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- Aug 10, 2017
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Hello,
I write this with tears still in my eyes. I've had an outdoor pond that I hand built myself 12 years ago. I've had 3 of my fish since that time, 3 for 10 years ( a large bird ate 9 of my fish...pond has been netted ever since) and 4 that were babies of my fish and 3-4 years old. I LOVE these fish. But I messed up and accidently left the hose on when adding just a little water...then I left my house and returned several hours later to an overflowed pond and all my fish on the bottom, on their sides. Some appeared to still be alive but in dire straights so I did everything I could think of to help them. I scooped out water until the pond was about 3 inches from the top, then I added chlorine remover (Pond Start was all I had) and my daughter and I used a bucket to "scoop and pour water back in in an effort to aerate the water more to help release the gases. I have a waterfall with bio filter and a fountain pump also that were both on. But despite our efforts I woke up to all my fish being dead. I'm pretty sure they were already dead last night but I didn't want to give up hope so I left them overnight to see if any might survive but they didn't. I scoped them out this morning, before any could "oil" the pond and we had a proper burial. Now I need to know how long do I have to wait before I can add new fish to the pond? And should I change the filters in the fountain and bio bucket or just leave the current ones in? I just had feeder goldfish but they had gotten huge and I intend to get the same feeder fish this time as I did at the beginning. I live in CA and it's been in the high 80's -90's temperature wise if that makes a difference in wait time. My pond was always super healthy and pretty much took care of itself other then my cleaning and/or changing the filters when needed. I usually fed my fish once a day. Someone please help...I'm devastated at our loss but also eager to rescue some more feeder fish and start over but I want to give the new fish the best chance of survival and make sure all the extra chlorine and/or ammonia from all that extra hose water is gone and everything is back to "normal" before I add new fish. Sorry this was so long.
I write this with tears still in my eyes. I've had an outdoor pond that I hand built myself 12 years ago. I've had 3 of my fish since that time, 3 for 10 years ( a large bird ate 9 of my fish...pond has been netted ever since) and 4 that were babies of my fish and 3-4 years old. I LOVE these fish. But I messed up and accidently left the hose on when adding just a little water...then I left my house and returned several hours later to an overflowed pond and all my fish on the bottom, on their sides. Some appeared to still be alive but in dire straights so I did everything I could think of to help them. I scooped out water until the pond was about 3 inches from the top, then I added chlorine remover (Pond Start was all I had) and my daughter and I used a bucket to "scoop and pour water back in in an effort to aerate the water more to help release the gases. I have a waterfall with bio filter and a fountain pump also that were both on. But despite our efforts I woke up to all my fish being dead. I'm pretty sure they were already dead last night but I didn't want to give up hope so I left them overnight to see if any might survive but they didn't. I scoped them out this morning, before any could "oil" the pond and we had a proper burial. Now I need to know how long do I have to wait before I can add new fish to the pond? And should I change the filters in the fountain and bio bucket or just leave the current ones in? I just had feeder goldfish but they had gotten huge and I intend to get the same feeder fish this time as I did at the beginning. I live in CA and it's been in the high 80's -90's temperature wise if that makes a difference in wait time. My pond was always super healthy and pretty much took care of itself other then my cleaning and/or changing the filters when needed. I usually fed my fish once a day. Someone please help...I'm devastated at our loss but also eager to rescue some more feeder fish and start over but I want to give the new fish the best chance of survival and make sure all the extra chlorine and/or ammonia from all that extra hose water is gone and everything is back to "normal" before I add new fish. Sorry this was so long.
