I'm new here and I've been looking all over the net for some kind of answer about my fish. Sorry, but this may be a little long.
Near my house is a cattle tank that a rancher threw some goldfish into about 20 years ago, last year all the cattle in the area were rounded up and about 3 weeks ago I noticed that the water had been turned off to the tank, aside from the fact that the water was drying up, there was about a foot of debris on the bottom of the tank, the water was so dark and murky you could hardly see the fish. So I rescued them. The only thing I had to put them in until I built a pond was one of those blue plastic kiddie pools. There were 9 fish total-2 were about 6-7", 1 was about 5", 6 were about 3-4".
The fish seemed to flourish in the clean water. They were eating fine, swimming around and having a good ol' time. Because I didn't have a filtering system for the temporary pond I cleaned it out when it got too murky, I did this about 3 times with no problems.
Monday of this week a water main was busted about 3 miles down the road and after it was fixed we had air in the lines. By Thursday I thought most of the air was out and since I could no longer see the fish I decided to clean the pond again. Within a few minutes I noticed that the fish had small bubbles starting to gather on their bodies (this would be the moment I realized that there might be more air in the lines than I thought) about 10-15 minutes later I noticed that some of the fish were staying still on the bottom....at this point I was a little worried. 20 minutes later I checked on them and almost all were floating on their sides, the other were swimming sideways. At this point only one was actually dead, when I touch the ones floating they would swim off either sideways or upside down. One by one they died in less than 10 minutes.
After I buried the fish I went in the house and filled a glass with tap water, it was practically white, it cleared quite a bit in a minute or so, but bubbles remained on the glass. The best guess I had was that there was too much air in the water and maybe that killed them.
Several hours later my friend, who felt really bad, showed up with 2 koi and 1 goldfish. Everybody figured the water would be clear of excess air and we stuck the bags in the ponds to acclimate, at this point I started to get a bad feeling when I noticed some small bubbles starting to form on the outsides of the bags, but I didn't listen to my gut and we eventually put the fish in. Within 20 minutes the koi were floating on their sides and had small bubbles on their fins. I had a gallon of water so I grabbed an old fish bowl, filled it and put the fish in. The koi still died, but the goldfish is still alive. The only thing I noticed that he did differently was that he pretty much stayed on the bottom of the pond while the others swam all over, from top to bottom.
Does anybody have any idea what could have happened to kill 11 fish so fast???? Could it have been too much air in the water or should I call the water company and ask if they added something to the water after the repair? Between my friend (who lives next door) and I we have 6 dogs, 8 cats, 5 horses and 1 donkey.....none of the other animals have shown any sigh of getting sick or being bothered by the water.
Near my house is a cattle tank that a rancher threw some goldfish into about 20 years ago, last year all the cattle in the area were rounded up and about 3 weeks ago I noticed that the water had been turned off to the tank, aside from the fact that the water was drying up, there was about a foot of debris on the bottom of the tank, the water was so dark and murky you could hardly see the fish. So I rescued them. The only thing I had to put them in until I built a pond was one of those blue plastic kiddie pools. There were 9 fish total-2 were about 6-7", 1 was about 5", 6 were about 3-4".
The fish seemed to flourish in the clean water. They were eating fine, swimming around and having a good ol' time. Because I didn't have a filtering system for the temporary pond I cleaned it out when it got too murky, I did this about 3 times with no problems.
Monday of this week a water main was busted about 3 miles down the road and after it was fixed we had air in the lines. By Thursday I thought most of the air was out and since I could no longer see the fish I decided to clean the pond again. Within a few minutes I noticed that the fish had small bubbles starting to gather on their bodies (this would be the moment I realized that there might be more air in the lines than I thought) about 10-15 minutes later I noticed that some of the fish were staying still on the bottom....at this point I was a little worried. 20 minutes later I checked on them and almost all were floating on their sides, the other were swimming sideways. At this point only one was actually dead, when I touch the ones floating they would swim off either sideways or upside down. One by one they died in less than 10 minutes.
After I buried the fish I went in the house and filled a glass with tap water, it was practically white, it cleared quite a bit in a minute or so, but bubbles remained on the glass. The best guess I had was that there was too much air in the water and maybe that killed them.
Several hours later my friend, who felt really bad, showed up with 2 koi and 1 goldfish. Everybody figured the water would be clear of excess air and we stuck the bags in the ponds to acclimate, at this point I started to get a bad feeling when I noticed some small bubbles starting to form on the outsides of the bags, but I didn't listen to my gut and we eventually put the fish in. Within 20 minutes the koi were floating on their sides and had small bubbles on their fins. I had a gallon of water so I grabbed an old fish bowl, filled it and put the fish in. The koi still died, but the goldfish is still alive. The only thing I noticed that he did differently was that he pretty much stayed on the bottom of the pond while the others swam all over, from top to bottom.
Does anybody have any idea what could have happened to kill 11 fish so fast???? Could it have been too much air in the water or should I call the water company and ask if they added something to the water after the repair? Between my friend (who lives next door) and I we have 6 dogs, 8 cats, 5 horses and 1 donkey.....none of the other animals have shown any sigh of getting sick or being bothered by the water.
