I am not an expert because I don't do much myself and I only have comets. However, some people use a shop vac or similar to suck crud off the bottom. Others drain part or most of pond to be able to reach and grab or rake some crud after removing fish to a separate area. I have a stream as well as pond. After removing overgrown plants or whatever, it stirs up the bottom. Part of this suspended crud gets pumped to the stream where it gets caught in the great tangle of stream plant roots and other junk. I often pull some of this crud from the stream. My pond and stream are always clear except after one of these activities. vansanst, unfortunately, I don't think any of us really understand the direct cause of fish death. I suppose you m.ight be in the best position to give some advice. If you found a specific pond test to be severely out of normal range it might point you or us in the right direction to prevent future death. Or perhaps not. It seems to me that over the years, many of us have done things that others said could cause trouble without in fact creating that trouble. For example, I have disturbed long standing bottom crud; had my pond completely iced over an inch or more for a month; and left a pond completely undisturbed with no circulation for years at a time, all without problems.

midwest, you can tell if they are not getting enough. Slow growth rate is one sign....but that may not be such a bad thing for smaller ponds. When they are REALLY getting too little feed, you may notice the head seems larger in proportion to the rest of the fish. A healthy male koi body's will taper out a little from behind the skull, a female will taper out a lot. Healthy females are built just like a torpedo. In a fish that is starving, you will see the body dip in right behind the skull. I'll see if I can find some pictures on the web somewhere of what a starving fish looks like. But the big head is a pretty obvious sign.

all my goldfish died this winter due to very cold snap pond froze over Iused the hose to keep water flowing. this was tap water .It worked last year but not this year was it possibly the cholrine in the water .

Hi. Can you give me the dimensions of your pond? Length, width, depth. Approximate is fine. Koi CAN get up to 3 feet long if given everything they need. Both koi and goldfish breed worse than rabbits. So be prepared to find homes for babies. Ideally when adding new fish to a pond they should be kept in a quarantine tank/pond for at least 3o days before adding to your existing pond. BUT most people don't want to wait that long. Quarantining your new fish helps prevent bringing any parasites to the pond and possibly killing your existing fish and prevent you having to spend a bunch of money on meds to rid your fish of the parasites. Now for the fish in the bucket. I hope they are not still in that bucket now. If so I hope you have a filter and air for them. If you want to keep your fish healthy and happy please get a fresh water test kit and test your water. At minimum you will want tests for Ammonia, PH, Nitrites. There are other test available : KH , GH, Nitrates, salt, ....Those are basics. Ammonia should always be zero PH between 7-8 Nitrites 0 Sorry, I could ramble on all day about the world of ponds, koi & goldfish. If you have more questions just let me know.