Need help please

[Jaimie]

What's wrong with my Oscar

• Jaimie
• Feb 23, 2016

so I had an Oscar in my pond for a few months and everything was going great. Then over night my fish died along with the other fish in the pond. I tested the water and everything comes back normal. I have even gone to two pet stores and asked them what it could be and they have no idea. My Oscar had like these bubbles on he's body and tail too.

 

[Faebinder]

Where are you located (state wise). Ice/Snow condition? Actual ammonia level the day you tested it. Actual nitrates and nitrites level?

How big is the pond gallon-wise. how many fish were in it and did you just do a water change?

 

[Jaimie]

Where are you located (state wise). Ice/Snow condition? Actual ammonia level the day you tested it. Actual nitrates and nitrites level?

How big is the pond gallon-wise. how many fish were in it and did you just do a water change?

I'm in Florida no ice or snow but the weather as been up and down. I tested the night before and the next day when I found them dead. my ammonia was 0 and nitrates was 0 and nitrites 0. My ph the night before was 7 then the nest day it spiked to about 9.

My pond is about 1,000 gallons and there was an Oscar, a sun fish, a few gold fish and two sucker fish. And no water change.

 

[Faebinder]

Ponds shouldnt spike a ph like that. 9 is heavy on fish.

Do you know why you are spiking to a 9? Only thing I can think of is ammonia spikes that raise the ph

 

[Jaimie]

Ponds shouldnt spike a ph like that. 9 is heavy on fish.

Do you know why you are spiking to a 9? Only thing I can think of is ammonia spikes that raise the ph

We couldn't figure it out either. No one had touch it or put anything in it. But I also couldn't understand why he had the bubbles on he's skin and tail. It happen over night and we have never had this happen before.

 

[Smaug]

I think somebody poisoned your pond. Water doesn't jump 2 points in pH overnight.

 

[sissy]

what are the little bumps on him .His eyes look clear any one spray anything near your house or have there house power washed

 

[barryian]

I think somebody poisoned your pond. Water doesn't jump 2 points in pH overnight.

I'm familiar with PH crashing from 9-7 but not a PH spike in the opposite direction do to lack of KH. I'd think something had to be added to the water to get an overnight spike. Ammonia yes, PH, nope!

 

[Jaimie]

what are the little bumps on him .His eyes look clear any one spray anything near your house or have there house power washed

We aren't sure what the bumps are.. We couldn't figure it out. I have asked tons of people and no one seems to know. Nothing has been sprayed by or around the pond.

 

[Jaimie]

So for a update... I just went a tested my water since more of my goldfish have died. My ammonia is a 0, nitrates 20, nitrites 0, ph is 7.8 to the 8.4 rage and my water hardness is very hard.

 

[Smaug]

If yiur fish were healthy for the time before this and dead the next morning then it is definetly from something that got out in the water. Whether the toxin was intentionally added or not,naturally occurring or human is the question. Did yiu feed anything different lately? How is your filter?

 

[Faebinder]

i think the bubbles are from the ph spike.. but the question is what caused it. It's gotta be a chemical... but what is it..

I would immediately do a 100% water change on the pond...

 

[sissy]

Toxins can travel a long way on a breezy day .I know when they sprayed the power towers here for weeds that I had to cover my pond with tarps and it effected my grass and some of my trees .I could smell it in the air slightly and noticed my apple trees out front had there leaves curlying up on them .I hosed as much as I could off with a mixture of water and dish detergent in my power washer .I lost 3 trees out front and 1 pear tree on the side yard .They claimed it could not travel that far but a lot of my neighbors had the same problem .

 

[Meyer Jordan]

As the others have said, it is most likely that some external pollutant made its way into your pond. These pollutants would not be detected with a typical pond testing kit. Specialized test equipment would be needed to determine exactly what the pollutant was.
As Faebinder suggested, a complete pond cleaning may be the only solution and strongly suggested if you are planning on adding more fish any time soon.

 

[Smaug]

I highly doubt an over spray from a distance would cause this. My neighbor makes burial vaults and over spray from his paint and vault lining gets in my pond quite often,never a problem. To create such a pH spike would require quite alot of any Chem to do. It would have had to been deliberately added. I even got farmer grade roundup in my pond once from over spray and that was my 150 gallon,no problem.