Urgent 2 of 4 dead

[Tizzle240]

Hi everyone i can't find any information on this. I have 2 standard and 2 butterfly koi in my pond. This afternoon i found both of my standards dead and about 6 feet away from the pond. At first glance i couldnt see any damage to them . I do have a bird netting protecor over the pond. How do I determine if it was predator or they jumped out themselves. And if they jumped what causes that? Im thinking of moving my butterfly to a 30gallon aquarium for a couple weeks to be safe. They are only about 4 inches.

One of the standard did jump out yesterday but I put it back in and fixed the net. The net was not disturbed this time. The standards were much larger than the butterflya at 6 to 7 inches

Let me know if there are any needed details to answer.

 

[spacepops]

Hi everyone i can't find any information on this. I have 2 standard and 2 butterfly koi in my pond. This afternoon i found both of my standards dead and about 6 feet away from the pond. At first glance i couldnt see any damage to them . I do have a bird netting protecor over the pond. How do I determine if it was predator or they jumped out themselves. And if they jumped what causes that? Im thinking of moving my butterfly to a 30gallon aquarium for a couple weeks to be safe. They are only about 4 inches.

One of the standard did jump out yesterday but I put it back in and fixed the net. The net was not disturbed this time. The standards were much larger than the butterflya at 6 to 7 inches

Let me know if there are any needed details to answer.

6 feet??? My dads koi pond was being attacked by a raccoon that lived in the tree above the pond. We didn’t realize it was a raccoon for a about a week. It would leave them on the ground at a similar distance some with gashes and some not. Set up a game camera?

 

[Tizzle240]

We do have alot of wildlife literally anything you can imagine in the mountains. The pond is built into the hill side they were found almost against the house near our airconditioner

 

[spacepops]

We do have alot of wildlife literally anything you can imagine in the mountains. The pond is built into the hill side they were found almost against the house near our airconditioner

That’s probably it then. Buy a cheap game camera and set it up to watch

 

[Tizzle240]

So. Should i move the last 2 inside till I can figure out what did it and protect against it?

 

[Tizzle240]

Update. I modified the netting and weighed it down for now put the filter waterfall above the netting. It will have to pick it 10+ lb rocks to get in now

 

[spacepops]

Update. I modified the netting and weighed it down for now put the filter waterfall above the netting. It will have to pick it 10+ lb rocks to get in now

We used square fencing at first but I think the holes were too big and it still happened. That night we camped out waiting to see what happened and sure enough a raccoon came crawling down the tree. Shot it with a BB gun trying to scare it off. Didn’t work it just stared at us. So then came the .22..... long story short. Raccoon aren’t smarter than a peashooter

 

[skrapeNKA]

Slightly off topic but raccoons are pretty ingenious. Combine that with thumbs and they can defeat lots of safeguards. Also much more fearless than they should be; I was out camping with the wife one weekend and we left the marshmallows on the table and I woke up in the tent to find a raccoon getting into the bag and knocking other things over. I grabbed a stack of solo cups and beaned the little blighter in the head with them and it just looked back at me like it was offended. Took off into the woods with our marshmallows!

 

[spacepops]

It’s like they know lol

 

[Autumnsky]

Very sorry to hear about the problem.

Will you check the water quality?

They are mischievous creatures. And love ponds with fish snacks. They are really messy and cause all kinds of disturbances.

Jumping from a pond usually indicates something they have been scared from or a problem with the water.

Could there be a turtle, or other creature living under water?

If you are near other water area pond creek, lake, there may be other predators like mink or otter or muskrat.

 

[Tizzle240]

So our pond is only 120gallons arm . thourghly checked no other water critters. We do have coons. Possums. Woodchucks. Rabbits hawks owls eagles. Turkey deer bears. All on the property daily.

Just did a water check and nitrate lvl were high near 100ppm. Nitrie around 1 mg/l. Hardiness is 75 ppm. Alkalinity is between 0 and 40 ppm chlorine zero to .5 may have bleed over some and ph between 6.2 and 6.8

 

[Tizzle240]

Sorry atumnsky was on my phone and didnt do a direct reply. Your answer is in my previous post.

 

[Tizzle240]

Update

So after testing yesterday, today i performed a 20% water change and added in some easy balance, to reduce the nitrate numbers, awaiting a few hours before testing again.

 

[King Fisher]

You might add Seachem Prime to reduce nitrates and nitrites until you get them lowered with water changes. A 20% water change only lowered your nitrates to 80ppm. And your nitrites are probably still .80 ppm which they should be 0.

Did you test your ammonia?

 

[Tizzle240]

You might add Seachem Prime to reduce nitrates and nitrites until you get them lowered with water changes. A 20% water change only lowered your nitrates to 80ppm. And your nitrites are probably still .80 ppm which they should be 0.

Did you test your ammonia?

No unfortunately not, i just have the tetra 6 in 1 test strips is all i have, i also think i need to do a better filter system for it. what i really wish i could do is just get a larger aquarium for the 2 that are left, and redo my pond. I know lots of algae is a sign of nitrate/nitrite as well.

My thought process is even with the nitrate/nitrite issue i believe it was an animal killing,

due to how the protective netting was placed, both koi would have had to hopped out on the same side of the pond, hopped up hill about a foot, then over to the left 3 feet, down a hill about 6 feet, then back to the right about 5 feet, then further down towards the house a few more feet, and ended up right beside eachother, i just cant see that being possible.

 

[Tizzle240]

So tested water again and after 20% change and nitrate. Nitrite treatment no change in any of the levels I did wait a bout 6 or 7 hours after treatment to retest

 

[King Fisher]

Ya, I think it was an animal but your water quality isn't really ideal either. It seems as if your pond isn't cycled.

 

[Tizzle240]

Ya, I think it was an animal but your water quality isn't really ideal either. It seems as if your pond isn't cycled.

Yeah its crazy the pond has been fine and plant growth flourishing. Then over the last month stuff has gotten bad. I can't figure it out. I'm going to put my 2 remaining koi in aquarium and try and get the pond sorted out.

My only thought is my filter setup isnt up to par or the maybe the layout. Of the pond. I put it in a less than ideal place because rhe wifey wanted it there. It might be better as a goldfish pond/water feature vs a koi pond.

 

[King Fisher]

What are you using for a filtration system?

 

[Tizzle240]

What are you using for a filtration system?

Lets try this again stupid phone

Its custom its a 600gph pump sittig on river rock in bottom of liner. Feeds a preform waterfall lined with blue filter media. And small bags of charcoal. Ceramic and bio balls. I also have an air pump for some extra o2 to be safe.

It builds up a lot of algae though. I think it needs a different system but since its a 100gallon staging pond in a water trough im not sure what to do with it.