I will do a search for the medicated fish food as well as see about getting a small tub to try treating the fish. Last night I trimmed the parrot feather back at one end of the pond which will make it easier to try netting the injured fish. It will also make it easier to inspect the rest of the fish for injuries while I feed them. There is a crate which has a bunch of round holes of varying size that's in the bottom of the pond holding up a waterlily pot and a large concrete paver. The crate and paver are also there to give the fish somewhere to hide if a predator goes after them. I hadn't thought about the fish injuring itself on that. At this time of the year that crate is nearly impossible to get at due to all the waterlilies and parrot feather in the pond. Thank you for the advice! Between this and the book I bought last night, Koi For Dummies, I will hopefully be able to get through this without accidently killing any of the fish or screwing up the pond! Will vacuming up the muck at the bottom of the pond mess up the biological balance of the pond? Kara

Ok, that makes sense. I forgot that every time it turns back on it would continue pumping. duh. The bottom drain is an Aqua Art retro fit bottom drain with 3" opening. It is connected to a black flexible tubing that is really hard (almost w/ a metal coil in it?). It is reduced from 3" to 2" and then runs back to the pump. I had a Sequence pump but that thing sucked (not literally, unfortunately). I had to have it repaired 2x and it was NOT cheap to begin with! It lasted 2 yrs. BOOOO. When it last gave up the ghost, it was 1.5 months ago. I found a hayward 1.5 HP super pump on craiglist for $150. The pond was w/o a functioning BD for about a month. Here is where it all goes downhill. lol So the previous pump was connected to the hose in from the BD and hose out to the bead filter by the black hoses that were connected with a black screw-on style of fitting. They simply did NOT come off, no matter what. The new pump had smaller openings and so the old fittings wouldn't work. We had to cut off the "screw" ends and use compression fittings instead (the black squishy sleeves w/ two metal bands that you screw to tighten). The first day that we turned the pump on and were messing w/ it, the same top fitting popped off b/c it wasn't seated properly (the hose hit me in the head, almost knocked me out from the pressure...lol...bruise on my forehead for 2 wks!). Because of that, I was paranoid and was actually shutting it off at night...just in case something went wrong. (I know, this is a long story lol) Saturday during the day, we saw that the pump was emptying faster than the water could come into the basket and we realized the BD was partially clogged and decided to get in the pond and get it freed up. DH jumped in and pulled it up...cleared it out and then set it up on two large pieces of flagstone so it wasn't directly on the bottom of the pond. (Note: had he not done this, when the disaster happened, it would've drained the ENTIRE pond. Truly a lifesaving decision for the fish that lived in the remaining 6" of water b/c of that flagstone!) Anyhoo, everything was riproaring along at 100mph again and I was checking the basket frequently...not much there. That night was the ONE night I didn't unplug it overnight...I forgot. Small debris plugged up the basket, increasing the pull of the pump, which started moving around the hose on the top of the pump. It was moving enough to pull the compression fitting off and it popped the hose off. The water simply geysered out of the top of the pump until the pond was almost completely empty. SOOOOO...way more than you asked but I have known you long enough to know that you like a clear picture, MIke! LOL I"m hoping that makes the error of my ways clear enough! At this time I am only running the BD during the day and am trying to find screw-on fittings to replace the existing compression fittings. Additionally, I have bungee'd the BD to a crate so it is a foot off the floor of the pond. I have also been partaking of some retail therapy and have a little mass of baby koi in the pond right now. They just came up and started eating food this morning and I literally screamed with delight LOL! I'm not sure how these water bobbermcthingie's work but I *think* the external pump is close enough that if it truly does have a 20' cord, I can put it in the body of the pond and run the cord back to where the pump is. Need to get to the store today and get one to rig it!

They're both battery operated, right? I'm sorry - I have no experience with automatic feeders - so can't really recommend one over the other. If you wind up just having a human do the feeding, perhaps just request an every other day - or even every third day feeding. Fish would be fine without a couple of days of feeding. Last time I went away, my friends who were taking care of things offered to come twice a day to feed. But I knew that wouldn't be necessary - I was afraid of my fish being overfed as well. Plus I premeasured out the tanks daily feeding - especially since all my tanks are different sizes and have different fish populations. I just used small snack sized zip bags, measured out the daily portion and instructed my friends to feed ONLY that measured amount ONCE a day. That prevented any overfeeding of the fish.

Hi Mark, Pond is approx 7000 litres with a titan 5500 pump ecomax 9000 filter with uv.The filter was running for the recommended time before the uv was turned on, also plenty of oxygenators,marginals and water lilies then the six shubunkins were put in after three months. Water quality according to the tests i have taken look good,ammonia 0,nitrate 0,nitrite 0,GH 15,KH 6-10,PH 7.6 and these results have not varied in months. The filter pump and fountain are on permanently. The first baby fish that died had no visible external wounds or ulcers but they did sit on the bottom of pond slightly tilted to one side and when i tried to net them they would swim away rapidly.