Homicidal Fish! Help!

[CraftyZoo]

Hello Everyone! I'm a newbie and could use some advice! I have an 830 gallon pond with 4 koi, 2 orange goldfish, and 1 shebunkin. All 3 goldfish were added at the same time, there were actually 4 but they killed one. Hence the problem. The fish gathered up until they killed one other one, and now they are doing it again. I thought maybe they weren't getting enough food, so after the first fish died I added extra feedings. Everything was fine for 1 day, then this morning I realized they were trying to kill another one of the goldfish. Any ideas as to why or how to make them stop???

Thanks so much!!!

 

[j.w]

CraftyZoo
I'm wondering if they aren't trying to spawn. The males will run a female fish ragged and sometimes she will be injured and die in the battle. If that is so make sure she has a place to hide from the males like floating plant roots or a little cave or? I've never heard of fish trying to kill each other just for the killing! Stranger things have happened so I suppose it's possible. Which fish are doing the attacks...........koi or goldfish or all?

 

[CraftyZoo]

It's the goldfish attacking the other goldfish, but the others will jump on board and pick on the one being attacked. Not always, but sometimes. They've calmed down quite a bit now. No longer chasing. I scared the attacker away and made a place for the attack-ee to hid behind a net for a while. Poor thing was so exhausted it just stayed there for an hour or so. I'm new to this, so I was concerned that I wasn't feeding enough.

Also, any suggestions for getting/keeping out algae? I don't have a liner or any substrate in my pond (we just bought a house and inherited it) so it's a cement pond. The bottom looks gross, despite constant cleaning!

Thanks!

 

[Waterbug]

As JW said, it's spawning behavior. The ones attacking are males and the female is the one being attacked. Now you know who's male and who's female.

Scaring off the males only stresses all the fish. Injury to the female is a price she pays in order to pick the strongest males. After spawning the female will normally go into cover until everyone calms down, or if she gets too tried, or too hurt. In a pond with no cover she just keeps getting hammered.

Spawn can go on for days, same female, different females. Often in the morning, in the spring, but any time is possible.

You can search online for DIY "spawning mops". They reduce the number of males that can get at the female at one time. And lots of these can provide cover and a place to spawn.

As a short term quick fix a basic cotton mop head from the hardware store will work. One without any chemicals additives.

 

[CraftyZoo]

Thanks for the tip! I've actually got an unopened cotton mop I can use! Do I just hang it there? Any suggestions on what to get as a substrate for the bottom or how to make it not look nasty?

 

[Waterbug]

If you lay a pole across the pond you can tie the mop to the pole so the mop is on the surface or a little below. Near the pond edge is better than in the middle. Or skip the pole and just anchor the string to a rock or something. Depends on the pond.

You might want to start another thread on the pond bottom deal. Less confusing.

 

[CraftyZoo]

I hung the mop, but they killed her. Any ideas why? She had multiple places to hide, but they would seek her out...

 

[sissy]

sorry to hear and shame you did not have a place to keep her like a tank or second small holding pond .A kiddy pool or a tub of some sorts always comes in handy to deal with a to aggressive behavior .I have stock tanks and keep one at least going with a filter and pump

 

[j.w]

I still think it was spawning. They don't mean to kill, it just gets rough and if you have tons of males and only a few females they will just beat them up to death trying to get at them! Maybe get more females than males and spread the love!

 

[Waterbug]

I hung the mop, but they killed her. Any ideas why? She had multiple places to hide, but they would seek her out...

Most of the damage was already done.

There still wasn't enough hiding places.

She had some other problem made worst by spawning.

Death was unrelated to spawning.

All of the above.

None of the above.

Pick any combination you like. No way to know. Do the best you can and hope.

In high end ponds they keep males and females in separate ponds. Then place specific pairs in a third pond for spawning (normally 2 males, one female) so she isn't ganged up on.

In water gardens there is often a lot of cover at all times. Or, over the years, females are killed and the pond holds only males.