winter kill koi

[seabassi]

Help, I am lost for words most my fish are dead, I have a opening with a aerator and water shooting up for movement, about I put a heater in the pond and now the heater does not work? but the water is still open, I have the pond for 2 years and never lost a fish,, could it be a bad heater? large and small koi and comets stuff at the bottom? not a lot, some died a month ago some today
Thanks

 

[corbnick]

just a few thoughts,, depending on where you live, there might be a problem with a decreasing o2 level,, remember warmer warter holds less o2 and with the warming weather and your heater your water temp probly rose up a bit,, here is where im going with this, if you fish load increased from last year,, which im thinking it probly did, and perhaps you have pond plants ,, plants, remember remove o2 during the night and produce co2, which is the oppiset during the day. its not uncommon for large plant loads to 'suck the o2'out of the water. you might have had a fatal low o2 levals, usualy this will occure first thing in the morning, even though you had a bubbler , this might not have been a suitable source or o2,, water falls do much better at reoxengating water. another clue is if your larger fish died they have a higher o2 demand hope this will give you some insites,, and good luck

 

[seabassi]

Hi thanks for the info, I will give you more information on whats going on because I am lost , I live in Rhode Island ice snow and cold here but 1/2 my pond is open because of my bubbler pump,( always had air escaping) i first noticed my small comets (3 inch long) were dying ( 12 of them) a month ago, then more small ones and my largest koi is dead (15 inches long), I did leave a seasonal plant in there over the winter but took it out a month ago, also I noticed my heater was not working ( shock the fish?)my water to pump out (for ice break) comes up about 2 feet out so it is like a hose ( scare the fish) ? just looking for answers before I fill in the hole this spring thanks

 

[corbnick]

Thinking some more about your problem,,
mabey with the loss of your heater and the movement of the water caused the thermal layering of the water to become disrupted,, ponds usualy set up in layers of different water temps,, the warmer layers set up on the bottom, so when the heater was lost the water movememt from the bubler disruptes the layering,,
another thing,, not sure how logn you pond has been set up , but mabey your biloglogical filter syster wasnt able to handle the fish load,

Im in the soutwest,, el paso texas ,, and pond keeping is much different down here,, we tend to worry more about the heat and sun,, winter/cold is not an issue, we dont use heater... well hope this info either help or leads you to some ideas that will help out ,, Keep working on it sure hate to see you fill it in! Corbin

 

[seabassi]

winter koi kill

thanks for the info, you are exactly right that is what happened, I went the the local garden show yesterday and got the same info from a few dealers, but before that I lost some of my best koi to a wild animal over the winter that I could not find out what ( until today) in the snow there were tracks I looked at the tracks and it was a otter he wiped me out of the rest of the living fish I am sick to my stomach, he has been getting fish under the ice taking them under my deck and eating them nothing left, so in the spring it is time to rebuild and get things right ( what else can I do) thanks again
Frank

 

[corbnick]

Glad to hear that you got it figured out! dealing with an otter is gota be dificult,, perhap trap and relocate,, or mabey a dog,,
Ive had great resluts uning a nautral system,, lots of bogs plants and 2 waterfalls and a small stream.. i posted some pic take a look,, check out lots of ponds and and figrue out what wil work best for you and the area you have,, Good luck!!
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