Trying again, made one change

[chibae]

Okay, after my fish loss a couple of weeks ago I did everything I could to try and make sure the pond was ready for new finny occupants. The were two things I did NOT due. One was try and treat the whole pond with any kind of "preventative meds" as I didn't want to risk the snails and frogs that are still doing well in there. The other was I only did a 25% water change so the pond did not need to "reestablish".

Since I only have chain pet stores within an hours drive of me, I decided to try and at least get "better" quality fish from them. So I skipped the feeder tanks and chose two slightly larger Shubunkin from a sparsely populated clean looking tank(with no sickly looking or dead fish in it) that had only Shubunkin and fantails in it. Hopefully they will prove to be hardy.

After a duel acclimation period, one to float the bag for temperature acclimation in a bucket of pond water, and one with the store water mixed in with the pond water, I netted them into the pond. A brief initial swim and they both started nibbling at water lettuce roots.

 

[addy1]

Great

 

[JRS]

Hope they do well this time. Avoiding the feeders should help your chances.

 

[Lisak1]

Fingers crossed for you and your new fish!

A couple of things to note - I know you avoided both of these, but for future readers:

1. It’s rarely recommended to treat the whole pond unless you know there’s a specific issue that could affect all the fish. It would be like putting your whole family on medication because one member needs it - not advised.

2. Water changes - the only reason you NEED to remove water from the pond is if it’s been contaminated. The one exception might be very tiny ponds but otherwise it’s best to leave the water in the pond.

 

[chibae]

Fingers crossed for you and your new fish!

A couple of things to note - I know you avoided both of these, but for future readers:

1. It’s rarely recommended to treat the whole pond unless you know there’s a specific issue that could affect all the fish. It would be like putting your whole family on medication because one member needs it - not advised.

2. Water changes - the only reason you NEED to remove water from the pond is if it’s been contaminated. The one exception might be very tiny ponds but otherwise it’s best to leave the water in the pond.

If it wasn't for this site I probably would have made those mistakes myself. Being retired, and partially sedate, I enjoy researching. When I search the internet for anything pond/fish related I find myself coming back here to double check things. For example, if I have read about the wonders of additive "ABC" on another site, I first research the product itself to see if it safe for all pond animals. I then put "ABC" in the search engine here and read though all the threads that come up. I have found many times that "ABC" either would not apply to my pond (example, I am on a well), is snake oil, or that it would work in my pond but I have no need for it at this time.
Based on this I am thinking of keeping Prime on had for unexpected ammonia spikes. Still in the research mode on that.

 

[WaterGardener]

I always keep a Prime type produce around. I use the powdered version, same thing, just in a powdered form. It's called Safe. Much less expensive for a larger volume of water and keeps forever on the shelf.

 

[addy1]

I am bad, haven't tested my water in 10 years or so.
No sick fish so don't worry about it.

 

[GBBUDD]

I am bad, haven't tested my water in 10 years or so.
No sick fish so don't worry about it.

For the volume of water to bog stream aeration churning water to fish load. I wouldn't expect you would need to @addy1 are ponds are comperable is size and filtering but where i have the koi and they beeing poop machines is why I added the bead filter and very glad I did. I never see spikes in my levels , I will test a couple times a year for curiosity sake. Its only the kh I ever have to address.

Though spring and fall ill look at winterizing. Make sure no parasitic buggers get an edge. But each year just gets better and better.

 

[addy1]

Agree no koi. About 200 fish from tiny to decent size.