Pond Fish Suddenly Lethargic

[doglover]

I have recently constructed a new small pond and have moved the fish from the old pond that I had for a couple years. Every morning the fish are lively and hungry. But two mornings ago I went to see them as I do every morning and they were all laying on the bottom of the pond. I tried to get them going with a nudge and they all seem lazy and weak. They all seem slimier than usual. One of them is a black lionhead and looks likes he is covered in a film of grey to clear mucus.

The pond is constructed of block that is rendered with a type of mix that is supposed to be impermeable by water. The render was allowed to cure for a week. I had 3 layers of sandstone installed near the top end of the pond. Most of this is below the water level. I heavily painted it with 100% acrylic paint that was allowed to dry for 5 days. I filled the pond and allowed water to soak out chemicals for 1 week, changing the water 3 times. Cut up banana trees were thrown in for one of the soaks. Fresh water and plants were added. A day later the fish were introduced. They thrived for 3 weeks until they were found suddenly lethargic the morning as explained.

I am thinking if the acrylic paint was a problem that would have shown with dead fish earlier than 3 weeks. But in case the chemicals slowly leached and built up too toxic levels over the three weeks I changed the water today. The black lionhead still looks covered in mucus and fish are lazy. I did lose my weakest fish today with the water change. Stress of it pushed him a bit too far I suppose.

Any ideas?

[cooked]

Sounds like the fish have a fungal infection, caused by? I don't change the water regularly but leave the hose pipe to cascade into the small pond once a day, I have an overflow. When it gets hot the water can quickly become anaerobic, I assume you don't have too much algae in there? There is special sealant for aquariums/ponds, aqua putty I think. Acrylic paint probably isn't at the root of the problem but who knows what gunk is put in there?

[doglover]

Sounds like the fish have a fungal infection, caused by? I don't change the water regularly but leave the hose pipe to cascade into the small pond once a day, I have an overflow. When it gets hot the water can quickly become anaerobic, I assume you don't have too much algae in there? There is special sealant for aquariums/ponds, aqua putty I think. Acrylic paint probably isn't at the root of the problem but who knows what gunk is put in there?

Maybe I will take a picture of the black lionhead and take it to a fish shop for advice on possible fungal infection. The pond is attached to north side of my home and receives zero direct sun hence the water stays around 25 degrees right now. Algae growth just started it's new pond bloom maybe a week before the problems. The algae looks somewhat rusty, along with the green. The entire volume of pond water is filtered in 45-60 minutes and spills out from a tilted urn to drop about 16 inches into the pond. More aeration comes from a two port compressor.

[ignis]

I check my fish every 3 days, you need a net to catch them and inspect them both sides...

I also have holding tanks, so if a/some fish appear not well they get moved out of the main pond...

Find mostly in a holding tank with no food for 5 days, change water every day and add 'Bio-Knock' will do the trick...

bad case then they need penicillin powder, mix well with water before adding, ..again change water and add more medicine every day...

check on there bodies for any Parasites.... if not checked can spread fast, again a powder, pink, called 'White Crane' Sites Anti Parasites

Every month add 'Bio-G' to the pond.

Did you smell the water ? at this time of the year change of season will affect the water.. Is the water moving all the time in the Pond ?

The spindle broke on the pump I have that moves the water around, about 3 days before I could buy another spindle for the pump and put it all back together again., water had gone off, had to change, that was last week.

No idea if other have pump problems ? find pumps do not last that long, and is same problem the white spindle inside breaks... At least now found where to get them, comes with a new motor @ 250 baht. probl;em is it is over 100 km from my house so 200 km round trip.

[doglover]

^^^^

Ok, BioKnock. The pond is quite small. 12' long X 14" wide X 14" deep. So I'm thinking I could just add bioknock to the pond directly and then it could also knock off anything lurking in pond. The pond has plants though. Is this a good idea?

And BioG. What does it do?

[ignis]

Everyone dose

things differently, what is right is anyone guess. years ago I painted the pond, no good lasted less then a years, after a lot of hard work got all the old paint off, I painted again with the correct 2 mix pool paint... back then was very expensive and difficult to find...

A new build after all is set I then fill with water and added 'Potassium Permanganate' is a purple powder, leave for at least 7 days, empty and clean, then add clean water and let it stand for a few days before putting fish into the pond.

I never add any new fish to the Pond, always 1st they go into a holding tank for 5 days

Will build a new pond next year a little bigger.. 18 m x 3 m x 1.6 m deep. this time will add the colour to the mix [thinking black bottom and blue sides] have seen this at some of the big Fish farms, [they use all black or all blue, but as I will build it myself can get/do what I want] as even this expensive Pool paint comes off, 9 year on and at least 50% of this paint has come off..

Guess if all your fish are sick then would be OK to add medicine to the Pond, change water every day for about 4 days adding 'Bio-Knock' each day, about 3 shots, then every other day for another 4 days, hope will clear everything..........

If the water is bad then they fish are normally on the top, if at the bottom, there sick or the water is too cold

[doglover]

Guess if all your fish are sick then would be OK to add medicine to the Pond, change water every day for about 4 days adding 'Bio-Knock' each day, about 3 shots, then every other day for another 4 days, hope will clear everything..........

Lost 3 more fish today, have 4 left. I did a little reading on the net. Had no idea fish could get so many diseases. Seems mine have a few. Couldn't find bio-knock was sent home from the shop with a bag of salt, D-Bio and Super Ich (green malachite). As my fish seemed to be hanging on I put them in a mickey mouse hospital tank and water from the pond and treated with green malachite as it seemed the strongest and the fish look like hell. Lost my only koi, not sure if from the malachite or maybe he was sucking air too long the third time he jumped out of tank.

Cleaned out the pond and put the same plants back in and filled the pond with fresh well water. Added the rest of the bottle of malachite as I am trying to kill any nasties in the pond and the plants (I don't want to trash the plants). When to a different shop and found bio-knock. Added it to the hospital tank and the pond.

Is it ok to be treating them with bio-knock and the green malachite at the same time?

Can I add in the salt to the hospital tank as well for a triple hammer?

Am I supposed to do a 100% water change in the hospital tank daily and then add the drugs? Or just leave the water and keeping adding more drugs each day for 3 days?

[doglover]

^^^^

never mind about the water change question, missed my chance to edit.

[cooked]

Guess if all your fish are sick then would be OK to add medicine to the Pond, change water every day for about 4 days adding 'Bio-Knock' each day, about 3 shots, then every other day for another 4 days, hope will clear everything..........

Lost 3 more fish today, have 4 left. I did a little reading on the net. Had no idea fish could get so many diseases. Seems mine have a few. Couldn't find bio-knock was sent home from the shop with a bag of salt, D-Bio and Super Ich (green malachite). As my fish seemed to be hanging on I put them in a mickey mouse hospital tank and water from the pond and treated with green malachite as it seemed the strongest and the fish look like hell. Lost my only koi, not sure if from the malachite or maybe he was sucking air too long the third time he jumped out of tank.

Cleaned out the pond and put the same plants back in and filled the pond with fresh well water. Added the rest of the bottle of malachite as I am trying to kill any nasties in the pond and the plants (I don't want to trash the plants). When to a different shop and found bio-knock. Added it to the hospital tank and the pond.

Is it ok to be treating them with bio-knock and the green malachite at the same time?

Can I add in the salt to the hospital tank as well for a triple hammer?

Am I supposed to do a 100% water change in the hospital tank daily and then add the drugs? Or just leave the water and keeping adding more drugs each day for 3 days?

Well water? I myself would never drink it here, maybe this is a the root of your problem, full of heavy metals and pesticide residues.

[Khonwan]

Sorry, Doglover, but I’ve just read this thread so my advice is probably too late. I reared freshwater and marine fish before coming to Thailand. In the case of freshwater fish with the symptoms you describe, I would put each fish into a small container for one minute containing water with a high salt content. 1 litre water with 3g of table salt (a teaspoon is around 5g). This is extremely irritating to the fish, which will thrash around, but is deadly to parasites on the body of the fish. Very effective (and very old) treatment if done early enough and won’t do any harm should the diagnosis be wrong.

Rgds

Khonwan

[doglover]

Thanks Khonwan. I have done some reading through all this and can understand why you would recommend the treatment. I have 2 healthy fish which have returned to the pond and one left in the hospital tank. The loner appears to have gill flukes and I still have to get to a fish shop and communicate that. I ran him through the ich treatment and bio-knock with the others but the gill flukes were unaffected, as expected.