A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Water Gardens HELP - dead fish!!!

Some of you know that I got a pound of free fathead minnows from the county health department about 2 weeks ago. Everything was fine with them, saw them swimming around, until Don turned on the pump and skimmer in the pond last Thursday. At first there were only a couple of dead fish every day or so, but today, when he turned off the pumps again to find out where the leak was coming from, there were 18 dead fish!!! And they all had their stomach missing!!!

We took some out of the pond to be able to post pictures -
Someone... PLEASE tell me what is doing this???

I have no idea, Lynne. I have never seen anything like it. That is so odd. I'm wondering about moving parts of the pump/skimmer?

that's terrible, you think something might have ate that part and not the rest of the fish, racoon maybe

These fish are only between 1-3 inches, so I think a racoon would eat the whole thing, you know?

Tina - my inclination is something to do with the skimmer too, but what would do that???

I just showed Mark and he's as stumped as I am.

He said a Raccoon would absolutely eat the whole fish......as would most animals....leaving the pond pump/skimmer, but then why would it not get a tail on a few, or a head...not just the stomach.

I wonder if it could be something to do with a bacterial disease somehow or something like that. I couldn't find any information anywhere on google about something like this.

That makes me so sad for you and those fish. Mine are honestly my pets and I'd be crying if I found that.

I wouldn't put your koi in there until you figure it out....maybe you should get a few cheapo goldfish from Walmart and see if they make it in there.

Do you have a water testing kit Lynne to check ammonia levels and such?

I just can't get over those fish, and the fact that it was their stomachs like that. It's so strange.

Thanks loz - I know you feel the same about your fish as I do!

I am going to call the county health dept. number tomorrow - the one where I ordered the fish and see if they can help me.

Don was also thinking maybe a bacteria - it's just so bazaare how the entire stomach is gone, you know?

I would say that the fish were already dead went there stomachs were eaten. The first thing eaten is the soft tissue there. Do you have snails in the pond? Other fish will also eat this part first. Just a guess as this happins in my tanks as well. Sorry for your loss hope you figure it out.

looks like something ate them to me...do you have other fish in the pond?

Looks like other fish were nibbling those fish.Minnows are baitfish;other fish eat them so they are used as fishing bait.

No other fish, no snails, no nothing! They were the first things to go into the pond, other than a couple of frogs that I saw last summer but haven't returned yet.

It's so strange to me....I mean I have huge goldfish in my pond, and tons and tons of mosquito fish---some as big as 3 inches long, and I've NEVER ever had any of them die with just the stomach being eaten out like that. Ever.

It's such a weird mystery to me.......

I know, loz - can't wait til we solve this mystery.
If we don't get an answer tomorrow, then we are going to stop at the ponding store in NJ on Wednesday, on the way home from a dr's appointment - we will take the pictures with us and hopefully someone there will know!

Lynne--I just remembered something. My tropical fish would eat each other, (stomach) and the would nip nip away until the fish being attacvked would finally die---i could be your fish were eating each other.---I finally had to stop mixing certain fish---could it be that your fish ARE eating each other?// are their any left?? can you put them in a small tank or aquarium?? (by themselves??)---to do an experiment of sorts?

Good ideas, Carol - I didn't see any live ones today, and they are all the same type, so would they eat their own kind? Tis a puzzlement!

sorry for your losses!!

kind of a silly question...were you feeding them? if you weren't then they would eat each other...and the stomach would be the spot.

Now that is a good question.

It's like even though I have mosquito fish that eat larvae, etc....I do supplement then at feeding time with flake food. Especially at this time of year when there aren't a lot of bugs out......

Not a silly question, Joclyn - I was not feeding them - I was told we didn't have to, that they would find enough bugs, and larvae, etc in the water? That was the whole purpose of getting them in the first place - the county is trying to control the mosquito population. I hope that isn't the problem - I don't even know if there are any survivors - I can't see into the pond these days!

Lynne, were you able to ask anyone about this today? It's still been going around in my head as to what could've happened.

Maybe we need a Fishigation, on the matter?
Sad ......I killed mine in 3 days. Betta.
I arent a fish farmer..

I am not a good beta farmer either, barb--it seems they are very touchy about their water temperature.--DD drove with it in her car counsol,in a cup for 9 hrs & kept it alive & I killed it in 3 hours by changing its water---

I didn't know--I would have let it set for 24 hours if I had of known they were so touchy.--I had had aquariums before this, I thouht I was being careful.

of course It could have been the IL water verses the Nebraska water too, i guess

We are going to the ponding store tomorrow with the same pictures - hopefully someone there will know what to tell us - wish us luck?!?

Gosh.. how very peculiar.. and sad. I am sorry about your fishies.. I know how I felt when the two of mine died. Keep us posted on what you find out!

Keep us updated Lynne, I'm dying to know what was said.

It's really got to me this topic--just because I love my fish and I'd just cr@p if I walked out and found that in my pond!

Well loz, I know how you feel!

The owner of the ponding store said it definitely looks like fish were eating them, and since there aren't any other fish in the pond yet, it looks like Joclyn was correct in that they must have been eating each other - YUCKIEPOO!!!

He also said that if you have comet goldfish in your pond, you don't need any other types of fish to eat mosquito larvae. And rolled his eyes when I told him about the county health dept.'s program of stocking the fathead minnows. Oh, well...

Wow.....

I always feed mine flake food each night even though they are supposed to eat mosquito larvae....especially in the spring because the mosquitos aren't out all that much yet to provide them food.

Do you have any left do you know?

i was going to ask you how much of the egg sac was gone on them. joclyn is right about them eating each other, and the younger ones with more of the yolk still on their bellies would be the first to be eaten.

that was what i thought when i saw the pictures. and, if you have partially eaten fish, then you have fish still alive in the pond. through a few gold fish flakes (not many) in and they'll come to the top so you can see them.

i'd have been upset too.

Mom said that to me this afternoon when I showed her this topic....she said, if they were eaten then there is at least one big fat fish somewhere in that pond.

loz - there cannot be a big fish in there - I never put any in, and it's not connected to any other waterway you know?

Jiffy - I did feed them flake food 2 days ago, but when I came home it was all still on the surface - the pond has the green algae now so I cannot even see if there are any live fish left right now!

Oh I meant a big fat fat head minnow! The one that ate them all. Or do you think they all nibbled at each other until they all died?

Yeah - I think they were all eating on each other pretty much - it's very sad, but you know... when I got the fish there were many dead ones in the bag when I got home, so I don't even know how healthy there were to begin with. Much as I hate for any animal to suffer, it's a good thing they were free, or I'd be more upset right now!

Don bought some stuff at the pond store to help get rid of the algae burst, and also worked on the waterfall yesterday when we got home - as soon as he gets it up and running finally, I'm going to test it out with the feeder goldfish that I have before putting my 2 koi babies in there! I cannot believe how much more expensive the koi babies are at the pond store compared to buying them at PetSmart!!!

Maybe small frogs? I know our frogs grab the minnows as they swim by. It does seem odd that the entire stomach is gone though, and nothing else.

Sharon