Hiding Goldfish

[Rick40]

My Goldfish always seem to be hiding underneath my lily pads. They don't even seem to come out when I feed them. I know this is a normal behavior,but would vacuuming out the junk that is in the bottom of my pond make them come out more ? Earlier this year they were swimming freely in my pond. I don't have a regular pond vac,but I do have a  large shop vac that I could use.Would this alter the cycle in my pond if I do this? I added Tetra Pond Clarifier to the pond this afternoon. A lot of junk came floating to the top that I scooped out with my net. Now I have the other dilemma about the tadpoles that I mentioned in my previous post  .

 My pond specs are about 1000 gallons total for both upper and lower pond.
  1250 GPH Sunterra Pump
 Bio Filter

 Parematers
 Ammonia between 0- 25 . I just checked it this afternoon
 Nitrite 0
 Nitrate 0
 PH 7.0

   Rick

[HTH]

Given that there is no answer yet let me give it a shot.

I do not know why are are giving a wide ammonia range.  Too wide to be useful but it should really read zero or near it.

The three top things I can think of that cause acclimated fish to hide are predation, disease and water quality problems.

You need to get an accurate ammonia reading. If it is too high, drain off enough water to do a change to get it back to safe.  Stop feeding.  Stop killing the algae and such that consume the ammonia. 

[Kittyzee]

Vacuuming your pond is a way to keep it clean, but not really something to use to implement fish behavior.  Remember, and some people may disagree with this, the bottom of the pond isn't supposed to look like a clean dinner plate.  This is my opinion, but I don't fuss much with cleaning.  I vacuum and net out stuff, but don't worry about a pristine pond.  My water is clear and my fish are healthy.  I've not lost any fish to water quality, just playful cats.   

If your ammonia is high, I would also do a water change.  Let your pond cycle naturally with plants, biofilter, etc. and stop adding chemicals for this and that. 

[Rick40]

Thank you everybody. I think I was adding too many chemicals to the pond. Today I did a 25% water change and added Prime because my city's water quality is not that good. Now I am going to let nature take its course. I gave you a wide range of the ammonia reading that I took because it is hard for me to match up the color in the tube with the color on the chart exactly. I am using Aquaria Pharmaceuticals Master Freshwater Test Kit.

 Rick

[tranquility]

ammonia kits are soo hella hard to tell those colors...I wish they could come up with a better color scale....Me and hubby can stand outside all day arguing over what color is showing....I've learned to do the ammonia and nitrate test at the same time so if they are both the same color of yellow then I know the ammonia is 0....
Lawanna

[HTH]

Time for a better test kit.

I like the "Red Sea Ammonia Test Lab".   Costs more and takes longer but you know where you stand.

They say 45 tests but I think you can scale down the sample size and number of drops to get more then that.  Do not have one on hand now so I found it on the internet. I have no affiliation with these people.  Never used them.
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/4963/product.web

The readings on the card start with yellow at 0.25, .0.5, 1.0, 2.5, 5.0, and not sure about the last one, perhaps 7.5.


   

[Rick40]

Thank you for the tip Lawanna. I will try that the next time I do a test. I added a 2nd pump to my pond to act as a aerator.

Rick

[ke3gk]

My fish are hiding too ... real good, must be due to the Blue Heron sitting on the pond the other day.  :'(