Need some help with goldfish

[Mountain lady]

I had two Sarasa Comet goldfish for about 4 years and they had a baby in the spring so he was almost a year old.
Pond is only 60-90 gal.’s and has a waterfall circulating water back into pond.

I have a bio filter system. The fish were thriving and doing well till i went out there one day and all three were floating.

Can not tell you water readings but it was time for there water change and pond cleaning i do every year after the water has warmed up a little from winter. May 29, 2020 my guess the oxygen level was low and maybe the ammonia level was out of whack.

It was a weird spring with wide swings in temps. So thats why i was so late in cleaning it.



After loosing my prize fish

I went ahead and completely drained the pond and did a thorough cleaning and some other maintenance things. figured if i got more fish i could just recycle the pond.



Started it back up June 1,2020

Added a 4 inch Air Stone Bubble.

Added 3 fish 6-4-20

But they were so small they found their way in the pump housing so still had one fish left.

6-21-20 I added two more fish

Water reading have been looking good or aspected. Figured i was doing good.

7-09-20 found one of fish I added on 21th. Floating

Again i took readings and it looks normal to me. I am at a lost what could be wrong.

 

[TheFishGuy]

I had almost the same thing happen to me, but in my old 160 gallon stock tank pond, the readings looked fine on mine as well, only suggestion is that you do a 25 precent water change every two weeks, since it may only be 60 gallons treat it like a fish tank, not a pond

 

[Mountain lady]

I had almost the same thing happen to me, but in my old 160 gallon stock tank pond, the readings looked fine on mine as well, only suggestion is that you do a 25 precent water change every two weeks, since it may only be 60 gallons treat it like a fish tank, not a pond

Thanks will try that. Should i do the water change even though its still cycling?

 

[Mountain lady]

I at this point i will try anything. I wantEd to add also that though i did not do weekly water changes the pond leaks a little so i put a gallon or two of water each day.

 

[TheFishGuy]

Thanks will try that. Should i do the water change even though its still cycling?

probably dont do water changes until it has finished cycling ( 2-3 weeks )

 

[Mountain lady]

probably dont do water changes until it has finished cycling ( 2-3 weeks )

It was June 1 when I started it back up so should be good then.

 

[TheFishGuy]

I at this point i will try anything. I wantEd to add also that though i did not do weekly water changes the pond leaks a little so i put a gallon or two of water each day.

also, when you add water are you using dechlorinator? even if you let the water sit out for 24 hours, some water may contian chloramine with willnot evaporate, just another thought, on adding water to it, the water probably isnt leaking, it is just evaporation, which toxic fish wase does not go through, so the water changes should help a lot!

 

[mrsclem]

Get a liquid test kit to go with the one you have for ammonia. The test strips are very inaccurate, especially once they are opened.

 

[IPA]

I find it odd that you lost all 3 suddenly. Usually with poor water quality the fish get stressed and sick. If the falls were running there should have been plenty of O2 in the water. Is it possible something toxic was added soon before the first fish will killed, either an object that still may be there (decoration, light, etc) or substance like mosquito spray, weed killer, an angry neighbor, etc?

 

[TheFishGuy]

I find it odd that you lost all 3 suddenly. Usually with poor water quality the fish get stressed and sick. If the falls were running there should have been plenty of O2 in the water. Is it possible something toxic was added soon before the first fish will killed, either an object that still may be there (decoration, light, etc) or substance like mosquito spray, weed killer, an angry neighbor, etc?

or a malfuntcioning pump that could be electrocuting the water, that has happend to me before but no fish died

 

[AlyssaFish]

Thanks will try that. Should i do the water change even though its still cycling?

Water changes should be done during the cycling if the ammonia ppm jumps to toxic levels. What counts as toxic depends on your pH. If your test strips are accurate, it looks like you're pretty close to 8 on pH. If the ammonia level starts to get close to .5 pmm, you definitely want to do a water change.

I am very sorry for your loss!

However, I am not sure that the pond is still cycling. I've noticed that with small ponds like this, it's always harder to keep the fish healthy, even when nothing is showing up on the water quality tests. Wide temperature swings don't just mess with the amount of ammonia in the water. Bacteria and parasites can start "waking up" in the spring at lower temperatures than a fish's immune system. This creates a dangerous situation, especially if there's lots of organic debris for bacteria and parasites to grow in. Diseases that a fish could normally shrug off can become fatal because it's not completely de-wintered.

My guess is that this is what happened with your fish. I think this is a lot more common in smaller ponds because anything that grows in the pond water is going to be in close proximity to the fish at all times. In a larger pond, a goldfish might not come into contact with pockets of debris and the organisms they contain.

Of course, your pond very easily could have been cycling at that time, and that may not have helped.