Two problems - Severity is the question

[charrold]

So like everyone in the frozen parts of the country, my pond has been iced over a few times this year. Now two problems have occurred and I need to know what I can do (if anything)

Problem one - String algae and lots of it - WTH? A hole broke in the pond last week only to find it choked with string algae. The fish don't seem to really mind - saw a couple of them down in the depths, but what should/can/didn't I do with the algae? I scooped a bunch out while trying to deal with issue number two, and I am OK to wait till spring as long as it is not a danger in the meantime.

Problem two - lost a fish. Saw him swimming up in the water on top of the big flat hiding rock - figured something was wrong with him - when ice broke saw him again only 100% more dead. The issue is that when I went to net him out I slipped and knocked him under the rock. Might as well be on Mars now since in order to get it out I will essentially have to take all the ledge rocks out of the pond (which is still 60-75% iced over). In other words he is staying where he is weather I want him to or not. The question then is how bad is this? I really have no choice but to leave it as there is no way to get to it with the pond iced in, and it is supposed to snow again tomorrow into Monday so that is going to stay that way for awhile.

Thanks in advance for the answers. Hope everyone else's winter is progressing better...

 

[DrCase]

Well ..All you can do is get him out the first chance you get
And hopefully you can get a filter running to start to deal with your excess water nutrients

 

[j.w]

I wouldn't think the dead fish would start to deteriorate very fast if the water is that cold. When the ice melts you can prolly easily get it out before it wrecks your water. Not much you can do w/ the algae now either..............just wait and be patient for the sun to come out and melt it all away.............the ice, not the algae...............it would be nice tho if the sun would melt all our algae away instead of create the monster :lol:

 

[koikeepr]

it isn't a tragedy if the fish stays there until a thaw. It is very common to emerge from winter (especially one like this) and notice one of 'em hasn't made it. The cold will preserve him, and I'm sure you'll spot him.

 

[undrtkr_00]

Your notes say you have a natural waterfall. Does that mean there is a natural stream running into (and out of) your pond? If so, water quality shouldn't be much of an issue. You're getting water changes all the time.

 

[charrold]

So it turns out he wasn't 100% dead. He was only Mostly dead.

I went out the next day to check on the pond and he was up under the waterfall (natural looking, not spring fed) in a mat of the string algae. I netted him out thinking that somehow I had knocked him in there and not seen it when I slipped. As soon as he hit the net he started flopping about! I put him in a bucket and cleaned the string algae out of his gills and got to inspecting him and he had spots along his sides and on his tail fin.

So he has some sort of fungal/bacterial/viral thing (not ICK - the spots are too big). I have him in an isolation bucket (don't have a spare tank) with a bubbler and am treating him with a store-bought drop-in tablet thingy. He seems to not be hanging out on the bottom as much and much less lethargic (although the water is warmer too). Hopefully he will pull through. I suppose I better treat the whole pond, but I have not seen any of the other fish in distress so I am holding off until I can give it a good clean and change out the water and such.

Somewhat relieved I guess (I have seen glimpses of the other fish here and there) so hopeful they made it too...