Wanting to know about behaviors of paradise fish in a bucket of water.

[Temp]

Introduction:
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Dad bought 6 paradise fish and wanted to place them in the pond outside. And we did place them in a pond, but at that time, we didn't clean out the pond for two years.

Then the next day and the day after that, we had typhoon. Pouring rain swept down into the pond, causing 1 paradise fish to die, probably died of shock from the rain.

After the typhoon, we decided to drain out the pond water and clean the mud inside up. It was very muddy. So, we catch the remaining 5 paradise fish and placed them in a bucket half full of pond water. At that time, I know the fish will jump out of the water, so there wasn't a lot of water in the bucket.

While draining out the pond water, I went out and bought fish food flakes for the paradise fish. When I got back, it's alright dusk in the evening.

The next day, I changed the water in the bucket, as it was full of sticks and muddy scraps. After changing the water, I feed them fish food and went out to check on the pond.

Three hours later, I came back, only to find that 3 more paradise fish is dead, 2 of them outside of the bucket, while 1 sank to the bottom of the bucket. I went ahead and covered up the bucket, and here I am posting about this.

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Now, I would like to know a few things, before I continue to make more mistakes:

1. Why would the paradise fish jump out of the water?
2. A paradise fish sinking to the bottom means something is wrong about the water. Is it because of extreme parameters of the pond water?
3. Is it because of sudden changes in the environment that stressed out the fish?
4. What did I do wrong?

That's all of the questions I have. It'll be very grateful to know anything about my wrongdoings.

 

[adeebm]

Fish can't survive in a bucket for long. Unless it is a very large bucket, there will not be enough water volume to supply dissolved oxygen to the fish. Aeration would help, but even then, they probably won't last. Also, fish waste is toxic ammonia, and in a small bucket, it will build up rapidly. Your fish probably died of either suffocation or ammonia poisoning overnight. Being bought from a store, going into a pond, through a typhoon, and back into a bucket will have caused extreme stress, another possible cause of death. Hope your last fish makes it

--Adeeb

 

[Temp]

Well, we're trying to fix our pond for the last time, before we can release them into the pond.

If we keep the waterfall running, will the fish be afraid of it?

Also, about the three dead fish, I conducted a simple autopsy, and noticed:

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1st to die: Belly is huge, belly is completely white, the tails and fins are black, and possibly curled up.

2nd to die: Floating on water after I picked it up outside of the bucket, then it drowned. Belly is now whitening.

3rd to die: Was still alive when I picked it up and placed it back into water. Has obvious red blood clots in the belly. His body is bent upwards and belly is becoming white.

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Is it possible for paradise fish to die due to something in belly? What do you think it is?
Is it possible ammonia poisoning causes labyrinth fish to float before completely drained of oxygen/air in body?
How is it possible to have blood clots underneath the gills, just right next to the pectoral fins?

 

[corrado33]

Ponds need to be cycled too...

You killed your fish by assuming they'd be fine in a pond that has been neglected for two years? (I'm assuming that's what you meant by "we haven't cleaned it out")

Why didn't you just cover the bucket with some screen or something and put more water in it? Probably would have been a better idea than just putting a small amount of water in it.

 

[Temp]

I meant the mud. The water is fine, there are plenty of tadpoles in there...

I'll add more water to it.