im so worried i got up this morning and i found one of those outdoor torches in my pond! i took out all my fish and put them in clean water and did a water change they are acting fine but will they be ok? i tried to post in pond section but i couldnt hope this area is fine. plez help worried mother of fishies here! so far it looks like i got all the oil out theres none floating on the water. i rinsed my plants well to. i added bacteria since i had to take out about 70% of water.EDIT.. i just went and checked on them their swimming around like nothing happend maybe i got lucky this time?

I can't help you here because I wouldn't know what to do but I hope your fish do okay!

I've never dealt directly with an oil spill in a pond but my first thought would be to float lots of plain white paper toweling on the top and then remove that. I **think** that maybe it would remove any trace elements of oil and am fairly sure that even if it doesn't help--it won't hurt anything.

Hope that your fishies are all fine.

Best,

From what I understand in terms of oil spills, the fish die from lack of oxygen. If your fish are swimming ok and showing no signs of oxygen deprivation (sp?) then you are probably ok.

How much oil was in the torch? it can be stubborn to get all out but it sounds like you got 99.9% of it.

thanks for all the help and suggestions its been 24hrs now and their doing just fine. im not to sure hoow much lamp oil was in there but it was enough to cover the top of the pond and made it stink pretty bad. i guess the water changes i did help it and we got all of it out this is a lesson learned i'll never get those torches next to the pond again! but im so happy my fishies are just fine

glad to hear the fish are fine

I'm glad to hear that your fish are doing fine. Luckily for you, you learned a lesson and no one died.

That was a scary accident. Glad to hear they are acting ok as well.

I think at this point you have done all you could, just watching them for any illness or problems is probably a good idea.

Hope they ok
no idea here as that has not happened in my pond ( ex hubbys pond that I built)
but in cooking...if you see any oil try ice cubes, the fat/oil on the surface will stick to the cubes of ice then remove the cubes.
It may work in a pond, I know it works it the kitchen.

well its been about a week or so and everyone is doing great!