Fish are dying and can't figure out why HELP!!!!

[thumphreys]

Hi there my name is Trudy and i am trying to figure out why my koi and goldfish are dying. they will live for about a week then one at a time will die. My pond is about 3 weeks old. Can anyone give me a suggestion of what could be wrong? Thanks

 

[Teelie]

Cycling most likely. It'll take another week or two for it to stop, maybe longer as you've been adding fish to it which can lengthen the cycle. Get some test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and keep an eye on the levels. Once the ammonia and nitrite hit zero you should be good to go. Nitrate never goes to zero but shouldn't be any higher than 40ppm (parts per million).

 

[ryan]

Yeah the pond may not have finished cycling probably when you added the fish, and if you added to many you would have overloaded the filter etc and caused parameters to rise thus harming and killing the fish. What filter are you using? How big is the pond? How many fish did you introduce?

 

[Paul_MTS]

instead of paying out for a test kit your fish shop might do it for you for free if you take a sample of your water to them, thats what my local did

Good Luck

 

[Teelie]

Still need to have a kit for emergencies and regular testing. You can't rely on just going into the LFS any time you please and getting a test done. IMO it's rude to do too.

 

[Paul_MTS]

I agree i don't mean rely on them to test but for a one off/first time it's not a bad idea. When I told the guy my situation he offered to do it for me...I went there to buy one!!

Best to go to the place that you got your fish from.