My mom and dad have recently built an outdoor pond (3 weeks ago) We have 3 fish in it, a few days ago I noticed that most of them starting acting very sluggish.(I figured it was just because of the colder weather), then a few started developing this white filmy looking stuff on them. Today 2 of them have died. I can't tell if the others have the stuff on them b/c they stay close to the bottom. Does anyone have any idea what this could be, and what I could do to save the remaining fish.
Help Please
- Thread starter riogal_11
- Start date
as you cant get a good look can you catch one and put it in an aquarium so you can get a side view and a pic of it? that way you can check for more symptoms.
have you checked the water for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph recently? if theres a filter then it could be cycling and the fish are struggling, it sounds like you have more than three fish. how big is your pond?
with the weather warming up, bacterial and viruses are running rife just now. do a partial water change with dechlorinated water and see if that helps.
have you checked the water for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph recently? if theres a filter then it could be cycling and the fish are struggling, it sounds like you have more than three fish. how big is your pond?
with the weather warming up, bacterial and viruses are running rife just now. do a partial water change with dechlorinated water and see if that helps.
bribones
Fishaholic
pond size ,filter, pump ,plants etc ?? details can often help others pinpoint your problem
a pond with no pump filter /unless heavily planted is little more than a large puddle and you will soon start to develope problems as the water begins to stagnate
if you cant see your fish on the bottom after only 3 weeks in the pond theres definitly something wrong it should take a couple of months for your water to reach that stage
a pond with no pump filter /unless heavily planted is little more than a large puddle and you will soon start to develope problems as the water begins to stagnate
if you cant see your fish on the bottom after only 3 weeks in the pond theres definitly something wrong it should take a couple of months for your water to reach that stage
the pond is 175 gallons w/ a filter. When I said i couldn't see the fish I just meant that it was hard to fully investigate for symptoms b/c you know how things are distrorted in the water. We have 3 floating plants. One thing that is called " something-lettuce" and 2 others that I'm not sure of the name, but they have bulb like things on them. I haven't yet checked any levels or anything. We started out with 5 fish and 3 have died. Out of the remaining two the all orange one doesn't appear to have anything wrong with it, and the white and orange spotted one seems to have white fuzz on it. I think that it probably has ich, but the others didn't appear to have that. Thanks for all your help, I will definitely get to doing that water change and hopefully it helps
white fuzz could be fungus or columnaris to name a couple, but without proper examination and maybe a pic we wont know.
When you do a water change, do you de-chlorinate the water you are adding first? Make sure you do. Chlorine is very dangerous for fish.
Secondly, if you are seeing 'white fuzz' it sounds like a bacterial/fungal infection and you should catch the fish and medicate it in a hospital tank. It sounds like you have goldfish though so keep in mind that you will need to do daily water changes in the hospital tank and that it should be of a decent size and prefferably be filtered but an airstone at least will suffice as it's only temporary. I am saying to treat in a seperate tank because the medications you would have to use would kill any good bacteria growing in your pond and that would cause some serious problems.
I would reccomend investing in a 10 gallon quarantine tank. You can use it to quarantine fish for a couple of weeks in future before adding them to the pond so you can avoid problems like this next time. Also, it can be used as a hospital tank like in this circumstance.
It need not have a light or gravel ro anything special - just a simple sponge filter w/ airstone or a small power filter of some kidn would do. Just remember that you need to do daily 100% water changes in a quarantine tank that's set up like this or else ammonia/nitrIte from the fish' waste builds up and can actualy kill it.
Secondly, if you are seeing 'white fuzz' it sounds like a bacterial/fungal infection and you should catch the fish and medicate it in a hospital tank. It sounds like you have goldfish though so keep in mind that you will need to do daily water changes in the hospital tank and that it should be of a decent size and prefferably be filtered but an airstone at least will suffice as it's only temporary. I am saying to treat in a seperate tank because the medications you would have to use would kill any good bacteria growing in your pond and that would cause some serious problems.
I would reccomend investing in a 10 gallon quarantine tank. You can use it to quarantine fish for a couple of weeks in future before adding them to the pond so you can avoid problems like this next time. Also, it can be used as a hospital tank like in this circumstance.
It need not have a light or gravel ro anything special - just a simple sponge filter w/ airstone or a small power filter of some kidn would do. Just remember that you need to do daily 100% water changes in a quarantine tank that's set up like this or else ammonia/nitrIte from the fish' waste builds up and can actualy kill it.
A clear film would indicate over-production of the slime coat which either means parasites or chemicals. Basicaly, something is irritating the fish. The first part of my previous post was reffering to this because you mentioned the film earlier - if the water contains chlorine, this would be one of the symptoms.
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