Lost all of our fish - Due to a Hail Storm????

[hillbillysrus]

 :'( :'( :'(
We had a REALLY bad hail storm here late yesterday afternoon.
It was only about marble size, but it came down in buckets....the ground was covered like it had snowed.  The news reports said some people reported several inches in some areas.

We didn't go out last night to check anything, because we had to work, but when I got home just a little while ago, I went out and from what I can tell, every single fish we had in both ponds is floating at the surface.  They were only 10 cent goldies, but a pet is a pet right.....poor guys, they had probably trippled in size since we put them in last month.

Has anyone else ever had this problem???  Could the hail have been acidic or something and poisoned them, or could it just have been the shock from the hail impacting the water.

To make matters worse, it looks like most of our plants have taken a really bad beating, not just in the pond, but the whole yard.  Everyone's trees on this side of town lost a lot of leaves.  It looks like fall around here, except all the leaves are green.

Well, I guess I better go out and start the clean up.  Just wondering if anyone had ever had their fish killed from hail.

Thanks
Alan

[Ky Kim]

Sorry to here that.  Your water plants will probably bounce back with no problem, but your land plants might struggle with the heat.  

I saw where your area got hit hard.  There was hail right up the road from here, but we just got rain and lots of lightening.  

Kim

[miguynmkoi]

I'm speechless!!!  I can't believe your fish died like that. 

Maybe if there was enough ice it changed the water temps too rapidly?  Can't imagine 

[Double S]

Wow...never would of thought a hail storm could kill fish.   

[PondmaninAL]

Sorry to here about your fish.

It could have been one of three things. The impact itself, the quick drop in temperature, or the pH of the water that made up the hail.

Happy ponding,
Scott

[Julles]

Pond Man beat me to it, but I was gonna say the drop in temperature, and, yes, even though it's "natural," hail can have a different ph, and even contain acid or whatever there is floating around in that ozone layer up above.

Sorry.

[karen J]

Or, maybe the fish died from a pH crash. Do you have a KH test kit?

Sometimes, a large amount of rainwater can cause the pH to crash in the pondwater if the water is not buffered enough.

[Kittyzee]

How tragic!  :'(  I have goldies too, mine are several years old, but like you said--a pet is a pet.  Do they hang out at the surface and are used to you tossing in food?  I wonder if they thought the mother lode of fish food had come upon them, and they were getting pelted with the marble-sized hail.  Of course I don't know the size of your ponds, and goldfish like cooler water: in my experience they get so playful when I top off my pond. It's hard to imagine they could all die from a temp. drop because of hail.  I suppose it depends on just how cold it got.  So sorry!

[hillbillysrus]

Thanks guys for all the answers...

The only other thing I have thought of that no one mentioned, is some kind of toxin from all of the fresh green leaves that were knocked into the pond.  The entire yard is covered in leaves (everyones is).  My skimmer/pump wansn't running, so the leaves have been in the water all last night and today.  There is a very strong odor from them when you go outside, so I don't know.  It didn't tint the water at all like in the fall, the water is actually clearer tonight than it has been all season.  Unfortunately, I don't have a test kit to check the ph.

We just came in from cleaning up.  I found 28 dead out of the 30 that we have put in.  I'm sure the other 2 are gone, they're just stuck under the edges somewhere or I had already lost them.  They were only about an inch when we put them in, tonight I would say that every one was at least 3 inches, they were really thriving.  The fish were pretty shy, I never really saw them near the surface very often, and they weren't used to being fed.  It's hard to say though if they came to the surface during the storm and got pelted.

No sign of any of the tadpoles or frogs we have put in, but they're pretty elusive.  I don't have much hope for them though.

The plants are in bad shape, even the cattails are damaged, but hopefully everything will bounce back.  I'm worried most about our small Magnolia tree, there isn't an undamaged leaf left on it.

Thanks for the good wishes everyone.  I only post once once in a blue moon, but it's nice to know we are all out there for one another.

Alan

[bunny56lbc]

A few years ago we had some large hail & a friend of mine had some fish die from it. She thought they got knocked in the head by the hail cause they were up at the top of the water at the time. ( she saw them out of her upstairs window.) She had some fancy goldies too .
bonnie

[Reedman]

Sorry for your losses . . .

I don't recall anyone ever posting here about fish deaths after a hailstorm, just shredded plants.

My vote would be the sudden temperature change - might have put them into shock.

[Sandye]

I have no clue (other than the ones mentioned...ph crash, for example).   We had a really bad hail storm a few years ago that shredded every lilypad in the pond, as well as all the other plants in the pond.  I don't remember losing any fish from it, tho. 

[Mucky_Waters]

Alan
Can I ask how many gallons your pond is?
It's probably a combination of all those factors just stressed your fish to the breaking point. Rain, hail and snow always tends to be acidic, but most people's fish survive heavy rains and the snows of winter. However I have heard of others who have had there fish die from too much rain when the excess rain runoff ran into their pond.
Anyway, that is one advantage of having a larger pond is it creates a larger buffer to help protect the fish from the extremes that nature throws at them. I have taken ph readings in my 1000 gal pond after a heavy rain and have and read significant ph drop, but so far no fish have ever died because of it.

[hillbillysrus]

Mucky,

I think my upper pond is about 1000 gallons and the lower is about 1500.  I have no idea how much hail it would take to drop the water temp, but the concensus seems to be that or a ph problem.  I'll have to try to find a test kit today and check my water tonight.

Alan

[barb]

Oh, how tragic!!  I'm so sorry for your terrible loss.  Now I will be frantic if it ever hails here.

[frloplady]

Sorry you lost your pond puppies.

My thought is the PH crash as well.  I've read of it often on other pond lists after heavy rains.  Hail isn't much different except frozen.  Unless your pond was very shallow I don't see the temp change as something that could be that sudden that would cause death, at least not to all of them.

If you go again with the goldies a few test kits will tell you how well your water is buffered that would prevent something like this happening again either with rain or hail

Mary

[Susan329]

One of my koi was killed last year during a hail storm. We estimated that he weighed around four pounds. He was the only one that died & I thought that it hit him. It was golf ball sized hail that did a lot of damage. We had to get a new roof because of it & so did most of my neighbors.