these fish have survived this long.

Unfortunately the total number of fish fatalaties have risen and we are now at number 5 with 2 more on the way out ( ) with serious fin rot (1/4 the way up their body (is it kinder to put them out of pain??)) and another 2 looking like early signs of fin rot.

On the top half of the pond it was completely covered by a viney type plant which had 2 deceased fish mangled in (almost looks like they were trapped). I have removed all of this which was a whole garden bin bag full but ensured they have still got 3 large lily plants and plenty of shade if needed. 4 big buckets (and i mean big as in my back is hurting so bad) full of silt have been removed from the bottom. I also done about a 25% water change (Thank you addy1 and adavisus for your advice). However for all that work i have not seen a bit of difference, am i supposed to?
I have bought a good (i think) UV pump and filter system which should be delivered next week.
Upon cleaning i found that in the pond also is 4 large frogs, 2 brown newts and 1 black newt (i absolutely FREAKED!! haha), i assume this is ok for them to live happily together?

So this is all i have done so far. Another day off in a few days so will be getting some fin rot treatment and the suggested testing kits.

Hope you are all enjoying your evenings.

Emma x

 

[Dave 54]

Welcome to the forum from a Devon koi keeper :blueflower: .
First off dont panic fish keeping is a common sense hobby its not rocket science as some would have you think .
What we need is the Length width and depth of your pond to work out how many gallons you have in the pond, next you'll need to eun an armoured electrical wire to the pond and connect it up to three or four of those external sockets you can buy.
Next using the amount of water to go by we can then work out what size filters you need and also what size U/V-C light to kill off green water.
You'll need test kits Ammonia Ph Nitrite nitrate and later on we can bring in KH and GH test kits
Buy a good pond Vac and sarting one end work your way across the pond removing any sludge,
I suggest you also do a 50% water change first off to try stop these deaths we need an accurate diagnoses as to what is wrong with your fish I've a feeling that the fungus is part of something far worse either Aeromonas or Columnnaris Disease if not sorted it'll cost you many more fatalities trouble is you need to take a swab to your vet to find out what to treat your fish with a good antibacterial treatment should help. but if Aeromonas you need to see about the treatment being gram negative or positive to do this though we need your pond details length width depth messure out the pond and for depth use a pole marked out with feet then you'll need to work everything out treatment wise as your fish dealer to work this out for you, there used to be a koi dealership near you called Hananumi sadly its now finished they were based in Illchester near Yeovil airstation where I wasonce based.
Once you have everything in place and working you'll loose the green water within a few days or so.
If you know nothing about fish then buy a book on fish health may I suggest first off seeing as you hve a mixed bag of fish you buy the Interpet Manuel of Fish Health ISBN 1842960674 by Dr Chris Andrews, Adrian Exell and DrNeville Carrington its a brilliant book that will explain everything and its thanx to this book that 27 years later we are still koi keepers , its one of many good books out there if you wish check out the Library of books we have created over the years :-

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/10498-our-fishkoi-health-library-with-reviews-of-each-book/

Water changes should be done on a regular basis as should your testing of the water perameters once you have gone through a pretty steep learning curve ( we all do ) and you've taken on board whats being said "books not internet" (as some of the info can be totally wrong).
We are all fish keepers some are pond keepers others are koi keepers like ourselves so if your unsure dont be affraid to ask , if your embarassed to then PM someone to help you out but I promise you this if you take on board everything that is said both by book and here in a years time you'll be relaxing by a beautiful pond watching your fish in clear water relaxing by the pond in the knowledge that you took the time to ask and now you in turn can help others who a year ago where in the same boat as you yourself where in.
I hope all this has helped you . :bye2:

rgrds

Dave

 

[Azalea]

WOW DAVE, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

That is a lot of amazing information there that I will take on board and begin to act on immediately.
The pond is (rough measurements) 10 foot long and it its biggest width is around 5 foot. There are two measurements of depth, deepest is 2 1/2 foot and shallow is 2 foot. As of tonight my partner has sorted out the outside electrical access, so as soon as we get the pump we can begin.

A couple of the fish i forgot to mention keep jumping out of the water a few times in a row, but actually jumping i would say a few inches above water level. I understand this maybe lack of oxygen in the water, parasites and things? but my thinking on the other hand is if a couple of the fish are strong enough to do this, they will be strong enough to bare with me right?

I have got the big guns out and got my mum and my uncle coming around on sunday to help me do a large (as you suggested 50%) water change, and try and get some of the muck out. We have got half a dozen large dark containers that we are going to put some treatment in with half of their original water and half fresh water in to try and help them along. To begin with i wasnt going to take them out of the pond as i dont want to stress them out any more than they clearly are already, but honestly the 5 inches or so of silt at the bottom would cause more damage when aggravated than moving container... is this correct?

I will do a test kit once i have done the water change as it will be easier to do tweaks then i hope.

I wouldnt say it is embarrassment i am feeling, it is more of shame (in my lack of knowledge and allowing these beautiful fish and the gorgeous pond be in this state )

Thank you so much again

Emma x

 

[Dave 54]

When I first started I was the death of goldfish Val my life partner bought me the book I recomended which I read egerly from cover to cover only way back then it was the Salamander Manuel of fish health ( I still have it and its revised replacement).
As I said fish keeping isnt rocket science its common sense and once it clicks you'll be hooked for life.
Ty and find out if there is a club near you be it koi or goldfish my point here is I know I live in Plymouth but thanx to disability it almost killed me my last trip up to Somerset try if you possibly can to trickle the water slowly back into the pond and dont forget to buy a few bottles of Dechlorinator later it will be an idea to contact this website and buy a declhorination filter :-

http://www.vyair.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=67
.
Trickling the water back in ensures that the ambient temperature of the pond warms the water as it goes back in doing it correctly will only loose you .1-2c .
Work out a weekly maintenance plan and stick by it put everything you do in a note pad breaking things up into different catogories i:e water change , filter maintenance, test kit readings, and a fish health section where you log which fish is ill with what and how you cured it ( it gets you in the right frame of mind to do regular maintenance etc).
Once we get all this done a good filtration unit in place nd a U/V-C and an airpump we are half way home

rgrds

Dave

 

[Azalea]

Hello all again,

So three days hard work has resulted in a lovely pond which both myself and my pond creatures are extremely happy with.
Day 1 - a short day with a 20% water change and some silt removal.
Day 2 - a BIG day (which i couldnt have done without the help that i had). Following some advice from both here and my local aquarium it was necessary to do a complete water change. So we started to get the water out with a pump, which shortly seized up. So 2 buckets, 4 people and lots of running to and fro we took the water out that way. In the mean time we had set up 3 big tote boxes. One with water safe medication to make the tap water safe just to get them moving in fresh water so they began loosing their green colour. The second tote had some all round medication (which helps with parasites, fin rot and lots of other things), so they had a good bathe in that too. Last one was fresh water (with water safe) just to be comfortable for a bit.
In the meantime, we had reached the bottom of the water and was faced with just under a foot of silt (blurgh!! it stank!). So we proceeded to remove all of this too. Ughh coffee break. We cleaned the pond liner (not all of it so there was still some algae for the fish). The filling up process. Coffee break. Once filled we added the solutions that made it all safe and then put our fish back in, slowly, gently and in their own time.
Day 3 - Pump and filter. Assembled the pump and filter and got that going. We have the outlet of the pump going through a large terracota pot dropping into the water so as to oxygenate the pond.
Still to do: unfortunately we got rid of the plants in there. The aquarium suggested we did as parasites and bugs could have stayed in there making it pointless doing the big change. So we still need to get some water plants. A thought at the back of my mind... would a net to go over the pond be a good idea? I have seen a few cats in the garden but they go no where near the pond.

We said goodbye to another 3 fish, unfortunately they would not be able to get back from their extensive fin rot. Also said goodbye to a deceased frog. Unfortunately we have no Koi.

All in all I think we have made a success of it. I was expecting the fish to be 'upset' and 'sulk' for a few days, but my goodness the life in them... They are no longer bobbing about in the water, they are swimming around in schools (?spelling) up and down the pond round and round, feeding beautifully and looking as orange (and all of the other colours) as orange could be... absolutely stunning. Our 5 frogs have had stone steps built so they can climb out (my partner isnt fussed by the fish, but the frogs, they are a different story). Loads of newts we found, which we think may include a form of crusted newt as it has a spikey fin type thing on its back with spots all over it. I think there are only one or two of them, the others are smooth and plain coloured in brown and black.

I am so happy... a week ago i could not have imagined enjoying my pond so much and it being the way it is. So so happy. I will try and get some before and after shots on.

Thank you THANK YOU THANK YOU so much everybody for your help, advice, kind words and support.

Emma x

 

[don't ask]

welcome

Azalea...

sounds like you've turned the corner and on your way to a healthy pond. sadly you did lose fish and a frog but once their environment is the way they like it, you'll be seeing babies