I have goldfish and koi dying in my outside pond?

http://www.koivet.com/ This is the best resource I've found. They will even do necropsies on dead fish for free if you send it to them. Awesome folks. Great forum. Do some research. They have saved my fish a couple of times. There are so few fish vets out there, but an aquarium and pond supply company might be able to do water tests for you, and they often can give good advice. Likewise, someone who manages ponds and large aquariums might have some suggestions.

Do this, as well:

go to a pet store and buy a cheap water test kit for nitrate, nitrite, pH, alkalinity, and hardness. This you can do on your own. It is a quick dip test.

You should always add water conditioner when adding water to the pond. Another good idea is to spray the water from the hose from a distance rather than just running it straight into the pond. This softens the water and sprays off some of the chlorine. Hose water usually has a high pH. Go with hay pellets and natural remedies to lower the pH if you can, as the chemicals can change things way too fast and you could really kill the fish that way. Make changes to pH slowly over the course of a month or so to allow the fish to equillibriate.

Make sure that you run aeration all the time. Especially in the summer, there is a lack of oxygen. If you have a ton of algae or plants, there is a serioius lack of oxygen at night without aeration.

You should have a filter to help remove fish waste. Make sure it has both bio and mechanical methods (ie: a straining foam layer and a zeolite layer that allows helpful microbes to grow.)

Salt can be added to the water to reduce stress. Check koivet for dosing salt.

You can also check the crowding of your pond for safe fish load on the site. They have a simple calculation based on inches of fish per gallon of pond water.

I use bentonite clay in my pond to help with parasites, fungal, and bacterial infection. It is cheap on ebay, and you can use it for a great mud mask for yourself, too!

Good luck!

this is not difficult, your pond is over crowded because of the summer temp's that we're having, when the water temp rises, it has less oxygen, take your garden hose put on the spray nozzle

and spray the surface of your pond, this is just temporary fix

you will need to buy a fountain or pump to agitate the pond surface to help with oxygen if you can thin out your fish, do so

do you have plenty of plants? get some for shade try to give your fish some fresh water every few days note, if you only run the fresh water (spraying) for 30 min or so you will not need to dechlorinate the water,,, good luck

I work at a pet store i might be able to help u. Do you have a filter on your pond. Another question how big of pond do u have. And how many fish. You might be over crowding you pond.

Could be numerous things, including disease. You really need an expert such as a veterinarian who deals in fish. That's what I don't like about those outside ponds. They are a lot of hassle and more often than not, the fish die or are eaten by predators.

You should put a fountain in the pond to add oxygen.

oxygen! the water has lost it's oxygen if you have a pump put it in to cirvulate the water, declorinate the water and use a surfactant to help the fish breath...it may be too late they go down quick in this situation. Gradual water changes, 5 to 10% at a time, be sure to add declorinator.

put a fountain in the pond and try planting shrubs and grasses that can offer some shade.

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