Hi, I'm new to this, I built a pond on a mountain in wales,

[Rhonddaponda]

Our pond is some distance from the house with no power source so we use solar powered aerators and pump to circulate the water, there are 3 swan muscles in the pond which do a marvelous job of keeping it clean. I lost two big fish this week in a really hot spell, pond now has 2 Shobumpkins, which have bred well this year,1 golden carp, 1 koi.
They have been on the top of the water gulping air for a few days, I tested the water and it's perfect. We have two solar powered aerators which work well in direct sunlight, which we've had plenty of. I researched the problem on the internet and someone suggested taking out a lot of the pond weed in August. Done that but fish not eating food, just gulping air still. These are not big fish, even the very small new fry are on top of the water. Any suggestions?

 

[Tula]

it sounds like they need more oxygen , especially if the weather has been hot. You say the pond is some distance from the house, is there anyway you can run extension cords to the pond?

 

[Stephen Noble]

Welcome to the forum! Wow, Wales!! I love Wales. Spent a wonderful week there canoeing and camping.
I agree with Tula, sounds like your fish are gasping for air. How big and deep is the pond? The pond's water might look clear and clean but the quality could be lacking. Do you have a test kit to learn the water parameters? One thing that really caught my attention is the Swan mussels. They are filter feeders and can clean the water to such a point where they starve, die and foul the water. Looking forward to hearing more about your pond and helping.

 

[j.w]

@Rhonddaponda
Sounds like lack of oxygen to me too and heat. Can you put a shade up on posts over the pond to keep it cooler? I think it was @Mmathis that suggested to someone else that floating frozen water bottles in the pond might help cool the water and would do it slower than adding ice cubes which might shock them.
Aeration is good and you have that. Do you have well or city water? If well water and it tests good then you could slowly run some clean water in while allowing same amount of old water out slowly. If city water w/chlorine you will need to add dechlor tho. Will act like a refreshing stream running through it all.

 

[Rhonddaponda]

The two aerators have been running non stop and the pump circulates the water, filtering it and reentry is about 18 inches drop. No

Welcome to the forum! Wow, Wales!! I love Wales. Spent a wonderful week there canoeing and camping.
I agree with Tula, sounds like your fish are gasping for air. How big and deep is the pond? The pond's water might look clear and clean but the quality could be lacking. Do you have a test kit to learn the water parameters? One thing that really caught my attention is the Swan mussels. They are filter feeders and can clean the water to such a point where they starve, die and foul the water. Looking forward to hearing more about your pond and helping.

 

[Rhonddaponda]

The swan muscles are fine I check them offten the water isn't clear, I have done a check with the ph, kh,n,pond tester kit sticks, for the last week and they say perfectly balanced. There was about two thirds good growth of pond weed, I removed about half of it. There are two lilies giving a bit of cover, but we are south facing and it does get a lot of sun. Surely if the water was killing the fish they wouldn't be breeding so well? How do I post a photo on here? Thanks for helping comments.

 

[Rhonddaponda]

View attachment 132972@Rhonddaponda
Sounds like lack of oxygen to me too and heat. Can you put a shade up on posts over the pond to keep it cooler? I think it was @Mmathis that suggested to someone else that floating frozen water bottles in the pond might help cool the water and would do it slower than adding ice cubes which might shock them.
Aeration is good and you have that. Do you have well or city water? If well water and it tests good then you could slowly run some clean water in while allowing same amount of old water out slowly. If city water w/chlorine you will need to add dechlor tho. Will act like a refreshing stream running through it all.

Thanks for commenting. I did put a few poles over the pond and suspended a blanket over it to give shade and the aerators were running underneath. I should have done it sooner I think, we've had temperatures of 46° this week. Cooling down now, would the electrical storm we had harm them?

 

[Rhonddaponda]

The two aerators have been running non stop and the pump circulates the water, filtering it and reentry is about 18 inches drop. No

Thanks, I had a swan muscle in our frog pond for a year. I was so happy the water was so clean! Then I was watch ing it one day and saw it's lip wavering about, I realized then that it had cleaned the pond so much it starved to death! Yes the swan muscles do a great job in a well stocked pond though. When I clean out the pond in the spring I always check for the muscles too. I forgot to say the pond is 7ft by 4ft x30" deep, original fill tap water but always take the fish out and leave the pond a couple of days to settle.

 

[Rhonddaponda]

Thanks everyone. I am encouraged by your comments. I'll keep my eye on this forum. Very helpful. I'll let you all know how we get on.

 

[Stephen Noble]

Well, we are glad to have you as a member. 46C is 114+ degrees F. is scorching. Whew, no wonder they were gasping. Good for you shading the pond. You mentioned mountains. What is the approximate elevation of your pond? I've never noticed lightning affecting my ponds. We had a near hit where lightning struck the underground power box about 20-feet away but the fish were fine. Our home electronics suffered although. Do you remove your fish when you top up the pond or was it just when you initially established it? Oh, your pond looks to be about (roughly) 525 gallons and that is way too small for your bioload. Yep, some fish will breed regardless of the conditions. I think it is analogous, to a tree that is in peril. It quickly goes to seed.

 

[Rhonddaponda]

Thanks Stephen, When I clean out the pond I remove the fish and put them in a big tank with water from the pond, clean out the sludge, replace with tap water, leave for two days then replace fish and pond water they were kept in. That way I hope to lessen the shock of clean pond and at the same time replace some of the good bacteria. It's worked well to now. The fish are not very big, about 6-8" the 4 big ones then there are 5 young from last year , about 3-4". I don't plan to keep everything and will draw out the young stock when they look strong enough. Any advice is appreciated. The weather it much cooler now and overcast, but still feels airless. We are at an elevation of 800+ feet.

 

[AlyssaFish]

Thanks Stephen, When I clean out the pond I remove the fish and put them in a big tank with water from the pond, clean out the sludge, replace with tap water, leave for two days then replace fish and pond water they were kept in. That way I hope to lessen the shock of clean pond and at the same time replace some of the good bacteria. It's worked well to now. The fish are not very big, about 6-8" the 4 big ones then there are 5 young from last year , about 3-4". I don't plan to keep everything and will draw out the young stock when they look strong enough. Any advice is appreciated. The weather it much cooler now and overcast, but still feels airless. We are at an elevation of 800+ feet.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to water that is from an established system. Some believe that the bacteria that filter the water do float freely throughout the system to some degree, and so you can use water from an established system to kickstart a new filter/system. However, there are some that feel that this is not the case--that any beneficial bacteria in the actual water would not make up a significant number to assist in restarting a filter. The bacteria adhere to a substrate, like rocks, and spread over those surfaces.

I happen to fall into the second category. I would not recommend placing fish like koi or goldfish into an unfiltered container for two days. The ammonia can build up incredibly fast. If I had no choice but to do this, I would definitely check the ammonia levels before going to bed on the first day, and then again in the morning on the second day.

You are right, though, that there is some concern about the shock of exposing water to fish that is very different from what they're used to. If the pond is fully established and the fish have been in water that is free from ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, your concerns will be differences in pH and in temperature. Test your tap water to see how closely the pH matches the pond water. If it is close, you will only have to worry about temperature when cleaning the pond. To account for temperature, you can float the fish in smaller containers when you're filling up the pond, the same way you would when introducing a new fish.

These are just suggestions. You can obviously continue as you have. But I do strongly suggest testing the water that you're holding the fish in while the pond is out of operation. If the ammonia builds up, not only will they have problems from the chemical itself, but they could also have a greater shock when being placed back into the pond (ammonia can raise pH).

 

[Rhonddaponda]

Thanks alyssafish, good advise, the tank I use is an old water tank from the attic, its about 50 gal, the fish were fine on re - entry and have been good till the heat wave. The temperature is down to 23 now so with the pump running and aerotors things are back to normal. I only have one small Koi in there now, with the shobumkin and fry so should hope he survives a while. Its all a learning curve and never expected this hot a summer. By next year the trees will have grown to cast shade over the pond. Thanks everyone.