Just bought 2 new bags of Top Fin Pond Fish food for koi (floating type food) at Petsmart..gave fish the new food on Sunday p.m. and they are all dead (except 1 left- but dying) as of Tuesday. (I didn't check them on Monday b/c of the storms in the area...so I have to guess Tuesday.) They were 16 years old...nothing else was changed. They have even lived through Hurricane Ike that caused them to be w/o freshwater for 10 days in the hot weather. Is there a recall?? should there be?? I bought 2 bags..still have one unopened. Help!
My 20" koi (4) are dead! Ironically after using a new koi food! HELP! is there a recall on Top FIN?
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OH NO! I'm so sorry for your loss. Have you called the company yet? Let Petsmart know. I think they should pull it off their shelves until the matter is settled. I'm sure you know what you're doing if you've had them for 16 years. Keep us up to date with what's going on....
I did call the ph # on the bag..it was actually Petsmart's customer service #! I gave them the details, they took my info..they said they would contact me back in 3-5 days. The person I spoke w/ gave me her direct extention if I had questions or don't hear back in that time frame from them. This is so sad... I fed some of our fish in our 1/2 acre pond the same day...lord I hope I didn't kill some of them, too w/ that food.
j.w
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If you fed the fish in the other pond and it did not hurt them then I might be leaning towards something like Andy said w/ a lightning strike or something washing into the pond from the storm like maybe a pesticide in the soil, lawn,air? Now if the fish in your 1/2 acre pond are found dead then I would say definitely the food. Then someone will need to check the food and see what's in it. Gosh what a horrible thing to happen to your beloved fish that you had for such a long time! I'm so very sorry!
sissy
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sounds like it may be more than the food if you had any heavy rains first thing I would suspect is some kind of run off going into the pond .Could have been fertilizer or some kind of insect killer .I had that happen to my fountain pond back in NJ ,it was only a couple of goldfish ,the county sprayed for mosquito 's and that was the only thing I could think of at the time .But later learned the neighbor behind me had spray brush killer and then burned a butch of poison ivy that was growing on his garage that he sprayed with the weed killer . Air born weed killers go every where the wind carries them .Also are they eating regular fall food yet or summer food .Not sure about temps in your pond .
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
Did you start with this food right off? Considering your area if you have been in winter mode for a while and if you jumped right to a high protien food it could have caused a internal infection in the intesinal tract. Spring has just started and most fish need to feed on naturally occuring foods and foods like plant material and wheat germ to get the digestion tract working properly. I would though keep following the possibility of bad food and just see what and if Petsmart will try and help in any way. It is always a possibility but I seriously doubt it was the food itself. Lightning, chemical wash off, large fluctuations of KH or GH swings or PH crash (Due to large water changes by rain water), are just some of the more probable causes.
A note for you and anyone else reading this post. Keep in mind this can be one of the most stressful seasons for Koi. They are coming out of winter mode, Bacteria counts in the filters are just getting started good so DON'T OVERFEED! Start off feeding once every other day then once a day, then slowly increase the food over a month or two month period of time. Check water parameters often, this and fall is the time of year that water can change rapidly due to bacteria in the filter being weak and not up to full capacity. Also heavy rain fall can cause significant changes in water quality, some good some bad. If the GH or KH start dropping the PH can crash very fast. Ph below 7.0 becomes acidic. below 5.5 it becomes almost like acid and can destroy the gills of the fish and cause significant burns to the skin.
A note for you and anyone else reading this post. Keep in mind this can be one of the most stressful seasons for Koi. They are coming out of winter mode, Bacteria counts in the filters are just getting started good so DON'T OVERFEED! Start off feeding once every other day then once a day, then slowly increase the food over a month or two month period of time. Check water parameters often, this and fall is the time of year that water can change rapidly due to bacteria in the filter being weak and not up to full capacity. Also heavy rain fall can cause significant changes in water quality, some good some bad. If the GH or KH start dropping the PH can crash very fast. Ph below 7.0 becomes acidic. below 5.5 it becomes almost like acid and can destroy the gills of the fish and cause significant burns to the skin.
Thanks sooo much for the replies!!
Well my pond is well above ground and is fed by an underground well (always has). (The largest fish actually measured 27".) They were all 16-18 yrs old. Oddly, ONE koi survived (so far).
I am going to buy a couple "feeder" fish and feed them the food to help determine if food was the cause.
No run-off/airborn contaminants are possible. The water comes out at 72 degrees when it's run..it's obviously not run a bunch (never has been or needed to). There was a lot of pollen in the water from an oak tree after the storm on Monday...but again..this happens each year. When the pond fills it runs out down a man-made creek that's part of the waterfall feature. I have fed them regularly (every few days) w/ a smaller amount than summer feedings (as usual) for the past month..it never really got too cold this winter (Houston area). They appeared healthy upon inspection. Lightning could be an option I guess, but I really don't think it is since one is still alive and the minnows in the attached "creek" are fine...and all the electrical items are okay. (Pump wasn't running during storm.)
Well my pond is well above ground and is fed by an underground well (always has). (The largest fish actually measured 27".) They were all 16-18 yrs old. Oddly, ONE koi survived (so far).
I am going to buy a couple "feeder" fish and feed them the food to help determine if food was the cause.
No run-off/airborn contaminants are possible. The water comes out at 72 degrees when it's run..it's obviously not run a bunch (never has been or needed to). There was a lot of pollen in the water from an oak tree after the storm on Monday...but again..this happens each year. When the pond fills it runs out down a man-made creek that's part of the waterfall feature. I have fed them regularly (every few days) w/ a smaller amount than summer feedings (as usual) for the past month..it never really got too cold this winter (Houston area). They appeared healthy upon inspection. Lightning could be an option I guess, but I really don't think it is since one is still alive and the minnows in the attached "creek" are fine...and all the electrical items are okay. (Pump wasn't running during storm.)
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hi all,
so sorry to hear of your losses, I returned the bag of TopFin pond fish food due to reading your post that I just purchased. Any updates from petsmart ? Did your other fish survive? This seems to be the first post on the web regarding TopFin pond fish food. It is a new product this spring so nothing much is out there but the quality of contents was nothing much to rave about nutrition wise... I bought Aquascape color enhancing food and the fish seem happy and its nutrition value is great.
so sorry to hear of your losses, I returned the bag of TopFin pond fish food due to reading your post that I just purchased. Any updates from petsmart ? Did your other fish survive? This seems to be the first post on the web regarding TopFin pond fish food. It is a new product this spring so nothing much is out there but the quality of contents was nothing much to rave about nutrition wise... I bought Aquascape color enhancing food and the fish seem happy and its nutrition value is great.
Update: That one koi did survive...a butterfly koi, incidentally. This is the only koi that never comes up to feed on pellets. Interesting, I think. I never did hear back from Petsmart. I will still be contacting them again though.
I did have the water tested from the pond, the well water that feeds fresh water into the pond, and my house well water (the house b/c I did a goldfish experiment w/ the food). ALL the water tests came out perfect. So I purchased 4 "test subjects".
I bought 4 active goldfish ( from 2 tanks and were 2 different sizes) and fed them the koi food in question. One died within 24 hours, one died the day after that. The other two lasted a week, looked healthy so I put them in the koi pond:after 7 days in a fishbowl w/ observation. They did fine until they disappeared several days later. (yikes)
So, it's hard to say..maybe there is something mixed in the food unevenly? The goldfish only got about 3 pellets total per day (due to size of fish and food).
Tomorrow I plan on investing in some 10" koi (but worried about the invesment b/c of the size of these new koi is perfect for predators). But I just can't afford the larger size.
I miss my beautiful koi.
I did have the water tested from the pond, the well water that feeds fresh water into the pond, and my house well water (the house b/c I did a goldfish experiment w/ the food). ALL the water tests came out perfect. So I purchased 4 "test subjects".
I bought 4 active goldfish ( from 2 tanks and were 2 different sizes) and fed them the koi food in question. One died within 24 hours, one died the day after that. The other two lasted a week, looked healthy so I put them in the koi pond:after 7 days in a fishbowl w/ observation. They did fine until they disappeared several days later. (yikes)
So, it's hard to say..maybe there is something mixed in the food unevenly? The goldfish only got about 3 pellets total per day (due to size of fish and food).
Tomorrow I plan on investing in some 10" koi (but worried about the invesment b/c of the size of these new koi is perfect for predators). But I just can't afford the larger size.
I miss my beautiful koi.top fin killed 32 of my fish talked to petsmart they acted like they hadnt heard any thing abuot the fish food killing fish please if anyone has talked to petsmart pleas let me know all the these fish r dying and they r still selling fish food my whole pond will have to be replaced i hac cat tails that hubby brought up from fl.
crsublette
coyotes call me Charles
I know Greenies have had all sorts of lawsuits, hundreds wouldn't suprise me, filed against them and ya still find them sold without issue. At risk of sounding like the bad guy, if I were able to purchase or grow koi that big, then I would likely stay away from generic brand fish food. I hope the best works out for ya in getting a response.
Just had the same problem... Lost 5 very large (12-20 inches) Koi that I've had for over 10 years.... Within 12 hours of feeding they were all dead.... What do we do?
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Old thread, but revived for a good reason.
These are some horrible stories.
For what all these fish foods cost, you would think they would be of top quality. Fish food is not cheap.
These are some horrible stories.
For what all these fish foods cost, you would think they would be of top quality. Fish food is not cheap.