A few fish have died since I made the pond. What I do is bring them from the aquarist and leave in the pond as soon as I reach home. They pack in polyethylene covers, fill it with oxygen and secure it with a rubber band. Is this correct? Should they be allowed to acclamatize with the water temperatures? Some have died within a couple of days. Fearing contamination of water (river water, supplied after filtering and very mild chlorination) I changed the water and removed silt. The catfish keeps disturbing the bottom so that water remains unclear. I kept clearing the dirty water from end while fresh inflow was kept from the opposite end. The fish seems to be happy now. I don't use a pump. My water lily leaves are too young to create a shade to the water. It is in full afternoon sun adn that might have hastened algae growth.
Fish deaths in pond
A stressed fish is more likely to get sick, so factors like aclimating the fish to a new water temperature and/or water chemistry can important. Catfish can be agressive towards other fish, too, and perhaps it has harassed your new goldfish.
But many factors can contribute...the pond water's chemistry, whether there are enough oxygen-producing elements (plants or something breaking the surface tension of the water and circulating it). The warmer water is, the less oxygen it has in it, too. Here's some more info from a site I'm always referring to when I have questions:
Water chemistry: http://www.fishpondinfo.com/chem.htm
Pond set-up: http://www.fishpondinfo.com/setup.htm
Hope that helps, Dinu.
Thanks Kim for those wonderful links. Very enlightening. In the meantime, I partially changed the water again. The bottom water is blakish. I don't know if all ponds begin like that. I removed more silt, that is continuously disturbed by the catfish there at the bottom. Should I remove these catfish? Or it is really helpful? I have discovered that when the water visibility reduces, the few weaker fish get slow in movement. I catch them and keep them away in better water. Reduced oxygen content may be the reason for this? The fish recover after a few hours or a day and then after replacing the water I put them back. They seem to be normal again. Is this natural? I have plants in water that I'm not able to identify. I have mentioned and tried to draw them in another thread in this forum. I don't have any goldfish. Mostly Barbs. The tiger barbs are too beautiful with their stripes, esp. when sunlight enters water and passes throught them. They usually move together. I have about 6.