goldfish dying one by one, HELP

[Bearb]

Hello all I have a small pond (established 3 years) with commets and shubbies. Early this summer, I had a fish become very sluggish and stop eating/swimming. I looked around the internet and couldn't find a definitive disease that fit his symptoms. Since many of the common ailments seemed to have mild salt as a fist step, I move him/her inside with a 3%ish salt level. He still sat motionless and over the next day and a hald he died. By the time he died he had a swollen spot in the abdomen and it looked kinda' reddish (white fish) though I wouldn't really say dropsy. This was a baby from last summer and I figured "sometimes these things happen." 6-8 weeks later a second fish became sluggish; everything went pretty much the same as before.

fast forward a month, another fish fails to come when I wistle the dinner bell. I couldn't find him, as the plants were now well established. Several days later he floted up to the surface. Several weeks later (about 2 weeks ago) another fish disappeared. Today I wistled for dinner and my two biggest oldest fish did not come; both acting the same way the first two did.

My pond is small 150 gal. and with babies from last year and this year, I am pushing the max fish load. I do however, have way more filtration than I should need and all levels seem to have been fine all summer. The water test tonight registers nitrite, though barely any color change and definately not near the color that indicates caution (according to the label on the test strips.)

Please tell me what is wrong and what I can do.

Bryan

[marla]

not a health expert, but yes I would say you are over stocked.  The first fish sounds as if it may have been bacterial and internal.  With the death of multiple fish, you could be looking at parasite/protozon or bactierial, it seems as if it is not a fast killer but I understand your urgencey.  Unless there is a health expert here I would try either  http://www.koivet.com/koivet/  or  http://thegab.org/forum/index.php

[Bearb]

Thanks Marla. I agree that I am overstocked but I can't expand the pond just yet. . . This spring I built a skippy type filter that is at least 15% the volume of the pond and filled with media and loads of hyacynth and sweetpotato vine. The pump (in preperation for when I can expand the pond) is well oversized. I built a venturi in the infeed to the skippy and even with the decresed efficiency, I estimate that it turns to pond over 7 times an hour. That should be plenty of filtration. I retested the water and it appears in my anxiety I mis-read the test. NitRATE is barely registering and nitRITE is zero.

I don't feel like this is a water quality problem, but don't want to treat the entire pond unless I have a good idea of what to use (especially since I don't know exactly what the volume is.)

I would love to hear any thoughts.

Bryan

[miguynmkoi]

Sorry for your problem.  Don't think I can help much.  I overstock and I know it's a no-no but I do like you and filter like there's no tamale.  It really sounds like you may have or had a sick fish that is spreading a disease or something in your pond.  If this is the case do not add more fish to your collection and hope the remaining fish get over the illness.  You may need to look at the other websites mentioned above by Marla and get some medication going.  Or, and this sounds nasty/mean, but when you replace this pond with the future bigger pond, get all new fish in a cleaned environment.  By Spring it may be the survival of the fittest.

I only know what's happening in my pond and use a bit of common sense but it's worked over the past 8 years or so of ponding. 

[lorraine1960]

I can't help but i'm real sorry about your fish.....    :'( :'( :'( :'(   lorraine

[Pa Nancy]

Brian sorry you are having so many problems. It does sound like you have a parasite going on. Have you added and new fish or plants this summer?  Do birds get into your water? They are BIG carriers of disease.

This site is a great site. Please don't take this wrong guys,but this forum is more for watergardening. For answers to your fish health problems you might want to try www.koishack.com   There are people there that are trained in fish diseases, and will help you out. I'm not sure that koivet site works anymore. I had a problem a couple weeks ago and it was down. Coincidence I don't know? But please continue to visit this site they are a great bunch of ponders. 

[Bearb]

Thanks all! Sorry I have not been back to update. The two fish are still alive but not as active as the others, they do seem to swim about when it is sunny. I see this as good news since the fish that died earlier this year, only lived about 2 days once they started acting like this. I am wondering if some of the others were eaten, since I never saw any bodies. . .

All of the fish came in at the same time, or are offspring of those fish, but any imaginable creature visits the pond. What ever parasite this is, is surely ubiquitous. With that in mind, I think I need to focus on keeping stress down. If this is the same "bug" that caused problems in late May, I have to assume that all of the fish have it and succumb when their resistance is compromised. If it is something else, I will never be able to stop the relentless invaders.

Thanks to all for the advice, condolences and links. I think we are headed in the right direction. Hopefully I can get them healthy before winter. . .