Wow, I'm really curious about this. Do the fish swim normally at times, or do they hang like that all the time? Are they still eating? Is anything out of the ordinary happening in the pond? Are the fish hiding from something?

I have never had this problem so do not really know how to help you. I have a book "Fancy Goldfish" a complete guide to care and collecting. Written by Dr. Erik L. Johnson and Richard E. Hess. It is an excellant book. I looked up your problem and the nearest thing I could find was "If fish are head down tail at surface" It doesn't tell about staying on bottom with tails up. But it say's that this a symptom of bacterial infection or it could be an early sign of flipover desease. "this doesn't sound like beginning of flipover because there is more that one, doing the same thing." The solution according to them is: Check your water and make sure you check for nitrates. If the readings are normal, you should treat with injections as for a bacterial infecton. "I would use TriCide Neo Dip, it's supposed to be as good as injections." The article also say's You might lose the fish within a week to 10 days if a bacterial infection is the cause. Other exposed fish will die later if you don't eliminate any paracites (which probably precipitated the infection) and bacterial invasion of the fish. Don't know if this will help or not. But that is not normal behavior and I believe you can rule out "copycat behavior" Glenda

Just checked my water parameters. Ammonia is very high!! This is a new pond as I just had to put a liner into my cracked preform. Doing a partial water change immediately!!

sdk822..Please give us an update on your fishes condition since you did the water change. Hope they have recovered or at least are swimming more normal. Glenda

All my fish seem a bit more active today. There is still one laying around on the bottom and one on its nose on the plant shelf. I did another water change today. How often should I do water changes until it cycles? I've had this pond set up for almost 2 weeks now.

Until your water cycles, you may want to add Ammo-lock or a similar product to help detoxify the ammonia. If you're feeding, cut way back on the food and make sure none of it falls to the bottom. Also, clean out any leaves or other plant debris. Keep monintoring the ammonia and do water changes if it goes up again.

I did yet another water change and added an ammonia binder yesterday. The ammonia is still high today. How long does it take for these products to work? I did another water change tonight. I even bought a new ammonia test kit thinking that maybe my 4-yr old kit was bad, but it still reads in the 4.0+ ppm.

If you're using something like Ammo-Lock it will not remove the ammonia, only detoxify it while you address the problem. Ammo-chips will absorb the ammonia, but we still need to find out why it's so high. You may also need to add some pond start-up bacteria.

This is an indoor pond? Do you know how many gallons? How large are your fish? What kind of filtration do you have?

This is an indoor 90 gal. pond. I have 7 shubunkins that range from 5-12" (not including their long fancy tails). I've been using the same filtration system for the past almost 5 years. It's the "Adam's filter" homemade box from the instructions on this site. (pump surrounded by lava rocks, quilt batting, etc.) I've had this same trouble each time I start up a pond, but never this bad or this long. And I used the dissolving fizzy tablets for my ammonia. But my fish do seem more active and don't seem bothered. None are gasping at the surface. They're actually playing follow-the-leader through a bubble disk I put in. They love bubbles. The one that still stands on his nose has been doing that for quite a long time, even before I put this new liner in. I'll check the water again later today.

I was hoping some of the more experienced ponders would jump in here with some options for you, but it seems winter is a bad time to ask for advice.

I have had my pond only for a year and have never had an ammonia spike. I have had aquariums for more than thirty years, though, and I have had ammonia problems with that.

What I do in the aquarium is increase the oxygen levels by adding an airstone, full blast. And if I was you, I would seed your biological filter with more bacteria. Then, basically, I think you'll just have to wait until the bacteria take hold. Keep using the ammonia binder if necessary to protect the fish. Don't feed for a couple of days, no matter how much they beg. Not easy, I know, but as long as they're eating, they're producing waste than your bio filter can't keep up with. Hopefully, within a few days, you'll start seeing the ammonia levels start to drop.

Thanks, nancym, I did add another bubble disk a few days ago. I just added some Cycle a few minutes ago. My daily water changes didn't seem to be doing any good. I've only been feeding them some peas once a day and there's no live plants in there to decay. So I guess for now I'm just going to have to wait and see if the Cycle helps to balance it.

I've never heard of "Cycle", but I'm assuming it's pond bacteria.

I remember once I had a terrible time with ammonia in the aquarium and was doing water changes every couple of days. I finally spoke to an aquarium specialist, who told me I was probably obliterating my bio filter with too many water changes. It's sort of a catch-22 -- the water changes dilute the ammonia to help the fish, but too much can harm the bio filter. So, he recommended adding the bacteria and just waiting it out. Once the bacteria take hold, they will clean out the ammonia.

sdk... If you have any neighbors with ponds, you could get a couple of gallons of their pond water to add to yours, if they are having no issues with their ponds. In the future if you have to drain your pond for a new liner or whatever reason; save some of the water to add back to your newly refilled pond. Glenda

Unfortunately, I have only one neighbor with a pond and it's totally frozen right now. And I had saved some of my previous pond water, but I guess it wasn't enough. I'm just waiting out for the bio filter now. Keeping my fingers crossed.

"I did yet another water change and added an ammonia binder yesterday. The ammonia is still high today."

You need to continue to use AmmoLoc but don't expect normal ammonia readings to return while using it. It will continue to show high ammonia readings because the ammonia is locked, not gone. Because of this your readings for ammonia are meaningless so don't keep changing your water to lower the ammonia. Your problem IMO is no beneficial bacteria has been established yet and new water doesn't contain it.

It seems you have new tank syndrome. Lots of fish in new water.

Feed only lightly with commercial goldfish food if any of the fish are eating, add some MicrobeLift PL to the water and don't do any water changes for two weeks, then do very small changes only (10% of water volume) twice a month. Throw in some plants like anacharis, keep filtering but don't rinse out the filter medium right now at all, but when you tank settles down (say 30 days), only rinse with treated water to save the bacteria, use several airstones to keep the water moving.

You have a high number of large fish for even a seasoned tank and your gallonage is low for goldfish that big in the long term IMO. You can pull it off with an excellent filtration system that has both mechanical and biological filtering capabilities, and high turn-over of water. Goldfish have high oxygen requirements.

Good luck - I hope it all works out for you and your fish.

sdk.. If the other fish are still swimming normally, but the one is still on it's nose. You could try giving it a salt bath. 1 Tbsp. of non-iodized salt per gallon water same temperature as pond water. Put it in the salt bath for about 1 minute and then return it to the pond. I had one laying on the bottom of the pond once and after I gave it a salt bath, it was ok. Glenda

I just did some more reading on nitrifying bacteria. It stated that this bacteria begins to grow when the water is 62 degrees. Tested my water and it's only around 59-60. Could this be one of my problems?

Sure could. Do you have a way of bringing the water temperatures up to at least 65? Since you only have 90 gallons, an aquarium heater might bring it up enough to get the bacteria active again.

Sdk822,
The temp that you have will slow down how fast the bacterial grows but won't stop it. The ammonia should start coming down about now as it has been about 3 weeks. I setup five vats and I am cycling them right now. I brought the ammonia up to 5 ppm about 3 weeks ago and a week ago I added another 5 ppm. These vats are at a 58 degree temp. I would be more concerned with nitrite as the ammonia binding will handle the ammonia but not the nitrite. To handle that add some salt. It will take about 6 weeks before the tank cycles.
As far as the fish standing on it's nose is this just after the fish eat?
Mike

No, Mike, the fish is on his nose anytime he's still. He does swim normal but most of the time he's still and on his nose. I gave him a salt bath today. How soon would I notice any change if that works and how often should I do that? I also noticed a smaller fish that's been on the bottom quite a lot. I gave him a salt bath too. When I put him back, he went right back to his bottom hiding place.

Just found this on KoiVet.com

http://www.koivet.com/html/glossary/glossary_details.php?glossary_id=38&category=Symptoms
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Head down, tail near surface is a sign of bacterial infection,usually in the gills. Likely to lose fish in week to 10 days.
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But I would estimate that my fish has been doing this for several months. I thought it was a swim bladder or constipation problem. What can I give my shubunkins if it IS a bacterial infection?