Hi everyone!
We have a bit of a problem. On Saturday, we were at our local pond store and this employee talked us into purchasing this Bacteria/AlgaeFix kit. We were in the middle of an algae bloom and I needed something before my pond turned pea soup. Since my UV broke, I had to look for an algae destroyer in the mean time.
We hadnt placed any bacteria in our ponds...jeez..ever. Never had any problem with cycling or fish loss/ammonia. But this woman INSISTED we needed to do the bacteria thing. I folded, and bought the product because it came with an algae destroyer.
We put it in the pond, and come yesterday, my fish were acting very strange. I lost 6 shubunkin babies, all of which were an inch or under. Understandably, they are delicate.
BUT, my 4" gold Koi was swimming, almost in side circles, flipping on his back, laying on his side, BUT refusing to die. A half hour ago, another Koi started the same behaviour. I tested the ammonia, and it was about a .50. Not good! It wasnt much but I decided to do a 500+ gallon water change. Our pond is about 4000 gallons.
After that, it dropped signifigantly, probably to around .02. And today it lingers around that, but took about a half hour to register on the test kit.

OK...here is what I concluded. The algacide killed the algae, depleating oxygen and boosting the ammonia because of the die off. The bacteria most likely caused the pond to cycle as well, giving it a one-two punch.
My Shubunkins and Comets are fine, its the Koi that are labored breathing and swimming erratically. I have 3 Koi, 2 of which have aquired this problem. I know it was most likely because of the water quality, but is there anything I can do to TRY to pull them through it???
I have a small pond that isnt occupied that I want to move them into, but at the same time I dont want to stress them anymore.

Are they totally doomed or is something like this managable???

Do you aerate the pond? If not, adding air would be very beneficial. When you killed the algae, you removed a good portion of your biological filtration as well as oxygen production. You may even have inadvertently caused a ph crash, so further water changes and increased aeration would help considerably. Check your ph morning and evening to see if there is much fluctuation. Are you on treated city water or well water? If you changed water from a city source and did not add a dechlorinator, this would definitely make your fish behave in this manner, and you can lose them all if you do not dechlorinate immediately.

Water parameters to test are ph, nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, kh and gh and temperature. If you could tell us the numbers it would help us help you figure this out.

Good luck with your fish. I know how hard it is to lose them,
Marie

I didnt even think about the algae being part of the bio filtration other then Nitrate removal. I have been keeping fish for 23 years, and you STILL learn something. To think, I can handle numerous saltwater tanks, but this tripped me up!
The PH as of now is fine, hasnt budged in either direction, sitting around a 8.0. I use well water so whatever is coming out of the ground is from a spring.
When it comes to PH, they havent been acclimated to anything other then what my well water is. All the fish are about 1-3 years old other then the babies born last year.
The pond is aerated by the pump, into the filter, into the waterfall weir. It pumps around 4000 GPH. I added more water on Friday just to put something fresh in.
The temp is 64
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 0 or non registerable

I dont have a hardness test or Nitrite kit. Its not the hardness I know that, and it was something to do with the ammonia and oxygen levels, Im almost 100% on that.
But, testing everything right now, the ammonia is gone which is good. I even took care of the Nitrates.
The Gold Koi, he isnt gonna make it. He is still swimming erratically and hasnt eaten. My white Koi hasnt swam erratically since two days ago, but he hasnt eaten either. Im hoping that the white one makes it.

The dead ones...what condition was their slime coats in? What color were the gills? How about the gold one? Do you have a microscope so you can scrape and scope? Costia kills really fast. Perhaps some pathogen has invaded while the fish's metabolism/immune system was still trying to revive from winter. Your parameters sound good.

Ohhh....what if the killing of the algae released hydrogen sulfide gas from the substrate of the algae?
How thick was it, and what color? Some algaes give off toxic substances when they die.

I'd keep flushing the pond with new water.

Spring can be a real issue in ponding, and this has been a strange year.

Marie

Wow, Jennkerry, what a shock that must have been! And quite a mess with the whole pond cycle going on. That is one reason you couldn't pay me to dump any algae destroyer/bacteria whatever into the pond. The pond is a natural habitat all by itself, and with the help of the algae (at least the growing one on the walls and such) it has great additional filtration supplementation.
Marie is right - all I would do now is flush the pond with new water. That is the best you can do for your fish. Some of the good bacteria has to re-establish itself, since the algae is gone now, which is a big host to beneficial bacteria. Costia is present in a lot of ponds, but with the natrual immune system of the fish intact, you will hardly see any symptoms, and the fish are happy as can be. Something upsets them, causes the immune system to go down, and WHAM! Spring is one of those seasons, when unfortunately the buggers are out of hibernation faster than the fish are.

Thank goodness for well water though - you could possibly run new well water into the pond 24/7 for a couple of days. Would that be something doable for you? A slow running hose, or the water input regulated by a ball valve, that is how we used to do it while we were still on well water. Of course, that would only work with an overflow system of some sort.

Good luck with your remaining koi - I hope they all make it. Again, fresh water, fresh water, fresh water.

Well unfortunatly I dont have a microscope. I wouldnt really know what to look for anyway. The babies, I gotta say, looked like normal healthy alive fish...except dead. Almost like, fine one second, dead the next.
No over abundance of slime coat, no red or bleeding gills or tails, eyes clear, nothing out of the ordinary. I knew if they had some signs on there body, I could get an idea of illness, but because nothing was BAMM in my face, I assumed it was oxygen depleation.

Gold Koi....eeee....still hangin in there. I cant kill him, I just cant, even a mercy kill...I dont have it in me. He is slowly going down hill. My white Koi...doin good..not eating but not acting strange. To me, if I could explain what it looked to me, it almost looked like a seizer. Close to that.
I cant get outside to do much of anything today, its pretty much pouring all day. WHICH..is good, new water in the pond anyway.
My dopy "cheapo" goldfish...OH THERE FINE! Isnt that the way. You lose the expensive fish, keep the $4 ones! LOL!
Oh a life is a life, doesnt matter how much $$$ it was. I feel bad in every way. Im mad at myself, Im mad at that employee, Im mad at that Pond Care crap I put in the water. Im just upset all around.

I WANT WHITE GUY TO PULL THROUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, I hear your frustration, and I would be angry as well.

However, it doesn't fix things right now, so why not redirect your frustration to the water changes at the moment. Rain water is good and all, however very low on pH by nature, so why not hang in the hose into the pond. Any way that the water can overflow in the pond someplace? Kind of like an overflow system anywhere, so you don't have to constantly go out there and monitor the water level?

Rain at the moment, hm? Where could that be? Atlanta, somewhere in the north-east region today? Usually I would say FL, but it isn't the time of year just yet.

The lovely North East, NEW JERSEY...such a lovely place to live! LOL! We were lucky to have about 2 weeks of warmth and sun, AND, we're paying for it now!
Actually, about the water change, my husband got on that this afternoon before I could even tell him about this thread. So he had the hose in for a while today.
I will check it out and probably get the hose back in there for a few hours tonight. I just dont want to forget about it and let it go overnight