New Fish added to the pond are dying..

[wheresgrant]

I bought a house two years ago with a beautiful water garden. It's about 2500 gallons 12' in diameter, 2-4 feet deep (stepped). It also has a 6ft, multi tiered water fall. It came stocked with 12-15 small goldfish, comets and schbumkins, and one large 2ft Koi. In our first spring we didn't lose any fish, however last winter was brutal, with significant snowfall. Sadly our big Koi didn't make it through the winter. We tested the water and all of our levels look fine. So we assumed that he just suffocated, due to low oxygen levels. So we've decided to start restocking the pond slowly with new koi, and goldfish.

Two weekends ago we added three small 5" koi and some gold fish. In transferring trhe fish we used a 'new bucket' mixed equal parts pond water and the water used to transfer the fish. We also added De-Stresser. We waited 30-45 minutes before transfer. All was fine until mid week a dead Koi showed up in the netting before the pre-filter. The landscape store we purchased from didn't much of a selection of fish and I chalked it up to maybe a sick fish. So this Saturday we purchased another 1/2 dozen new fish (Koi, comets, schubunkin). Today three fish ended up in the prefilter net. Two still flipping and one dead.

The water tests clean... there are no signs of attack or diesase. Why are these new fish seemingly wasting away.

All of the pond's original fish are still alive and kicking. I want to figure this out before I invest in some mature koi.

 

[digginponds]

you may want to go speak with the people you bought them from......must be a bad batch.

 

[bmach]

Maybe you are stressing them by not acclimating them to the pond water in more steps. I add pond water to what they came in 4-5 times so the difference is gradual. You did it in just two steps 50/50 and then 100% might have something to do with it. Just a thought

 

[wheresgrant]

Maybe you are stressing them by not acclimating them to the pond water in more steps. I add pond water to what they came in 4-5 times so the difference is gradual. You did it in just two steps 50/50 and then 100% might have something to do with it. Just a thought

I fear you may be right... this was the steps the store we bought the fish gave us. But as I read more on transferring fish I see two mistakes we've made:

1. 
   #1- Leaving the fish in the water they were transferred in. 4-5 gradual transfers until 50/50 is achieved.
   #2-Waiting more than 45-60 minutes before transferring them.

Is there another way to help de-stress the fish once they've been transferred?

Both batch of fish were purchased at seperate locations.

 

[koikeepr]

When acclimating a fish, you float the bag of water they come in for about 20 minutes with the bag open for air exchange. This allows time for the temps to match up inside the bag and outside. Most important, you do this in the shade, and not in the sun--as you can boil the fish that's in the bag.

Then you slowly begin allowing some of the pond water into the bag over the course of another 15-20 minutes. The whole process should not take longer than 40 minutes.

When introducing new fish, you should really try not to bring in more than 1 or two new ones to see what happens, IMHO. I understand that folks want the instant effect of a full pond, but you should take things slowly.

Why did you add so many fish to replace one large koi? You do realize that one single koi will be the size of that big one you lost in just a few years. I think your pond is telling you not to add lots more fish. You've hit the natural capacity that your pond can sustain healthfully.

Do you do weekly water changes?

 

[koiguy1969]

might i add... to net the fish out of the bag too. dont pour the water and fish into your pond because you never know what is in the water from the fishes old home!!

 

[koikeepr]

excellent point! I always gently lift mine outta the bag or floating container with my hands if I can.

 

[koiguy1969]

hey there wheresgrant, you should go to your user cp page and add your location to your profile...you will find this helps others to answer the questions you ask since some things will vary along with your climate.

 

[wheresgrant]

When acclimating a fish, you float the bag of water they come in for about 20 minutes with the bag open for air exchange. This allows time for the temps to match up inside the bag and outside. Most important, you do this in the shade, and not in the sun--as you can boil the fish that's in the bag.

This is tough to achieve since there is no shade for the pond. It is in full daylight from sunrise to sunset.

Then you slowly begin allowing some of the pond water into the bag over the course of another 15-20 minutes. The whole process should not take longer than 40 minutes.

This is an important step I have been missing

When introducing new fish, you should really try not to bring in more than 1 or two new ones to see what happens, IMHO. I understand that folks want the instant effect of a full pond, but you should take things slowly.

Agreed... I think we are adding too many at once.

Why did you add so many fish to replace one large koi? You do realize that one single koi will be the size of that big one you lost in just a few years. I think your pond is telling you not to add lots more fish. You've hit the natural capacity that your pond can sustain healthfully.

Do you do weekly water changes?

Thanks... this is all helpful info. I don't do weekly water changes but I usually do lose 5-8% of the water weekly due to evaporation which I replace. This is fairly decent sized pond, I'm not sure why it wouldn't sustain more than 11-12 fish at a time. We really haven't had any of the original fish die off. It's just the new fish we introduce. I would imagine with the waterfall there is plenty of oxygen generated. The only thing I feel lacking is more aquatic plants. I have one pot of lily pads, but I plan to add more.


I am concerned though... It seems for two years the pond ran itself, the fish seemed happy and stable. Now every time we add new fish 1/3 die off within days of adding them. I have cheap Goldfish I bought at Wal-Mart 2 years ago that are still swimming around in that pond. A family of black comets that came with the pond when we moved in and are thriving.

Thanks... this is all helpful info.

 

[koikeepr]

Ok, so this is a start. Evaporation does not count as a water change.

Think of it this way: your pond is a toilet with fish pooping, peeing, food disintegrating, etc. If your family continually used your toilet, but never flushed, you can imagine the mess and unhealthy environment that would create.

It is your job as human to "flush" the pond. That means doing 20% water changes at least every other week, and every week when the temps get hot.

Ponds don't run themselves. As the fish get bigger, more problems are created. And the 2-year mark you quote is right around when things start going awry.

Goldfish are not as worried about water quality as koi are. Koi need solid water parameters. Though this does not mean that a goldfish will not also die from poor water conditions.

I would recomment you start with a water change of at least 40% in your case, since you have never done any. And then 20% thereafter. Once you have no fish losses for about a month, you can introduce a fish. But I would do no more than 1 to replace that large koi you lost.

 

[wheresgrant]

One thing I will add was that last fall we did not have an opportunity to winterize the pond as best as we wanted to. In October I fell ill and was hospitalized for a few weeks and on bed rest after that. By the time I was able to move around the pond had already frozen over. I live in NY and although the winter wasn't our coldest it certainly was hell with all the snow we received. In late Feb we had over 60" of snowfall. This is ultimately what killed off our large Koi. The bottom of the pond still had debris and dead leaves. We lost power for two days which closed any of the open holes we had using an airstone and deicing pad. Combined with the density of the snow, the large Koi seemed to suffocate while the smaller fish all survived. Pretty upsetting. We were hoping to rebound by adding some smaller fish before introducing a larger, mature Koi to the pond again. But now we are experiencing these setbacks.

 

[wheresgrant]

(just one more post before I can link some pictures of the pond)

 

[wheresgrant]

As you can see it's a decent sized pond. 3 1/2 feet deep at the center.

 

[wheresgrant]

 

[koiguy1969]

Looks good!