Urgent Care :: Advice Needed for my RES ASAP Please!!

[together28]

I bought a MuckVac Pond Vac and used it for the first time today. My pond is small (about 3 ft. wide x 5 ft. long x 5 inches deep. There was a lot of debris on the bottom of the pond and it was all black in color. You couldn't even see the aqua colored bottom.

Anyway, I am inexperienced at all of this and thought how nice it would be for my little 2 inch RES, Bubba, to have a clean pond. I placed him in a bucket with pond water and anacharis while I cleaned. I bought 10 small goldfish two weeks ago to eat bugs. While I was sucking up the muck, I was adding fresh water back in. I probably replaced 3/4 of the old water with new water. I cleaned it spotless.

The fish were fine at first and about 15 minutes later they started acting strange and now they are all dead. I feel so guilty for killing them and my husband got mad at me because he said the water was probably too cold and I shouldn't have removed ALL of the muck. I just didn't realize and wish he would have said something earlier.

Bubba has been back in the pond now for about an hour and he seems to be doing fine but I'm SO afraid that this will hurt him in some way. Is he going to get sick or should I take him out? I'm in New Orleans and it's been in the 90's lately. The water coming out of the hose is cool but it's not really cold. I would just die if something happened to Bubba just because I was trying to clean his pond for him. I don't want to harm him in any way. I really love this little turtle!

Please let me know if I should do something right away for him. I'm very worried that this will hurt him in some way.

Thanks,
Debra

[together28]

I just added 3 buckets of warm water to the pond to try to make it a little bit warmer without making too drastic of a change, just in case the water temp was a little cool.

[geekyturtle]

Sorry to hear about the goldfish

Get a thermometer for the next time you clean to keep an eye on the water temp.

Also, if you were putting in tap water, it probably has chlorine in it, which isn't good for fish and turtles. Either get a water test kit, or take some of it in to the local pet store to have it tested. You can buy all kinds of different products to fix the water.

In the future, try to do 50% water changes more often than one big clean to keep the pond in better shape. That keeps the good bacteria and stuff in the water and won't be such a shock to the aquatic life.

[together28]

My husband just read that Lowes has a product called "Pond Start" and they recommend using it everytime tap water is added to a pond with fish so I'm hoping it applies to turtles as well. I am going to go out to Lowes right now and get some and I'm hoping they will also sell a water test kit.

I will know better what not to do for next time, but I'm still concerned about Bubba right now. It's been two hours and he still seems to be fine. I think he's a little scared with all of the commotion of adding the warm water.

[geekyturtle]

He'll probably be fine, turtles are usually tougher than fish when it comes to water quality. Maybe go get some more cheap fish to put in there and see if they survive now that the water has probably warmed up a bit.

[together28]

I just went to Lowes and they didn't have the Pond Start so I bought a Chlorine Remover - that is supposed to remove the chlorine right away and it's safe for fish. I also bought a pond thermometer and a pond water test strips.

If you know of anything else that I should be doing, please let me know.

Thanks again!

[geekyturtle]

Check out the outdoor forum on here and see what others have done. It might give you some ideas for neat projects to upgrade your pond. And they might have more ideas if you put up some pictures too.

[together28]

The temperature in the pond was 82 degrees a couple of hours ago. The water strip tested high in alkalines, nitrates, and Ph level. I'm not sure how to balance that out.

We did add the chlorine remover so hopefully that works fast and will make the water safer for Bubba. He seemed to be doing okay but I'm going to check on him again in a minute.

This may be a stupid question considering that I spent hours today cleaning out all the muck and yuck, but do you thnk it would be helpful to add a little bit of yard dirt to the pond? Maybe it would provide some kind of nutrient or help balance something out.

[steve]

You could skip that, and I agree that it was probably chlorine that killed the fish. Just make sure your dechlorinator/water conditioner is aquarium safe.