My fishes died :-(

[luckynicole]

I have a somewhat small pond in my backyard.. I've had the same 9 goldfish in there for over a year.. All the sudden, they all (but one) died.. Their eyes were glazed over and cloudy.. The one left, I can tell is weak and his eyes are blood red.. does anyone know why this happened? I didn't do anything different.

 

[taherrmann4]

Do you have a water test kit to check your water parameters? Do you have an aerator or pump going in your pond? What is your location?

Welcome to the forum.

 

[HARO]

Have you checked your pond's ammonia level?
John

 

[luckynicole]

I have a pump, but no water tests.. i live in the Dallas tx area

 

[luckynicole]

Will the water test kit show ammonia levels? Where would I get one of those.. sorry.. I'm somewhat of a newbie.. haven't had any problems until now :-(

 

[HARO]

Garden center, pond supplier, online. Depending on the kit, you should be able to measure ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, Ph, Gh and Kh. Some do phosphate instead of nitrate.
John

 

[taherrmann4]

This is the one I have and you should be able to find at a pet store like pet smart.

http://www.amazon.com/API-Freshwate...es&ie=UTF8&qid=1396482701&sr=1-3&keywords=api

 

[luckynicole]

Nice!! Thanks so much!!

 

[Priscilla]

Oh no! You can take your water to a pet store and they should test it for free, most stores off that service. They will give you advice on how to save your last fish. While you are there you should pick up a test kit.

Do you have a filter on your pump?

 

[haver79]

Welcome and sorry to hear about your fish.

 

[luckynicole]

Yes I do have a small filter. Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

[luckynicole]

I'm probably going to start all over.. I'm going to take it apart and clean everything real good and rebuild it.. i will be sure to get the test kit and test it daily in the future. . Don't want this happening again..

 

[dieselplower]

Hi Nicole. Sorry to hear about your fish. I don't think there is anyone on here who can tell you confidently what happened to your fish with the information that was provided. I understand you can't answer all the questions and that is fine. One think I would suggest for next time is to keep your number of fish a little lower or get a larger filter. As your fish grew they also were producting more and more ammonia into the water. Over time, the amount they were producing may have surpassed what a small filter could handle. This could have led to ammonia or nitrite or even nitrate poisoning. If they did nit die from that, it would have weakend their immune system enough that a virus or other type of infection could have killed them more easily. This is really just speculation, but it educated speculation. Best of luck in the future!

 

[luckynicole]

Ok thanks

 

[Mmathis]

Welcome, and ditto to all the questions and comments that have already been made. Most of the time when there is a problem, it has to do with water quality, one way or another. And problems with water quality can be caused by lots of different factors: over crowding, over feeding, growth of small fish into larger fish, inadequate filtration...

That's why the first thing most of us will do is ask all these questions regarding the size of your pond, #of fish, type of filtration, etc. But the most important thing we'll ask about is your water test parameters (already covered). Do you have a PetCo or PetSmart close to you? They carry the test kits, and as already mentioned, they will usually run your test for you if you take them a sample of your water.

Don't give up!