New here and need some help

[edgewaterTabb]

Hi all, I'm here in Chicago and was recommended to the forum by my neighbor. I have a 3000+/-Gal Koi pond that has been established for 15 years. I've had lots of good experiences and compliments on my pond that I'm proud of. I designed the pond and stainless steel vessel/waterfall myself. It's situated one the land between my home and garage and occupies approximately 1/4th the space in that area. It measures approximately 15' x 12' x 3' deep. It has a vinyl liner, lined with 5-7" river rock and bordered with flagstone that I feel has prevented any predators from entering. There's a skimmer box at one end that houses the pump The pond was featured in a front page article with 3 pictures in the Wall street Journal of a story about rescuing koi. (October 13, 2022). In the past month, I started having problems with fish getting sick. From 14 fish that survived winter, I am down to only 1 now. Sad situation. I will post this issue separately and hopefully get more help in a remedy. Thank you to all those who have written here. I've been very happily immersed in seeking out solutions and learning lots from you all.

 

[j.w]

@edgewaterTabb
Very nice pond and love your ball of fish and are those actual trees growing in your pond?

 

[JRS]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Hound Heaven]

Wow -- love the ball, but those trees! Can't wait to hear about them. Very sorry for your fish loss.

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Tabb. Welcome to GPF! Sorry about all the fish you lost. Hopefully you will get some good ideas here to help solve the problem. Keith

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome! Awesome pond!

 

[addy1]

Welcome to the forum!

Beautiful pond.

How many koi and how big? Their growth may have tipped the balance from fine water to bad water.

 

[edgewaterTabb]

View attachment 163929@edgewaterTabb
Very nice pond and love your ball of fish and are those actual trees growing in your pond?

Hi, thanks! The ball is called "addasphere" Sadly, they seem to be out of business. The sphere has a 6" dia. hole in the bottom and sits on a 12" tall plastic pedestal to allow the fish to enter. The trees are all bald cypress I bought on Ebay. The called the "pre-bonsai" They were shipped with the top lopped off and some roots lopped off too for shipping. Upon arrival, I just set them in the water and 8 years later here you go. I keep the roots length in check but they remain very hardy.

 

[WaterGardener]

Lovely pond.

Have you tested the water with liquid type tests?

Has anything new been added to the pond?

 

[edgewaterTabb]

Lovely pond.

Have you tested the water with liquid type tests?

Has anything new been added to the pond?

Yes. I have an older (12yrs) water test kit with liquid dropper bottles to add to glass viles. Assuming the liquid is still good and not expired it tests PH, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite. All are in the good range except PH which shows 9.0 now. BTW, I lost my last of 14 fish yesterday. I'm at a loss for confirmation on what caused this.
New to the pond" In May, we visited a new Koi pond store a few miles to the north of Chicago. There, we purchased 2 fish and they gave us 2 bullfrog tadpoles. This may be the linchpin reason for all the death...but I have no evidence to prove that introducing them brought a disease. Noteworthy was one of the fish never assimilated communally with the other fish as one did. The despondent fish didn't get better so, after one week, I called them and they agreed to take the fish back. Upon the return, they gave us a replacement fish. That fish responded much better but alas, it's condition slowly digressed into lethargy , no eating and then death with no fungus or ick visible....like most of the others.

 

[WaterGardener]

Most diseases are not visible to the eye.

Your water tests could likely be expired. It would be better to test with new tests. Be sure to get a test for KH.

Your pH is not a problem as long as it is stable at 9.0. The problem with pH is when it fluctuates. A KH test can help determine if that is the case.

Sorry about the losses. It's always recommended that new fish be quarantined before adding them to the pond. I suspect they brought something with them that your fish could not fight off.

 

[edgewaterTabb]

Welcome to the forum!

Beautiful pond.

How many koi and how big? Their growth may have tipped the balance from fine water to bad water.

Hello,

I had 14 Koi this spring. The largest one was approximately 9" tip to tail. Most of the rest were 6" or larger. They never seemed to grow exponentially but I was ok with that. Was suggested to feed more to promote growth so this spring, I did try to feed a little more often while realizing it would produce more waste. The fishes appetite increased with the warmer spring weather so I proceeded. Now, a friend suggests holding off on spring feeding until the pond adjusts chemically from spring to summer. Current condition is no fish left :-( I don't know how to find our what happened so I am here looking for help. Water testing I have shows normal readings with PH of 9 which I hoped would be less. Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions.

 

[edgewaterTabb]

Most diseases are not visible to the eye.

Your water tests could likely be expired. It would be better to test with new tests. Be sure to get a test for KH.

Your pH is not a problem as long as it is stable at 9.0. The problem with pH is when it fluctuates. A KH test can help determine if that is the case.

Sorry about the losses. It's always recommended that new fish be quarantined before adding them to the pond. I suspect they brought something with them that your fish could not fight off.

This is helpful. I did get the test strips in a bottle but will now get new tests including the KH GH one too. I wonder what kind of common carrying disease those fish could have brought.....what about the tadpoles? From what I last knew, I saw one that looked ok and was developing front legs....the other one if still alive??? Won't know until I see them both in the same view....as they scurry off quickly.

 

[cas]

Very pretty pond. So sorry that you lost all your fish. I think it was 10 years back that I started to worry about introducing something to the pond that would kill my fish so I stopped buying even new plants to put into the pond. I'm still amazed that I still have a 19 year old goldfish.

 

[edgewaterTabb]

Very pretty pond. So sorry that you lost all your fish. I think it was 10 years back that I started to worry about introducing something to the pond that would kill my fish so I stopped buying even new plants to put into the pond. I'm still amazed that I still have a 19 year old goldfish.

Good advice! That is something to be proud of.