Koi in Bottom Drain

[BonnieIN]

Yesterday was in the mid 70's so why not get the pond going! :-)
DH opened the valve to the BD and there came one of my koi. I hadn't noticed it for 2 days but thought it might be hiding in the string algae. :mad:

Unfortunately the water smelled of sewer and the koi was dead!

Do you have any ideas what I can do to prevent this from happening again?

This koi wasn't a baby... it was approx. 12 inches long.

Thanks,
Bonnie

[OttawaPonder]

Yesterday was in the mid 70's so why not get the pond going! :-)
DH opened the valve to the BD and there came one of my koi. I hadn't noticed it for 2 days but thought it might be hiding in the string algae. :mad:

Unfortunately the water smelled of sewer and the koi was dead!

Do you have any ideas what I can do to prevent this from happening again?

This koi wasn't a baby... it was approx. 12 inches long.

Thanks,
Bonnie

Bonnie srry to hear the news.
Sounds like to me that you have the cover/dome to high off the pond floor.
It should only be high enough to allow leaves and such to pass through.

Hope you get it worked out. Best of luck HUGS for your loss

[Jackie Ramo]

Bonnie, I am sorry to hear about your fish. 12 inches seems very large to go through a bottom drain. I don't have one myself so will refrain from talking about how to fix it.

Ian posted in another thread, about the bottom drain water smelling like a sewer at startup.

[Terri]

Bonnie, OttawaPonder asked the right question - what is the clearance of your drain cover? Ideally it should be no more than 1 1/2".

Another question.. did you have a pump or airstone in the pond through winter for some water circulation? I would assume(and I shouldn't but I will anyways) that the the water in the drain line would have sat quite stagnant along with anything else in there over winter... hence the smell, the fish wasn't there long enough to cause that smell.

I can attest to that smell Ian spoke of... made my eyes water!

[Terri]

p.s. meant to add - I'm sorry about your koi :(

[BonnieIN]

Yes I'm sure that the smell was not the fish - but stagnant water and that's why the koi died.
This was a butterfly koi (can I say that on this forum :wink: ) so it was fairly slender. Slender enough to get under and thru the drain into the river of stench below. :-x

Our BD's are DIY and I'll have to measure how far the bowls sit off of the bottom of the pond. I told DH yesterday that we might have them to high, I'd say they might be approx. 2 inches if that. Apparently just enough for one of the koi to squeeze thru.

I assume that lowering will help prevent this from ever happening again. Also should help the draw too, ya think?

Thanks much,
Bonnie

[Jackie Ramo]

Fish can get into the darndest places... Who gets to dive in and measure the BD's :frisbee: