So your pond looks great, your fish seem happy and healthy and all is well in the world – until it isn’t. It can be devastating waking up one morning to discover that you’ve had a mass fish mortality overnight but with the amount of factors that can cause die offs in such a delicate ecosystem, it’s unfortunately a more common experience than you might think. That’s why it’s so important to take proper care of your pond. Below you’ll find three of the most common causes of fish death and how to avoid them:
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Ammonia Issues
Most types of waste will let off ammonia which is highly toxic to your fish. Small amounts are far from ideal but are generally compensated for by your aquatic ecosystem if fixed quickly enough. If unnoticed or ignored however. your ammonia levels will rise over time and eventually become lethal to your little swimming friends. You can avoid this by ensuring that you have a healthy nitrification cycle within your pond. You can read more about this on our blog but the short explanation is that nitrifying bacteria consume ammonia and push it through the cycle, this detoxifies your water and breaks the nasty chemical down into compounds that can be expelled from, or dealt with by, your aquatic ecosystem.
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Lack of Oxygen
If you often wake up to your fish at the surface of your pond seemingly hungry, your issue could actually be a lack of dissolved oxygen in your water. Like all living beings, fish need adequate oxygen to survive and thrive, they just get their fill from their aquatic surroundings rather than by actually breathing air. The best way to avoid suffocating your fishy friends is to install a quality aeration system and ensure that your pond has constantly surface disruption in order to prevent stagnation.
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Unsustainable Bio-Load
It’s also possible that you may just have too many fish and other living organisms in your pond. Plants and fish both draw nutrients from your pond water in order to survive but they also expel waste. If you cannot maintain a balance between the nutrients that your pond inhabitants need and the less helpful ones that they excrete, then you may have an unsustainable bio-load. This will lead to the ecosystem purging itself until it can reach comfortable parameters which, unfortunately, generally leads to your fishy friends dying off first. Upgrading your biological filtration can help your pond sort itself out, as can biological augmentation, but sometimes you just need to accept that your pond needs a lower population in order to stay happy.
If you’re having any issues with your pond, feel free to contact us on 1300 005 670 or through the contact page of our website. We love your pond and want it to be at its best and our friendly team of experts can tailor a solution for almost any situation.