why have my fish died :'(

[arcanine]

i have large orandas in a pond who have all been living very hapily breeding etc for the last 6 or so months, we have just had that intense rain and the pond over flowed and the pool etc, i have just checked on them and the water was cloudy and two fish were dead (my largest ones ) and the rest were gasping. i have put the hose in and the others are better now. they havent been fed for a few days and i never over fed them. i dont understand why they have died, they were fine before the rain. any ideas?

[malevolentsparkle]

the rain may of washed poisons into the pond. thats the only thing i can think of. big water change?

[arcanine]

thats what i thought because i know with tropicals , too big of a water change and the tank goes cloudy and they gasp. it really sucks my best breeding males,(the one in my picture, is one of them)

[BikBok]

thats what i thought because i know with tropicals , too big of a water change and the tank goes cloudy and they gasp. it really sucks my best breeding males,(the one in my picture, is one of them)

yeah I think if you stir up the gravel too much in an aquarium , especially from underneath ornaments that aren't moved much ,anaerobic toxins and stuff gets released. So I wonder if the pond got stirred up too much with the rain and turbulence.

[arcanine]

it was terrential rain, i will know better for next time

[BikBok]

what will you do? catch them and bring them inside?

[arcanine]

yeah or put a cover over the pond, anything as long as they live!

[Caryl]

The water may have gone cloudy as a result of a bacterial bloom after the big rainfall. These bacteria use up a lot of oxygen. As the fish were gasping I would say depleted oxygen was the problem, thanks to the bloom. Adding a large airstone for a while would help too.

I have had problems with my pond in the past winter. Every time we had a heavy downpour, I lost fish. Water stayed clear though and no fish were gasping anywhere. Interestingly, I have spoken to several others around the country who reported the same thing. Big pond, heavy rainfall, sudden deaths. All had well established ponds and had never struck this problem before. The only thing we thought was maybe the very mild winter may have had something to do with it, allowing more bacteria (of the bad kind) and stuff to flourish when usually they would be killed off in the cold.

[Sam Newman]

&c:ry I had the same problem in my pond. The Orandas died first, then the Selestials and finaly a couple of Commets. I have given up trying to keep the fancy fish in my pond. They seem to die more easily and it is just too sad to loose your loved fishys. I think the bad bacteria taking the Oxygen is deffinatly part of my problem. I am thinking of putting more water plants in the pond. I'm just wanting to find out which are the good native plants that produce Oxygen. Anybody know? :dunno:

[AquaLife]

Do you think afew handful of tonic salt would help? I recently had a few of my fancy gasping for air after water changes. I add some tonic salt, a table spoon at a time, all recover, not instantly but within 2 hrs. They are swimming happily now. I think my problem is filling up the tank too fast, possibly the same as heavy rain. Since then I'd add new water in a slower rate, and so far so good. .