Wondering why my goldfish died
 

We have a pond in our backyard in Tennessee. We have had it for four
years. We had twenty goldfish and 1 catfish in it. It had become
very green with algae so we decided to clean it. We bought a
container to put our fish in while we cleaned it. We put the fish,
their current pond water, and the water hyacinth in the holding
container. We then emptied the pond, power washed it, and refilled
it. We added chlorine remover after we filled it. We added the fish
back to the water. Then, my husband added some algae blocker (blue in
color) to the water after the fish were re-introduced to the pond.
The next morning, all the goldfish were dead. We are wondering what
went wrong. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Thanks.

On 25 Aug 2004 14:40:38 -0700, (Barb) wrote:

===We have a pond in our backyard in Tennessee. We have had it for four
===years. We had twenty goldfish and 1 catfish in it. It had become
===very green with algae so we decided to clean it. We bought a
===container to put our fish in while we cleaned it. We put the fish,
===their current pond water, and the water hyacinth in the holding
===container. We then emptied the pond, power washed it, and refilled
===it. We added chlorine remover after we filled it. We added the fish
===back to the water. Then, my husband added some algae blocker (blue in
===color) to the water after the fish were re-introduced to the pond.
===The next morning, all the goldfish were dead. We are wondering what
===went wrong. Can anyone offer any suggestions?
===
===Thanks.


PH level and temperature adjustment are the first things that come to
mind. Did you check the ph....was the new the same as the old waters
ph? Was the temps the same and did you float the fish to acclimate
them to a possible difference in the temps? Did you use any type of
detergent to clean your pond? Was it thouroughly rinsed and free of
any possible residue? Did you use sufficient chlorine remover?

Not an expert by any means but I would wonder about the things I
listed if it was me.... Nothing else has really changed but the water
change and it has to be with the water, at least I would think so.
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Andy Hill wrote in message . ..
(Barb) wrote:
We have a pond in our backyard in Tennessee. We have had it for four
years. We had twenty goldfish and 1 catfish in it. It had become
very green with algae so we decided to clean it. We bought a
container to put our fish in while we cleaned it. We put the fish,
their current pond water, and the water hyacinth in the holding
container. We then emptied the pond, power washed it, and refilled
it. We added chlorine remover after we filled it. We added the fish
back to the water. Then, my husband added some algae blocker (blue in
color) to the water after the fish were re-introduced to the pond.
The next morning, all the goldfish were dead. We are wondering what
went wrong. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

pH shock, temperature shock, poisoning from whatever cleaner you used for the
cleaning (assuming you didn't use straight water), ammonia poisoning (if your
water treatment is chloramine instead of straight chlorine. Probably other
possibilities -- it's almost always a bad idea to make "big" change to a fish's
environment.



Thanks for the response. FYI - we used straight water to clean the
liner. Where can I find instructions on how to properly clean a fish
pond?

Thanks.

temp shock. maybe lack of oxygen.. got aeration in there? did you have aeration in
the bucket holding the fish while you cleaned the pond? did the ammonia spike?
INgrid

(Barb) wrote:

We have a pond in our backyard in Tennessee. We have had it for four
years. We had twenty goldfish and 1 catfish in it. It had become
very green with algae so we decided to clean it. We bought a
container to put our fish in while we cleaned it. We put the fish,
their current pond water, and the water hyacinth in the holding
container. We then emptied the pond, power washed it, and refilled
it. We added chlorine remover after we filled it. We added the fish
back to the water. Then, my husband added some algae blocker (blue in
color) to the water after the fish were re-introduced to the pond.
The next morning, all the goldfish were dead. We are wondering what
went wrong. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Thanks.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.

Barb wrote how to properly clean a fish
pond?


Don't scrub the liner. Just scoop up the stuff on the bottom. A pond is a
living system and you don't want to totally wipe it out.

We have a 3,000 gallon pond.
And we have an upflow filter made out a 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank.
When we clean, we empty out the filter stuff. Fill it with pond water and net
the fish in. We put in several airstones and net the top to keep the fish from
jumping out.
We drain the pond and send in a couple teenage boys with flat sided nets to
scoop out the muck. We refill the pond and let it sit for the temperatures to
equalize. Treat with dechlor. Put the fish back in. (Feed teenagers pizza.)

I would also suggest not dying the pond water. Read the algae tips in my sig
for ways to keep the pond clear.




kathy :-)
algae primer
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html

We had the pond pump running in the holding container while they were
there. We had it running in the pond when we returned them to the
pond. Are you aware of specific guidelines for cleaning a pond? I
followed the instructions in our pond book, but that didn't help.

Thanks
Barb

wrote in message ...
temp shock. maybe lack of oxygen.. got aeration in there? did you have aeration in
the bucket holding the fish while you cleaned the pond? did the ammonia spike?
INgrid

(Barb) wrote:

We have a pond in our backyard in Tennessee. We have had it for four
years. We had twenty goldfish and 1 catfish in it. It had become
very green with algae so we decided to clean it. We bought a
container to put our fish in while we cleaned it. We put the fish,
their current pond water, and the water hyacinth in the holding
container. We then emptied the pond, power washed it, and refilled
it. We added chlorine remover after we filled it. We added the fish
back to the water. Then, my husband added some algae blocker (blue in
color) to the water after the fish were re-introduced to the pond.
The next morning, all the goldfish were dead. We are wondering what
went wrong. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

Thanks.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.

Would your pond be an Aquascapes System pond by chance? That is the only
pond that I know of that it is recommended to power wash. If not an AS,
only clean as much as necessary to remove the debris from the bottom, as the
good bacteria live on the liner, in the fuzzy algae, etc, and you don't want
to remove all of that. If it is an AS, then you must power wash
periodically, or better yet, get rid of the rocks, and then cleaning is much
easier.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/index.html

"Barb" wrote in message
om...
Andy Hill wrote in message
. ..
(Barb) wrote:
We have a pond in our backyard in Tennessee. We have had it for four
years. We had twenty goldfish and 1 catfish in it. It had become
very green with algae so we decided to clean it. We bought a
container to put our fish in while we cleaned it. We put the fish,
their current pond water, and the water hyacinth in the holding
container. We then emptied the pond, power washed it, and refilled
it. We added chlorine remover after we filled it. We added the fish
back to the water. Then, my husband added some algae blocker (blue in
color) to the water after the fish were re-introduced to the pond.
The next morning, all the goldfish were dead. We are wondering what
went wrong. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

pH shock, temperature shock, poisoning from whatever cleaner you used
for the
cleaning (assuming you didn't use straight water), ammonia poisoning (if
your
water treatment is chloramine instead of straight chlorine. Probably
other
possibilities -- it's almost always a bad idea to make "big" change to a
fish's
environment.



Thanks for the response. FYI - we used straight water to clean the
liner. Where can I find instructions on how to properly clean a fish
pond?

Thanks.