Why are my goldfish dead?...my inground pond is about 270 galons?

Question

A week ago i drained the pond and cleaned it then refilled with tap water..(from garden hose)..7 days later my gold fish were dead or dead before the day was over. What caused them to die..and what can I do to prevent this from happening again?..any help would be appreciated, we are in southern Ga. so its plenty warm and sunny.

Answer 1

Hi Eddie, I'm sorry to hear of your loss but this has nothing to do with climate & is unfortunately a clear case of not doing your research beforehand :(

  2 things happened here, firstly you killed the natural eco system of good bugs that had formed in your pond [the slimy stuff on the rocks] by changing your water completely & you poisoned your fish by adding untreated tap water-this contains chlorine or chloramine which the water company puts in to kill bacteria but it also kills fish. Even if you had treated it the massive bio-load from your fish into the now sterilised pond would have suffocated them in days.

  The link below tells you about the nitrogen cycle. I would seriously suggest you join a properly moderated pond keepers group, they can advise about precautions to take to prevent this happening again.

Answer 2

Dude all most all pools have clorin and that kills fish r****d!!

Answer 3

only reasonable answer in your question is either the water is too hot or chlorine.  When planning a water change you can pump water to your water tank if you have one let it stay for a day or two if not get a barrel and put the water there.

Answer 4

idk

Answer 5

Couple things:

1) Many of the others are correct about the chlorine...SPOT ON.

2) If the chlorine didn't kill them, the ammonia that they produce will.

    Explained:  When you clean out a tank, never remove more than 1/2 the water.  In addition, clean the filter with Old water.  Reason?  The old water likely has bacteria in it.  Not all bacteria is bad.  Some bacteria break down the ammonia that fish produce.  Keeping half of the old water will preserve the "good" bacteria.

ON THE WATER:  can't have any chlorine.  Chlorine kills bacteria, good and bad...it will also kill your fish.  You have a big tank, so you can't use the old fashioned methods like letting the water sit out for 3 days (most of chlorine will go away).  You'll have to determine some means of pre-treating the water to get rid of the chlorine.

Answer 6

Probably the chlorine in your tap.  If you treated it did you feed them enough or too much?

Answer 7

Sorry about your fish...

The chlorine in the tap water could have caused it. You can treat the water with Amquel to neutralize it next time.



Also, only change about 1/3 of the water at a water change. Use a gravel vacuum to clear the sludge off the bottom.

Answer 8

THAT HAPPENS TO MY FISH ALL THE TIME! its so anoyying! i mean i got a fish and for lyk 3 day or so it died. i mean i gave it food but it dont want to eat. so yeah try getting fish that are bit more expensive. they dont die easily

Answer 9

Tap water is filled with chlorine or chloramine - both which killed your biological filter.  If you don't know what this means, do your research.  In the pond's filter, good bacteria colonized at one point and converted waste products (ammonia) of your fish (pee, p**p, and waste from breathing) into less harmful things like nitrates.  When you filled up your pond with tap water, the chlorine killed the bacteria.  With no biological filter, the waste products of your fish didn't get converted and your fish have been swimming around in water with high levels of ammonia in it.  Ammonia is damaging to fish, and as you know, can kill them at excessive levels.  To prevent this, make sure your pond is "cycled" before adding more fish.  It is the same process as what must occur in tanks.  Google "tank cycling" or "fishless cycling".  

Good luck.