I posted on here a few weeks back, asking for advice because my fish were
sick and dying at a huge rate. I got some great advice, which I followed, so
here's the update.

We tested for ammonia, and the levels were high, so we immediately ordered a
Green Genie from the internet. In the meantime, we put Ammolock in the pond.
Don't know if you've come across it, but it's a product which locks the
ammonia into harmless clumps until the filter can start to deal with it. It
has the added bonus of neutralising chlorine/chloramine.

We knew there were 4 sick fish. Unfortunately it was too late to save them,
which has left us with 10 goldfish. That's enough, methinks (3750 litre
pond, quite big). However, after running the filter for 3 weeks, there seems
to be a big improvement.

I haven't been feeding the fish very much, and over the past week I've been
sitting by the pond and throwing 3-4 pellets in at a time. What ensues is a
feeding frenzy. I repeat until they've had enough. They come to feed now,
and are much more lively. About a week back, we saw what we thought was a
tadpole, then another, but longer and thinner. All in all, we saw up to 5
little brown fish ranging from 1cm to 3 cm in size. Babies!! Also, the
adults are frolicking in the mornings, racing around and leaping too. Is
this normal?

The lily seems happier. Last year, there were only 3 leaves on it at any one
time - every time a new one came, the oldest one died off. Now we have 5 and
another one on the way, and they all look healthy. The UV has been on for 6
days now, and the pond is clearing rapidly. Maybe the fish are coming to
feed cos they can see me!

I'm really happy that we're getting there. Any other advice would be
gratefully received.
Special thanks to Rodney Pont, your advice has been invaluable.

Tracey

Smith wrote:

I'm really happy that we're getting there. Any other advice would be
gratefully received.
Special thanks to Rodney Pont, your advice has been invaluable.

Congrats. Glad to hear it!

Joe



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be very careful about overfeeding the fish. I have 26 medium to small koi and they
get 1/3 cup of Ogata koi pellets per day. overfeeding really fouls the ponds
quickly. Ingrid

"Smith" wrote:
I haven't been feeding the fish very much, and over the past week I've been
sitting by the pond and throwing 3-4 pellets in at a time. What ensues is a
feeding frenzy. I repeat until they've had enough.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

I'm glad that your ammonia problem has been more or less solved. Another good product, natural too for ammonia problem is zeolite. One word of advice regarding ammonia; dont leave it in your pond on "just in case" basis as it may dump the ammonia back into the pond. Once the problem is solved take the zeolite out.
As for the fish leaping out of the water, this is natural and can happen because:
1) Fishes are unhappy with the environment
2) They try to catch bugs flying above the water
3) They are frisky which seems to be your situation considering that you have new babies fish.
Considering that you just had a ammonia problem it may also be a combination of ammonia poisoning (even though the level inside the pond has come back to normal) and the fish being frisky which I hope it is not the case. Keep a close eye on them as they may get a secondary infection due to the high ammonia level you had not long ago.
Goldfish is a hard fish and can bounce back relatively easy from pond problems. So I tend to believe that the leaps are because they are mating in which situation is no need for you to worry.

I hesitate to advise the use of AmmoLock. It's a product that can be
regenerated with salt water, which means that if you ever need to salt your
pond, you will automatically dump every bit of ammonia its captured back
into your pond. So, if you *thought* you had a problem that required the
salt, you *really* have a problem now. You're much better off using one of
the ammonia binding products such as Amquel, ChlorAm-X, Prime, etc.

It appears that your pond is on its way to recovery. Congrats!

Lee
"Smith" wrote in message
...
I posted on here a few weeks back, asking for advice because my fish were
sick and dying at a huge rate. I got some great advice, which I followed,
so
here's the update.

We tested for ammonia, and the levels were high, so we immediately ordered
a
Green Genie from the internet. In the meantime, we put Ammolock in the
pond.
Don't know if you've come across it, but it's a product which locks the
ammonia into harmless clumps until the filter can start to deal with it.
It
has the added bonus of neutralising chlorine/chloramine.

We knew there were 4 sick fish. Unfortunately it was too late to save
them,
which has left us with 10 goldfish. That's enough, methinks (3750 litre
pond, quite big). However, after running the filter for 3 weeks, there
seems
to be a big improvement.

I haven't been feeding the fish very much, and over the past week I've
been
sitting by the pond and throwing 3-4 pellets in at a time. What ensues is
a
feeding frenzy. I repeat until they've had enough. They come to feed now,
and are much more lively. About a week back, we saw what we thought was a
tadpole, then another, but longer and thinner. All in all, we saw up to 5
little brown fish ranging from 1cm to 3 cm in size. Babies!! Also, the
adults are frolicking in the mornings, racing around and leaping too. Is
this normal?

The lily seems happier. Last year, there were only 3 leaves on it at any
one
time - every time a new one came, the oldest one died off. Now we have 5
and
another one on the way, and they all look healthy. The UV has been on for
6
days now, and the pond is clearing rapidly. Maybe the fish are coming to
feed cos they can see me!

I'm really happy that we're getting there. Any other advice would be
gratefully received.
Special thanks to Rodney Pont, your advice has been invaluable.

Tracey

ammolock is a chemical binds ammonia.
zeolite is a mineral that absorbs or adsorbs ammonia
it can be regenerated in a salt brine(3.0%), but typical 0.1% salt solution wont
knock off much of the ammonia. Ingrid

I hesitate to advise the use of AmmoLock. It's a product that can be
regenerated with salt water, which means that if you ever need to salt your
pond, you will automatically dump every bit of ammonia its captured back
into your pond.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Sorry, you're correct: I was thinking of the zeolite, which is often
packaged as Ammochips or Ammocarbs.

Lee

wrote in message
...
ammolock is a chemical binds ammonia.
zeolite is a mineral that absorbs or adsorbs ammonia
it can be regenerated in a salt brine(3.0%), but typical 0.1% salt
solution wont
knock off much of the ammonia. Ingrid

I hesitate to advise the use of AmmoLock. It's a product that can be
regenerated with salt water, which means that if you ever need to salt
your
pond, you will automatically dump every bit of ammonia its captured back
into your pond.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.