I've had my goldfish in a 200 gal. garden pond for about 10 years with no problems but suddenly they became listless and settle on the bottom of the pond all day. My water tests show no problem so I decided the water was too warm although it is always hot in the summer in South Texas. The temp ranges about 85. I've put frozen water in ziplocks in to cool it a little but doubt that does much good at this point. Today I noticed their eyes have started bulging. Any suggestions?
Sick Goldfish
- Thread starter cess501
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Oh, this is sad to hear. Frequently what has worked for many years suddenly stops working. Why? Because while all the other factors remain the same, the fish continue to grow. Often they reach a tipping point where they just can't survive in the conditions they have lived in for years.
How many fish do you have in a 200 gallon pond? Do you have any filtration on the pond? Any plants? What about aeration?
How many fish do you have in a 200 gallon pond? Do you have any filtration on the pond? Any plants? What about aeration?
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What Lisa said - often there is no one single cause of illness, but multiple factors stressing the fish and making them more susceptible to disease pathogens which are always lurking in the environment. 30 gallons per fish does not seem unreasonable but if they are getting to be very large fish (goldies can get to be 10-12 inches easily) then yeah, your system has to process much more fish waste than when they were small.
Which might usually be OK, but then..... if combined with other factors (high temps - is 85 the temp of the water?) you might find fish more suspceptible to disease than they might otherwise be if they had say 100 gals per fish and more filtration/oxygenation.
If 85 the temp of the water that is indeed pretty high, the oxygen content of water becomes much less the higher the water temps get. You might want to invest in a reflective mesh shade cloth if the pond is getting sun and also get pond aerator going - better yet if the aerator itself can be in air conditioned house or cool basement or garage with the tubing going out to your pond so the cooler air is going into the pond (the Tetra aerator I have has pretty long 20 ft tubing for this very reason ). The lack of oxygen would stress the fish plus allow anaerobic (bad) bacteria to get a foothold.l
Which might usually be OK, but then..... if combined with other factors (high temps - is 85 the temp of the water?) you might find fish more suspceptible to disease than they might otherwise be if they had say 100 gals per fish and more filtration/oxygenation.
If 85 the temp of the water that is indeed pretty high, the oxygen content of water becomes much less the higher the water temps get. You might want to invest in a reflective mesh shade cloth if the pond is getting sun and also get pond aerator going - better yet if the aerator itself can be in air conditioned house or cool basement or garage with the tubing going out to your pond so the cooler air is going into the pond (the Tetra aerator I have has pretty long 20 ft tubing for this very reason ). The lack of oxygen would stress the fish plus allow anaerobic (bad) bacteria to get a foothold.l