fish have died randomly
 

My friends bought a house that has an approx. 500 gal brick pond with
a waterfall, and some sort of closed external filter. After they
cleaned the filter the fish in the pond started dieing. Some small,
some large, they have five fish left and and some are very young and
others are older. The deaths occurred among established and newly
introduced fish randomly, but did not kill all the fish.
These friends now are questioning me about their problem thinking I
have some expertise because I have had a pond much longer than them.
Yet my ponds either have no filter or a skippy filter. The only fish
deaths I have had were caused by forgetting the hose and chlorinating
the poor things to death, or sucking them up into the pump. I would
think that if cleaning the filter, improperly, released enough ammonia
to kill fish all the fish would die? Maybe this is not the case?
someone else suggested temp. because we are in the deep south and it
has been very sticky lately. Their pond does not get sun all day and
they have goldfish, what would a max temp. be for a pond?
Can someone give me a rundown of the correct way to identify their
problem. I assume testing the water would be the first course of
action.

"nortyler" wrote in message
oups.com...
Can someone give me a rundown of the correct way to identify their
problem. I assume testing the water would be the first course of
action.
==================
I would also suspect those newly introduced fish. There are plenty of shops
out there selling fish with parasites and other infections. When I started
to quarantine all new fish for 21 days and treat them for a variety of
parasites, whether I suspected any or not, the deaths stopped. That's just
one possible explanation.
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
EVERYONE: "Please check people's headers for forgeries
before flushing." NAMES ARE BEING FORGED.
My Pond Page http://tinyurl.com/cuq5b
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

On 21 Jul 2005 05:53:35 -0700, "nortyler" wrote:

Can someone give me a rundown of the correct way to identify their
problem. I assume testing the water would be the first course of
action.

Yup, but it's too late now, unless they're still having troubles.

I suspect cleaning the filter made the ammonia spike. What they needed was
to be checking their water and the fish reactions after the cleaning. And
to have an ammonia locking chemical on-hand.

Now if they're still having trouble, it could be nitrites, an a little salt
will help there. ~ jan


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