Lost a Goldfish and a Turtle

[Miami Al]

My largest Goldfish, about 8" or 9" that we've had for about 3 years died today. When I fed them at noon, he ate as normal. At around 4 or 5 PM he was dead.

A few months ago a turtle appeared in our pond. He was active this morning. This afternoon he died.

We received massive flooding (approximately 6" of rain), which no doubt washed lots of crap into the pond. I did add some new plants and an aquarium fake rock thing yesterday, so I suppose that could be the cause, but I think our 1-in-1000 year flooding was more likely the issue.

My wife loved the turtle that just showed up, she's a bit distraught.

 

[JRS]

Bummer, sorry to hear that. I would also suspect the flooding contamination, I don't know what else would be toxic to a turtle and a fish. Only the one fish though, which seems odd if it is a widespread contaminant. How many left?

 

[Miami Al]

Another 6 or 7 goldfish, about 2 dozen Mollys, and and another dozen or two dozen in the pond.

Filtration is in good shape. Bog system running fine, and provides enough filtration for the entire pond. The additional filtration I run for crystal clear water is running fine and the water is crystal clear.

This goldfish was easily twice as big as the next biggest one, so I'm not shocked that it would be the significant one.

The turtle situation was mostly upsetting. Apparently she always wanted a pet turtle as a child. She tolerated the pond until the turtle moved in. She's very sad.

 

[WaterGardener]

With all the rain, you may have had a pH crash. Have you checked your water parameters?

 

[Miami Al]

I was wrong, apparently the official count on our rain was closer to 20" in our area. The pond is only 18".

I have not checked the water. Filters were cleaned and upgraded a few weeks ago, so possibly the system hasn't had enough time to cycle as I replaced a lot of the bio material, but the system runs fine (just looks like a pond and not an outdoor aquarium) with only the bogs running.

I'll check, but I'd expect a pH crash. But we effectively got a 110% water replacement over 3 days. I'll check the water, but there isn't much to do.

 

[WaterGardener]

If you had a pH crash, you can raise it with baking soda. Your bacteria will have a difficult time getting established in low pH.

 

[Miami Al]

Dipped my strips. pH showing 7.5-8.0, so not crashed. A few more dead fish floated today.

My nitrate/nitrite levels were low but no longer zero. We had an invasion of frogs, an iguana was in there a few weeks ago.

I pulled out some strands of plastic.

I think that insane rains and runoff did it. I’m going to just clean the mechanical filters and monitor things. Going to focus on letting the system settle down.

Some of the gimmicks I was working on like a CO2 injector are going to be on hold until my chemistry recovers.

I don’t think there is all the much to do, it’s just really sad. And I think I have to figure out how to get my wife a new turtle after she mourns this one.

 

[WaterGardener]

So sorry this happened to you. Not much way to protect your pond from that much rain and flooding.

I hope things settle down soon.

 

[Miami Al]

People in lower lying neighborhoods lost cars and other things. I probably need to add salt to my pool and lost a few fish.