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Don't know where to start, so I
will try to keep this as simple as possible. Four years ago,
my husband and a friend built a backyard pond with what I
consider to be minimal knowledge of the maintenance of it.
It is about 12 x 10, I would say. It has a filter at the top
of the waterfall, a pump, and I just added a small aerator
to save the life of the fish in it. After losing two koi within
4 days of each other, I contacted Tru-Green Chemlawn to accuse
them of killing our fish.They credited our account for the
month, but the next day, sent out a pond expert and a marine
biologist to inspect for the problem. I cannot prove that
the toxic spray did kill our koi, but they can't prove it
didn't, either.
Here is the problem. The men from Tru-Green convinced me that
the whole problem with the pond is that there are too many
fish in it for the size, and that they are suffocating. While
my husband and his friend were on their yearly fishing trip,
all of this happened.
There are two very large koi which belong to my husbands friend,
three smaller ones, and alot of goldfish. Since money is very
tight, and we cannot afford to enlarge the pond to accomodate
all of these fish,I gave them two options, in my case mostly
out of concern for the fish themselves. One, close the pond,
or learn how to take care of it, or two get rid of some of
the fish, and give them a happier home.
I have been led to believe by talking to several people in
pond stores or pond departments, that the first to go should
be the very large koi, but my husbands friend insists that
the goldfish should go first, and see what happens. Any suggestions
as to what to do, my pond needs its spring cleaning, but I
believe something has to be done about the fish first, or
cleaning will not solve the main problem.
Hi Vicki,
To start with, I'd need to know the pond's average depth,
so I can figure the volume.
With the filtration you have, I'd suspect that the problem
is certainly water quality, but probably more related to ammonia
and nitrite than oxygen.
You do sound overpopulated. First move is to go out and get
a good test kit which has tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate,
alkalinity, pH, chlorine and chloramine. Test everything.
Your answer will probably be there.
If your pond averages 2 feet deep, your volume is 12x10x2x7.48gal/cu.ft.=
1800 gallons
An estimate of "very large" and "smaller" would also be helpful,
but in general, you need to allow about 100 gallons of water
*per inch of fish* for koi over 8 inches long for optimum
fish health. The goldfish are easier on a pond environment,
but "a lot" of them isn't helping.
You are indeed overpopulated, underfiltered, and undermaintained.
By all means get that cleanout done, and plan on 20% water
changes every other day until you can get the filtration upgraded.
Get the goldfish out of there. The pond ought to be able to
support the five koi with sparse feeding, water changes and
a lot more attention to water quality.
(Answer courtesy Bob Passovoy)
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