"Alex Woodward" wrote in message
...
Is rain water bad for fish in a small garden pond. The reason I ask this
is
that every time there is heavy rain, the water turns even more murky and
the
fish appear lethargic. I put salts in to pep them up a little, but this
only
helps for a short while. (Is it possible to overdose with tonic salts, or
can I continue to put it in reasonable amounts?)

Also, I have lost 2 small sarasa comets with what appears to be light
green
marks on their underbelly. The pond is murky green, even though I have
used
interpet 'green away' and sludge blaster.

Rain water in itself is not harmful, but what it can sometimes carry can be
a problem. If you are getting runoff from your lawn, fertilizers can run
into the pond helping algae to grow. Pesticides can be run into the pond and
poison the fish as well. Murky water from green alage would imply that some
source of food such as lawn fertilizer has been run into the pond. If the
water is murky as in being dirty, that could just be run off particles from
the area around the pond. When I first built my pond, I had problems with
clay running into the pond. My water was orange forever.

As for the salt...IMHO, adding salt to make the fish feel better is a bad
idea. Treatments should be added to treat conditions. What is the current
salinity of your water? Blinding adding salt every time it rains could be
the cause of the lethargic fish. You may be poisoning them with salt.

BV.