Ok friends... my year of pond sadness continues. (Back story for those who don't know: we lost 10 big koi to the Polar Vortex in January. We were left with one koi and a pond full of goldfish and shubunkins.)
A week ago one of our smaller goldfish went over the negative edge - it happens very very rarely, but the fish had been spawning every morning so I figured someone chased it out. I returned it to the pond and an hour later it was dead. I still wasn't too concerned as I wasn't really sure how long it had been out of the pond and just assumed the stress had killed it.
Well, that was a small portent of what was to come. To date, we have had 14 goldfish go belly up. The worst was the morning I came out and found 4 of them dead. We've had a few days when none have died and then we'll lose another one. Then a day goes by and we lose two more. We have wracked our brains trying to figure out what in the heck is going on. Two more died today.
Here's what we do know:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 0 ppm
pH: 7.4
Just to be sure, I took a sample of water to our local pet store - his readings were the same as mine.
It's been hot, but just the last couple of days. It was in the 70s when this started. We've had a good deal of rain, but nothing we haven't experienced before. The aerator runs 24/7. These are all fish that were born in the pond.
The fish show no visible signs of ANYTHING being wrong. We can check on them and every one of them is swimming fine, behaving normally, eating as expected. An hour later one will be dead. The only sign we can see that they are struggling starts in the last few minutes. They will come to the surface and suck air. That lasts for a few minutes and then they go belly up. Whatever it is happens very quickly. Once they are dead, they still look fine - no redness, gills look good, eyes are clear, no lesions or sores, no bloating... They look perfect. Other than being dead.
The fish guy at the local pond shop said he would suspect something toxic in the water (can't think of a single thing that could have gotten in the pond as we don't use any chemicals in our yard at all) or some kind of internal parasite. We have praziquantel coming tomorrow, so we'll try that and hope for the best. I hate treating without knowing what's wrong, but I don't know what else to do.
The only things we've done are put a new lotus in the pond (planted in kitty litter just like usual) and I cleaned out the bog. But the fish die off had already started before I did that.
Any thoughts are welcome! At this pace our pond will be fish free by the end of next week.
A week ago one of our smaller goldfish went over the negative edge - it happens very very rarely, but the fish had been spawning every morning so I figured someone chased it out. I returned it to the pond and an hour later it was dead. I still wasn't too concerned as I wasn't really sure how long it had been out of the pond and just assumed the stress had killed it.
Well, that was a small portent of what was to come. To date, we have had 14 goldfish go belly up. The worst was the morning I came out and found 4 of them dead. We've had a few days when none have died and then we'll lose another one. Then a day goes by and we lose two more. We have wracked our brains trying to figure out what in the heck is going on. Two more died today.
Here's what we do know:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 0 ppm
pH: 7.4
Just to be sure, I took a sample of water to our local pet store - his readings were the same as mine.
It's been hot, but just the last couple of days. It was in the 70s when this started. We've had a good deal of rain, but nothing we haven't experienced before. The aerator runs 24/7. These are all fish that were born in the pond.
The fish show no visible signs of ANYTHING being wrong. We can check on them and every one of them is swimming fine, behaving normally, eating as expected. An hour later one will be dead. The only sign we can see that they are struggling starts in the last few minutes. They will come to the surface and suck air. That lasts for a few minutes and then they go belly up. Whatever it is happens very quickly. Once they are dead, they still look fine - no redness, gills look good, eyes are clear, no lesions or sores, no bloating... They look perfect. Other than being dead.
The fish guy at the local pond shop said he would suspect something toxic in the water (can't think of a single thing that could have gotten in the pond as we don't use any chemicals in our yard at all) or some kind of internal parasite. We have praziquantel coming tomorrow, so we'll try that and hope for the best. I hate treating without knowing what's wrong, but I don't know what else to do.
The only things we've done are put a new lotus in the pond (planted in kitty litter just like usual) and I cleaned out the bog. But the fish die off had already started before I did that.
Any thoughts are welcome! At this pace our pond will be fish free by the end of next week.
. haha! We're even into conspiracy theories now!
