Hey Pam. You will get better results for this type of question if you post it on the Discussions side of this forum. We usually chatter about anything and everything except the pond on Conversations. I will try to get you started though. There are a lot of things that could have gone wrong and you really don't give us enough info to make even a wild guess. How old is the pond? How big is the pond? Did it freeze over this winter? Did you have an air bubbler going through the winter if you had ice? Did you have a hole in the ice? How many fish do you have in the pond? What kind of filter do you have? Do you have rocks on the bottom? Do you have a waterfall? Do you test your water? What kind of fish are they? How big is big for the fish? Is your pond close to a road? Was your pond cleaned out at the end of the season? Older ponds are usually more stable than new ponds. The dimensions are important. Most pond fish need a depth of 3 feet at least in some part of the pond. A pond that freezes over needs different care through the winter than a pond that doesn't freeze. Too many fish in the water makes less oxygen available. Big fish are affected before smaller fish. Bubblers provide oxygen to the water especially under an ice cover. A hole in the ice allows bad gases to escape. Filtration is important. Debris, gunk and fish excretement in the water creates poisonous gases that can kill your fish. Rocks that cover the bottom trap debris and excretement that rots and creates poisonous gases, in the opinion of many posters on this forum. While a bio filter stops working at lower temperatures a mechanical filter will continue to remove debris and provide at least some oxygen. A waterfall will add some oxygen if it splashes. Testing the water for nitrates, nitrites, ammonia and PH tells you if the water is unhealthy. A bad reading on any of these warns that your fish may be in trouble. Comets and Gold fish are often more hardy than Koi. Comet hybrids like Sarassas are less hardy than plain Comets. Plain white comets seem to be less hardy. Long finned fancy comets seem to be less hardy. I have a fair selection of fish sizes. Most of my comets seem to stop growing at 8 to 10 inches except for the fancy long finned one which will grow to 12 inches. Koi get much larger. I have one that is about 15 inches and they can grow to 2 feet long. Salt for road use is not the same as the salt we sometimes add to the pond water. Getting the pond clean before the weather gets bad is important maintenance. The possibilities for the frogs demise cover a lot of territory, too. It is possible that it was just its time to die. That is a possibility for the fish, too. I keep thinking of other possibilities, too. What can you add?

Hi Have heard that the state is using some type of bacteria to combat WH since it's sooo invasive.. From what I gather it's spread by contact and is not airborne . Have noted a sharp decline in nearby canals where i got the original stock. Actually it's against the law to culture it in fllorida so i guess i'd better not complain?? lol Whatever the cause it's affected only WH . Have always found it the most effective plant for filtration and makes a great mulch for terrestrials lol. There are many alternatives BUT many of them are also "Noxious weeds" lol Think I'll do without the "floaters for awhile to see what happens . My lone tropical water llily has covered the entire surface anyway Thanks gary

I do understand your question! your taddies and mosquito fish came in from the pond right? the pond with the muck in the bottom for the turtles? Muck and fish don't mix. The taddies and mosquito fish probably brought in parasites that came from the muck. the goldies from the pet shop were stressed from the move to the pet shop to your aquarium, so the parasites that the skeeter fish and taddies were carrying attacked them. The real problem gets back to the pond. there is no reason that you could not overwinter goldies in a healthy pond. Overwinter the turtles inside, but leave the goldies outside in a CLEAN pond and they will be just fine. You say your pond is in perfect shape...but you also say that when you stir up the muck on the bottom that fish die. That is not a sign of a pond in perfect shape, but rather a pond that has a serious problem going on. If your aquarium water quality check outs, then it is almost certain that parasites from the pond are killing the new goldies. Does that make sense?

Squirrel-- I think the test sets you are refering to are the old pH dip-strips with the pH up and down additives. You are correct they where crap. Battleing pH with those powders was temporary, especially trying to bring high pH down. Just monitoring ammonia and nitrite is important because it can be found in tap water. Some water treatment facilities even add them in their efforts to make drinking water "safe". As far as fishkeeping not science, I find it more a science hobby now than ever. I had the same opinion as you when I lived in a different part of the state, never a problem and never tested. When I moved I couldnt keep from killing a fish within 2 weeks. The well water I have now was a little different to say the least. I purchased a test set and found my cycle would stall. For whatever reason my ammonia would spike and stay, never lowering. I tried every useless product the petstores would reccomend, nothing. I read books and magazines, the books where a little out-dated and the magazines offered newer info, but not as quickly as I needed it. Most research from then started with a search on the net. I just lurked on boards,and still do,and found consistancies with advise from different ones. Anyway within 2 weeks of good advise my aquarium cycled and have started several others. I am still learning, and find I learn alot by trying to answer questions. So in my case and more often than not, fishkeeping is a science- ecology, biology, and mostly chemistry, not to mention botany. For years I thought was just an art, but chemistry taught me otherwise