Hi all,
All (4) of my fish (Comet Shubunkin, Sarasa Comet, and Comet) seem to have vanished. I have a 575 litre pond which has recently been stocked with Oxygenators, Marginals, a Lily, and the fish. The pond has gone pea soup green which I understand is quite natural at first. The pond does not have a pump or filter as yet, but some barley straw which I hope will help fight the algae, and also I have used a 100% Natural algaeside product to try and deal with the green water problem.

Normally a minute or two after sprinkling a few flakes of fish food my fish emerge to feed. In the last few days they have not appeared at all. I am wondering what has happened to them?

1. If they had died would they float or sink? I cant see to the bottom of the pond due to the algae problem.
2. There has recently been a cold snap, could they have gone to sleep?
3. Or as a fear, has a Heron eaten them

Any pointers or ideas would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi all,
"All (4) of my fish (Comet Shubunkin, Sarasa Comet, and Comet) seem to have vanished. I have a 575 litre pond which has recently been stocked with Oxygenators, Marginals, a Lily, and the fish. The pond has gone pea soup green which I understand is quite natural at first. The pond does not have a pump or filter as yet, but some barley straw which I hope will help fight the algae, and also I have used a 100% Natural algaeside product to try and deal with the green water problem."

Could they simply be out of sight? If the water is really green, you may not be able to see them. Get a pump and filter as soon as you can. My algae page is at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/algae2.htm
I also have a section entitled, "Where did my fish go?" at
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/health4.htm#where

"Normally a minute or two after sprinkling a few flakes of fish food my fish emerge to feed. In the last few days they have not appeared at all. I am wondering what has happened to them?"

They may just be hiding or are scared.

"1. If they had died would they float or sink? I cant see to the bottom of the pond due to the algae problem. "

Most dead goldfish sink. If dead a long time or gassy at the time of death, they may float.

"2. There has recently been a cold snap, could they have gone to sleep?"

Yes, if it's cold enough (below 50-55 degrees F in the water).

"3. Or as a fear, has a Heron eaten them."

Yes, they may have been eaten. Have you seen a heron? Remember, if the water is pea soup green, the heron also has trouble seeing them, and it's harder for him to hunt the fish. The heron may have been by and spooked the fish so that they are now hiding.

Good luck!

Hi Robyn and thanks for your reply.

Still no sign of the fish as of yet. I did notice that my barley staw which was weighted down just below the waters surface by a large pebble had fallen off a shelf to the bottom of the pond and also a marginal from another shelf had fallen to the bottom of the pond, leading to some aquatic soil spilling into the pond (around the volume of a standard baked beans can), yet more algae I fear. This leads me to believe that something has been fishing :(

I have now ordered a pump and filter so hope to have a clear water in the very near future. Which solution do you recommend to clear the bottom of the pond of aquatic soil and debris, or will the pump and filter take care of most of that? I can't drain the pond entirely as there are tadpoles in it.

Thanks again,
Darren

Raccoons like to knock pots over. They do it a lot in my ponds! It spills dirt too. While herons may knock something over, they are usually pretty exact as to where they step and don't knock things over.

A pump and filter will remove a lot of the dirt in the water. To clear suspended dirt, I add AccuClear by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals which coagulates the dirt so it sinks or is filtered out. For dirt chunks on the bottom, I either don't bother or try to suck it up with a pond vacuum. It has to be one that retains everything sucked up like the expensive PondoVac. If it's a venturi (water) driven "vacuum," it will just spit the dirt back into the water (it only holds debris larger than the silt sock or whatever). The fish will stir up dirt over time so it will slowly be suspended and then filtered out. Depending on what was in your plant pots, it may or may not cause algae problems. If it had fertilizer, than algae may feed on that. Plain clay soil is pretty inert and won't do much. The same goes for sand. But, if you have nutrient-rich dark soil, it will feed algae more. If it was that pre-packaged "aquatic soil," that will just sink and not do much.

Yello,
I decided to carefully empty most of the water from my pond making sure not to scoop up any tadpoles, to clear the algae and some of the waste from the bottom of the pond, to see if my fish were still alive, and to help with a PH 12/13 alkaline problem I have just noticed. Great news, the fish are all still alive and seemingly well!

I know a Raccoon was definetely not the culprit which toppled the marginal as I am in England and we don't have Racoons over here.

The pond has now been almost fully refilled with rain water and the PH level is now 8.5 which I am hoping to get down to about 7. I think the cause of the high PH level is concrete which has been used to set paddle stones around the rim of my pre-cast pond. I will be using V8 pondseal to seal/waterproof the concrete ASAP.

The pump and UV filter are installed so clear water should be here to stay.

Cheers,
Darren

I'm glad your fish are ok! Since you don't have raccoons, it could be whatever animals you do have there that wander around at night. What mammals do you have that could do that aside from domestic cats?

Your pH was very high. Since you had concrete in the pond, that explains it.

Yes the PH level was very high. As the conrete is only on the lip of the pond I didn't think it would cause much of an issue, but when rainfall rises the water level obviously the water comes in contact with the concrete. DOH!

Apart from the domestic cat population, there are many foxes where I live. Im not sure how much they like or dislike water.

We have red foxes here. Here's a photo on my site that I haven't linked into my site yet that I took last Wednesday of 3 red fox kits at their den:
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/photos/mammals/other/fox1.jpg

Foxes can get into ponds but it's not that likely that they will really get in there and knock things over. They tend to just drink water or perhaps try to catch something near the edge. Lately, our foxes have been waking me up in the middle of the night with their strange barking.

Cute cubs :)
I'll be sure to have a good look at you site for other info, hints and tips.

Thanks for all the advise.

Darren