Help! Goldfish are Dying in New Pond

On 29 Apr 2005 05:52:06 -0700, " wrote:

i recently introduced my goldfish into my pond. they were overwintered
in an aquarium. the pond water is between 12-14°C. due to the large
pump on the aquarium it's termperature was about 22-24°C. goldfish can
tollerate many extremes but not rapid changes. ph in the pond was about
7-7.5 (lined with limestone) and the aquarium was 6.0-6.5

i place limestone in the aquarium, bringing it's ph to 7.0 after about
a week. every few days i would add a bucket of pond water to the
aquarium when i did my water changes.

i finally put all the goldfish into 3 buckets and floated them in the
pond for 3 hours, adding 1 gallon of pond water an hour. this cooled
the water down gradually. i'm sure it would have been better if i left
them in longer but they are fine. they all lived. the temperatures have
dropped to about 9°C in the pond. the goldfish stay at the bottom,
presumably closer to a hibernation state. i am not feeding them. i put
the plants and some duckweed in. if they get really hungry they can
nibble on that but they aren't too active. i'm sure once the temps get
up they will be. mine are feeder comets, pretty much the hardiest kind
you can get.

IMHO, let us know how they are after the temperature warms back up again.
Goldfish are very susceptible to ich with such changes. I know they are
pretty tough, but..... ~ jan


~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~