Our Poor Little Fish

[fishpieface]

We have a small pond outside and, within the last week and a half have lost six of

our little fishes to, well, I don't know what to, they've just died.

We thought we only had one large fish in there, so bought five babies, one slightly

bigger than the others - he's a shebunkin and the others are goldfish.  Turns out

we had two other little fish in the pond as well as the big one, probably last year's

babies - but they were dark grey so were very difficult to see.

Anyway, we put them all in and they seemed very happy for about three weeks or so.

Then one of the babies died, then one of the dark grey ones, then the big one, then

another baby, the other grey one is un-accounted-for but presumed to have died

and one other the same.

That leaves two babies and the shebunkin and he looks a bit dodgy so we're half

expecting to lose the others too.

We've no idea what's causing it, the water looks in good condition, the pump is

on, there's loads of oxygenating plants in there, we can only think it's some kind

of fish illness that is unrecogniseable until it's too late.

Not sure what we can do, except just monitor the situation as one minute they look

ok then next time we look there's another dead one.

Has anyone got any ideas please?

[**towery**]

i'd get them out of their and into anything else until you can work out whats the problem

a dustbin full of water would do at a stretch

ask any neighbours if they have been spraying anything toxic recently

[merc1_clocks]

fishie...have you checked the acid/alkali of the water?

[**towery**]

i remember a friend a couple of years ago losing a number of large koi and carp

think he said he thought  his concrete pond had started to deteriorate and something was leeching into the water

not sure how he solved it, if he did,  he was thinking of getting  rid all together as he was having more grandchildren

[fishpieface]

Well I've just pulled out all the dead oxygenating weed, which tends to be underneath the

best of it.  I've made more room for them and sprayed the hose in there with some

fresh water.  They now seem much happier and are swimming about normally.

I'll check on them in a while when everything's settled down.  I'm not sure about transferring

them to another receptacle as it would have to be completely filled with tap water if ruling

out water contamination is to be done, otherwise some of their water would go into the

container with them.  Apparently, putting them into another newly filled receptacle with tap

water in isn't too good for them either.

No Merc, I haven't done that test.  I've nothing to do it with, but can get something from the fishy

store at garden centre tomorrow.

If it's something they are all going to get, well sadly it may be too late as we#ve been away,

but while there's hope I will keep trying.  One of the un-accounted-for ones is ok at the moment,

he was with the others when I cleared it out.  So that's five out of nine that have died.

Poor fishes

[merc1_clocks]

Oh fishie...I hope that you get to the bottom of it...

don't give up yet

[petitecalicocat]

ooohh poor littles fishes i hope the rest survive , i know nothing about them sadly so cant help 😞

[**streety**]

Have you had the water tested at a centre where they sell fish?   Might throw up something that can then be treated.  I know our local garden centre where I bought ours will test for you.   Hope things improve soon x

[myraandjim]

Don't know much about fish, but a few years ago was looking after a neighbours pond and the fish started to die at the rate of a couple a day, I was panic stricken! It turned out that it was because of the thundery weather - has your weather been like that?

[captainbovine]

oh poor wee fishies...they go over the rainbow bridge too you know.....
that's why I don't keep fish anymore, I could never fathom out what was wrong with them until it was too late.
love koi carp though, they're beautiful. We had shebunkins and a hoooge catfish once.

[Anonymous]

Did you quarantine the new fish before putting them in the pond?

If youve added fish from another source, they have bugs which they are immune to, as do your fish. So when you mix them in together they both come into contact with bugs they have no immunity for. The strong ones will survive the weak ones wont. Unless you quarantine and treat both sets its down to chance. It generates good repeat trade for the garden centres

[*elphaba*]

Heat sucks the oxygen out of the water apparently.  We lost our little frog within days of realising we HAD a little frog because of that 😞

I hope the fresh water helps.  Poor fishes 😞  

[fishpieface]

Well I am very glad to say that our remaining four fishes seem very happy now,

they are swimming about, eating their food and generally enjoying life as fish

do.

The water is very clear and nice-looking, I can only assume they have enough

oxygen as the pump is on all the time at the moment and there are loads of

oxygenating plants.

Our new fishes were kept apart for a while before putting them in the pond,

yes, but I don't know if it was for long enough.  The place we got them from

is long-established and respected as being one of the best fishy establishments

round here.  I know the hot weather, especially thundery, saps the oxygen from

the water, we bought a new pump when we got the new fishes, as the old one

wasn't so efficient as it used to be.

I'll see how they get on for a couple of days, in the meantime I'll go to the fishy

establishment to see if they have any suggestions/advice.

Thanks people for all your help.

[fishpieface]

Just an update to report that our remaining fish are still happy, so it looks as

if they'll be ok.  Hope I haven't spoken too soon.

I went to the fishy place at garden centre and they gave me lots of advice, some of which

we already do, but couldn't say what they'd died of - could be one of several things as

we'd thought.  They offered me some free little fish as we hadn't long had the new ones,

but I said that was very kind but I'd rather see the others will be ok for a while before

getting any more to join them.

[stan3502]

Glad the rest seem to be okay Fishie and will keep my fingers crossed that they keep merrily swimming for years to come

[captainbovine]

great news there fishy, hope they continue to thrive, I guess it was just the weather affecting them?