Water Gardening: I am in MOURNING!!!! Lost 21 kois!!, 0 by weidner

weidner wrote:
RE: dead Koi
My pond is 10 ft x 15 ft. Deepest part is 2'6" --- which is kinda shallow, I know.
The koi / goldfish population is/was 27 (until the herons hit last spring!
This summer, the air temp here in So. Jersey (near Phila) peaked at 104 degrees.
The only Koi that I lost was 24" long and weighed 14 lbs at the beginning of summer.
We called him Brutus. I had been offered $5,000 for him in early spring, and then I found him floating belly-up in August. The only change was in the diet: I ran out of Tetra pellets and, following advice of some other Koi people, I fed the pond a few handsful of Cheerios. The next day he was a bit sluggish. Day 2 he was bloated. Day 3 he was dead. None of the other fish were affected.
By the way: In response to those who lost fish when the electric went off and the pump died: with all our 20+ fish, without any plants or lilies, in spite of the shallow pond (2'6"), in spite of the high daily temperatures, we have never before lost fish except now --- AND we do not keep the pond aerated and have only one small 250 gph pump that circulates the water.(it used to be the bilge pump in our boat)