I lost another fish

[JustJack]

I lost my big gold koi over the weekend and now one of the other big ones is very sad. I always thought of them as a married couple because those two were always side by side, and when I found the gold one motionless on her side, the other one (that I think is male) was swimming up underneath her and nudging her, trying to get her to move. Now he’s very sad and won’t let the other big koi in the hidey-hole he used to share with Goldie and doesn’t seem to be eating either. Do koi mourn? None of the other fish seem to care, but these two were inseparable and they weren’t even bought at the same time (or so I was told). I don't know why she died either--she was fine in the morning and then I found her like that when I went to feed the catfish after dark. It may have been old age, but would it have been that sudden? There haven't been any changes or anything--ph isn't ideal, but it's stable and all of the other fish are fine. Funeral services were Sunday morning. :lol:

 

[robertmathern]

Sorry for your loss hopefully he turns around but to be honest dont look good

 

[rdk]

Mourn? Big, Big time. My Gold fish lost his mate, in giving babies and mourned big time over her for many weeks. In fact I know this fish blamed me for his lost by his actions toward me for many weeks. Fish are smart. However he snapped out of when I bought another fish his size, in time. RDK

 

[CometKeith]

justjack, thats so sad, I think there are a whole range of behavior for these amazing fish and the other one definitely is lonely now. My guess is that your O2 levels dropped in the evening and this caused the problem. Low oxygen can kill a fish rather quickly. Larger fish are especially susceptible. I pump extra air into my pond through airstones constantly even though I have a waterfall as well. Plants that are providing oxygen to your pond during the day do the opposite at night. Possibly if you did a large water change or water temperatures have gone up a lot recently then the oxygen in your pond went down.

 

[JustJack]

How can I know if it's the oxygen levels? That part of the pond has its own waterfall and there aren't that many plants in it, but there are plants in the other two pond levels. There's no wildlife in the top level except for the occasional bullfrog, there are 2 baby catfish in the second level, and the koi are in the third level. All of the other fish seem fine. It has been very hot, but it wasn't a drastic change--it's been hot for two months already.

 

[stroppy]

how hot is the water do you test it ? ..if it were me i would get an air pump for the main pond ...if the ponds in 3 tiers the bottom one cant be getting much oxygen also water changes might help if its very warm

 

[JustJack]

All three levels have waterfalls--the main waterfall is at the top, there's a small waterfall into the catfish pond, and then a medium-sized waterfall into the koi pond. I do water changes, but nothing drastic. I don't know what the water temp is right now because my thermometer got dislodged and was sitting on a hot rock, but I'll check it later.

 

[stroppy]

dohhh silly me of course it must ,,,, i was having a senior moment :lol:

 

[addy1]

dohhh silly me of course it must ,,,, i was having a senior moment :lol:

Laughing stroppy, that is when you want to DELETE! lol

 

[CometKeith]

This site has a way to test dissolved O2. http://www.indiana.edu/~bradwood/eagles/dot.htm
Interestingly it says catfish survive well on low 02 levels so maybe thats why your catfish are doing ok. Some tidbits from the web page; organic wastes use up oxygen. It is harder for O2 to dissolve in warm water versus cool water and plants and animals use up the oxygen at night and it falls to the lowest point just before dawn.