Ok, I am in a shambles right now. Still dealing with what happened to my wonderful, lovely pond fish! Let me give you some background and maybe someone can help point me in the right direction for resetting up my beloved pond and fish ... this is gonna be a long one, I hope you don't get mad at me ...
I've had this pond for the past 4 years. Started out with a water lilly and some medium sized Koi with a few small commets. Gradually I aquired more fish and got rid of the water lilly (as the fish just mangled that) and have had pretty good success with most. Last summer and fall went wonderfully, no fish loss and algea naturally under control of the feeders instead of chemicals but had a horrible winter ... unnaturally cold and long for us ... froze up the pump (didn't break though thank goodness!) but had a horrible, stinky mess to clean up with the dead fish in the pond this thaw.
Now, here we are into this my 5 season. After getting rid of the stink and scrubbing down the pond (no soap just a good scrubber and a lot of effoert) I was back up and running in late March. The weather started to warm up in early April so I purchased several (4) medium sized or so fancy goldfish to get things started. They acclimated well and the next week we purchased 2 more fancy gold fish and some very nice looking large regular goldfish ... I believe there were 6. This would be a good time to mention that my pond is a butterfly shaped, 2 tier (each of the 4 rounded corners has a step down into the middle oval) approx. 200 gal hard plastic pond. Anyway, end of April we had unseasonable cold weather (back to freezing) for about a week or 10 days and I was worried about the fish. Most survived unscaved but a did loose 4 of the regular goldfish. To my suprize the fancy GF didn't seem bothered by the temp and I was thrilled that they were ok since they cost more then the regular GF. Anyhow, I waited a week or so for the weather to clear up and in Mid-May added a medium sized algea eatter and a small blue channel cat to the mix. After 2 weeks of nice weather I also purchased 3 large BEAUTIFUL red and white commets with flowing tails ... They were spectacular looking in the pond. Now, that's 10 fish if you're keeping track in this 200 gal pond with a very large, adequate pump and filter (made sure of that when I bought it ... it says it can be used with up to 600 gal ponds). I don;t feel that was over stocking as I barely see any of them, except the larger commets ... the commets were about 4-5 inches long while the fancy GF are short and fat and only about 2 inches long. The algea eatter was about 3 inches long and the catfish about the same.
Anyway, this past week I noticed a couple of the fish hanging around the surface quite a bit but they'd dive down when I approched so I didn't think much of it. Then I noticed a dead GF, then the next day another. On Saturday I noticed that a few (3-4) fish looked like they had tiny white bubbles on them and some really crappy looking tails. Sunday I bought some "Ich" medication and added it to the pond as directed hoping to same at least some of the fish ... especially the commets which were so new to the pond. Today I woke up and went to check on them and all the fish were dead. How does something kill pond fish so fast? I mean the commets weren't even showing any signs of sickness until Sunday when I medicated the pond. I'm not even sure it was "Ich" that killed my beloved fish. Do you think I'm on the right track?
Well, I scooped all the fish and plants out and trashed them. I'm currently draining the entire pond which I plan to clean out, refill and medicate again just to be safe before adding anymore fish. Does anyone have any other suggestions as to what I should do before getting more fish? ANy suggestions as to why I had this problem in the first place? Did I bring something harmful home from the store and if so how can I help NOT make this mistake again? I'm so frustrated and upset!