our first fish loss

Well, this morning we woke up with a floating shubunkin... He had been
acting odd the past couple of days, 2 days ago he spend most of the day
just floating up in the shallow water on our gravel shelf, maybe in 2"
of water. You could reach in and touch him and he would just hang
there. Yesterday we barely saw him, actually though he got eaten by
something as he didn't make an appearance for 8 hours.

This morning he was floating and gone. Of course this is the fish my 5
year old picked out, so there were many tears this morning... The comet
and other shubunkin seem to be doing fine, they are active and eating.
Just a sick fish perhaps?

Water tests seem not too bad, ph is high, in the 8-8.4 range. Should I
try to lower it? Pond is 120 gallons and only 1 week old. I'm wondering
if some stones we put in or the bricks holding up planters may be
leeching something keeping the Ph high? Nitrite levels are good,
nitrate levels are safe and total alkalinity is good. The only other
thing is that the water tests as very hard. These are test strips of
course, tonight we go to the aquarium store and have them run more
accurate tests on the water.

So, the other fish seem fine... Should I worry about the Ph or water
hardness or just let nature take it's course?

A fish gets introduced to a lot of stress until it finally gets to its
permanent home. Being that its only a week, it could have very well
been that. Any time a fish is off by itself and out of the herd, or
just hanging around on top or at the bottom, and with the others is a
time to be concerned. I'm not saying fish don;t do that normnally, but
any fish that for the most part have some kind of problem....

I don't think I would be concerned with your PH readings. I have
always read / been told a temp swing will do more harm to a fish than
ph will, especially if its abrupt.
On 20 Jun 2005 06:24:20 -0700, wrote:

===
===Well, this morning we woke up with a floating shubunkin... He had been
===acting odd the past couple of days, 2 days ago he spend most of the day
===just floating up in the shallow water on our gravel shelf, maybe in 2"
===of water. You could reach in and touch him and he would just hang
===there. Yesterday we barely saw him, actually though he got eaten by
===something as he didn't make an appearance for 8 hours.
===
===This morning he was floating and gone. Of course this is the fish my 5
===year old picked out, so there were many tears this morning... The comet
===and other shubunkin seem to be doing fine, they are active and eating.
===Just a sick fish perhaps?
===
===Water tests seem not too bad, ph is high, in the 8-8.4 range. Should I
===try to lower it? Pond is 120 gallons and only 1 week old. I'm wondering
===if some stones we put in or the bricks holding up planters may be
===leeching something keeping the Ph high? Nitrite levels are good,
===nitrate levels are safe and total alkalinity is good. The only other
===thing is that the water tests as very hard. These are test strips of
===course, tonight we go to the aquarium store and have them run more
===accurate tests on the water.
===
===So, the other fish seem fine... Should I worry about the Ph or water
===hardness or just let nature take it's course?


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder"
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o

wrote in message
oups.com...

Well, this morning we woke up with a floating shubunkin... He had been
acting odd the past couple of days, 2 days ago he spend most of the day
just floating up in the shallow water on our gravel shelf, maybe in 2"
of water. You could reach in and touch him and he would just hang
there. Yesterday we barely saw him, actually though he got eaten by
something as he didn't make an appearance for 8 hours.

This morning he was floating and gone. Of course this is the fish my 5
year old picked out, so there were many tears this morning... The comet
and other shubunkin seem to be doing fine, they are active and eating.
Just a sick fish perhaps?

## Yes. Sometimes one dies for no apparent reason. After two death-free
years we lost a beautiful 3 year old orange butterfly doitsu koi in March.
She just separated herself from the rest and in hours was dead.

Water tests seem not too bad, ph is high, in the 8-8.4 range. Should I
try to lower it? Pond is 120 gallons and only 1 week old. I'm wondering
if some stones we put in or the bricks holding up planters may be
leeching something keeping the Ph high? Nitrite levels are good,
nitrate levels are safe and total alkalinity is good. The only other
thing is that the water tests as very hard. These are test strips of
course, tonight we go to the aquarium store and have them run more
accurate tests on the water.

So, the other fish seem fine... Should I worry about the Ph or water
hardness or just let nature take it's course?

## What was the AMMONIA reading?
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
EVERYONE: "Please check people's headers for forgeries
before flushing." NAMES ARE BEING FORGED.
Do not feed the trolls.
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

On 20 Jun 2005 06:24:20 -0700, wrote:

Well, this morning we woke up with a floating shubunkin... He had been
acting odd the past couple of days, 2 days ago he spend most of the day
just floating up in the shallow water on our gravel shelf, maybe in 2"
of water. You could reach in and touch him and he would just hang
there. Yesterday we barely saw him, actually though he got eaten by
something as he didn't make an appearance for 8 hours.

This morning he was floating and gone. Of course this is the fish my 5
year old picked out, so there were many tears this morning... The comet
and other shubunkin seem to be doing fine, they are active and eating.
Just a sick fish perhaps?

Water tests seem not too bad, ph is high, in the 8-8.4 range. Should I
try to lower it? Pond is 120 gallons and only 1 week old. I'm wondering
if some stones we put in or the bricks holding up planters may be
leeching something keeping the Ph high? Nitrite levels are good,
nitrate levels are safe and total alkalinity is good. The only other
thing is that the water tests as very hard. These are test strips of
course, tonight we go to the aquarium store and have them run more
accurate tests on the water.

So, the other fish seem fine... Should I worry about the Ph or water
hardness or just let nature take it's course?

What Roy said, but the big concern this early in the game would be ammonia.
Do you have a test kit for that? If not, the store can tell you, and even
if their tests aren't currently showing you an ammonia problem, be prepare
and get the chemicals to lock up/detox the ammonia. You need to have the 2
bottle test kit to test for ammonia after adding this chemical to make sure
you've got the problem under control. ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
www.jjspond.us

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

Ammonia levels are fine, the aquarium guys agreed with me that the
water seems like it's fine. They also said that with 3 little goldfish
in 120 gallons with an oversized filter/pump and about a dozen plants,
it's unlikely to have problems with ammonia.

Tonight we introduced Sharkboy II, hopefully he will have a better
fate...

wrote in message
oups.com...

Ammonia levels are fine, the aquarium guys agreed with me that the
water seems like it's fine. They also said that with 3 little goldfish
in 120 gallons with an oversized filter/pump and about a dozen plants,
it's unlikely to have problems with ammonia.

Tonight we introduced Sharkboy II, hopefully he will have a better
fate...
==================
I hope Sharkboy doesn't like to snack on *GULP* goldfish....
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
EVERYONE: "Please check people's headers for forgeries
before flushing." NAMES ARE BEING FORGED.
Do not feed the trolls.
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

wrote:

Ammonia levels are fine, the aquarium guys agreed with me that the
water seems like it's fine. They also said that with 3 little goldfish
in 120 gallons with an oversized filter/pump and about a dozen plants,
it's unlikely to have problems with ammonia.

Tonight we introduced Sharkboy II, hopefully he will have a better
fate...

There's some misinformation there. First there is no such thing as a "fine"
level for Ammonia. If it's not zero, it's a problem.

Second, 120 gallons with a big filter (for a pond, it needs to be
appreciably larger than for an aquarium), three little goldfish, and
plants, shouldn't have an ammonia problem once it's established, but still
could while it's new. Especially if you have started with chloramine
treated water - some of the chemicals used to treat this will simply bind
with the chlorine part of the chloramine, leaving the ammonia to be handled
by your biofilter. If you have an established biofilter, you'll never
notice it, but in your case you may still end up with measurable ammonia.
--
derek