Okay, so many of you have seen the pics of the pond that is outside my house. If you haven't, it's huge - like a few hundred feet long and around 70 - 100 feet wide at its widest spots. ANYWAY - we have thousands of goldfish, ghost koi, carp, bluegills, catfish, etc. in this pond. It's a natural pond and the fish are self-sufficient.

We have another small pond downstream from the big one that's really shallow and the runoff from the big one (from rains, etc.) helps keep the water going thru the small pond.

Recently we've had a streak of REALLY REALLY hot weather with no rain - like in the upper 90s for days and days on end with no rain in sight whatsoever. That smaller pond is drying up. Lots of the fish have already died from being in the hot stagnant water - some of these fish are beautiful carp that are 1 foot long, there are also goldfish and others in there too.

I would have done something about it before but I just learned about this today. Apparently the apartment complex office was already called by several people who were worried about these fish. They have no clue what to do about it so they chose to do NOTHING. These fish are dying very rapidly.

Someone give me advice on what to do here. I've thought about calling animal control and asking them to come save these fish by netting them out of the teeny pond and releasing them into the big pond a tad bit upstream. I've even thought about rollin up my own pantlegs, wading into the shallow pond and netting them myself.

I'm sort of distraught over this whole thing. It royally pisses me off that our office wouldn't even make an attempt to save these poor fish. If someone has any other ideas on how I can save some of them, I'd love to hear them. I need ideas soon, though - they don't have much time left :(

sounds like the quickest option is for you to get in there BM, who is actually responsible for the ponds / grounds etc. is there a caretaker maybe they should be doing something :?:

Naah - they're all a bunch of guys who have half a brain that run around here and do maintenance. NOBODY does anything with the ponds - they're full of garbage and junk. My son and I do more for cleaning out the junk in the ponds than anyone ever does. The fountain in the middle of the pond has been broken (or just shut off, not sure which) for days on end now. I can't even imagine what's going on in that pond under the surface.

I think maybe I'll give animal control a buzz tomorrow and see if they'd at least be able to help me out with nets and transport buckets or something after work.

I was laying out by the pool today and the people that live right near by that pond were telling me that they have called the office several times and asked them if they could do something and they basically said "What do you want us to do about it? We don't know what to do..."

So I guess I just might have to take matters into my own hands. UUGH.
What a bummer.

Hey-- I am in Michigan and we are officially in a "drought". We haven't had rain in over a month. Each house is only allowed to use ONE GALLON of water a day, because we depend on rain water, even though we have the great lakes.

So I guess it is a bigger problem than I thought.

Yeah I would do the same thing (calling another person in).

Well I just called animal control and they said they probably won't be able to do anything about it because it's on private property.

BUT there is some sort of law that states that property owners can't knowingly allow animals to die on their property. So I'm going to look into that a little bit more.

SH - that sucks! We arne't officially in a drought state, but I'm not sure why. All the corn is shrivelling up and dying, all the grass is burned and looks like straw - it's just a mess. Uugh.

if the owner knows about it and you speak up about it do you think he might get angry and just get rid of the pond?

Here's the latest update on this...

Vip, i had the same thought. That's why I decided not to get nasty with them. Instead, I just got on the phone and called around to a few places. Animal control and the humane society people are going to meet me there around noon today. I guess we're rolling up our pantlegs and going in after them. Anyone have any advice on how to safely and easily catch koi, carp, etc.?? EEK! I'm hoping that if they're really as in bad of shape as they say they are, they will be pretty lethargic and won't be too hard to catch.

One thing that was really cool is that the woman I talked to said that there is a person who is dedicated to saving fish from situations - in lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, etc. and at one point a golf course had decided they didn't want to deal with the over-running of the fish in their pond so they drained it - and while they were draining it, people that lived near the course saw what they were doing - and so they had a news crew come out and get the word out that there were all these fish that were going to die if they didn't try to save them somehow. She said that people came in by the carload with buckets and tupperware to save these fish and take them home to their own ponds.

There ARE good people out there in this world - i KNEW IT! :wub:

BTW - I am going to see if I can borrow the work camera to get some photos of this. I want this documented, and I'll share it with all of you.

dun dun dun lets get the betta bus ..well today it wont be used for bettas but lets get the betta bus anyway!

I can't believe that the owner is so empty-headed :S I would think it would be very logical to think fish need water, if they don't have water, get them in some. :?:
I could understand a bit, if there were HUNDREDS of fish in there, it would be hard to save them all, but if you took a couple trucks or something and some large tupperware stuffs and got some a few at a time, then put them in the big pond, at least some would be saved...more than what will be thanks to you!
I can't wait for pictures :D

I'm having the same weather as you, it sucks so bad...we did get a little rain last night, but it'll be gone by this afternoon. :S Doing chores really sucks right now...I'm suprised I didn't die in there last night. :P Cows are very down on milk, they never eat all or any of their feed...it's pretty depressing. Seems this weather gets worse each year. :unsure:

*sigh*

I met the animal rescue officer at the pond and we tried EVERY thing we could think of. She went and got waders - I tried climbing out on a tree limb - I took my socks and shoes off and started wading out. We both got stuck and had to come back.

You guys - this is an absolutely HORRIFIC scene. I drove up and saw this huge dried up hole with just a teeny tiny bit of nasty rancid green water left in it. And dead fish EVERYWHERE. I started counting - and stopped when I got to 62. I had to work really really hard not to cry. But then the officer showed up and we just went to work trying everything we could think of. You can see fish trying to get around in there and their back fins are sticking up out of the water. They kick up muck from the bottom of the pond when they try to move. They have to be literally cooking in there. The water was HOT.

I didn't take the camera with me at lunch but I AM going to take it home after work. The officer is also going to look into pressing SOME kind of charges against our complex, but she said she doubts they'll be able to do something about it because it's *JUST FISH*. She did roll her eyes when she said that because she agrees that it's completely stupid that fish aren't "not animals". Man, we were 2 feet away from some of these fish and couldn't get them. :(

I am going to try and figure something else out. I can't just leave them to dry up and die. I was thinking - I have this huge rubbermaid tub. Maybe i will go to the good pond and fill it up several times and take it down to the new pond and at least give them a few buckets of fresh water.

Maybe I'll go outside and do a rain dance.

ok these people suck they arent just fish!

I'm so sorry it didn't work out like you'd hoped :( I really hope you can make some sort of difference! Even with you're trying, you're doing more that a LOT of people would. Especially the people that own the pond...I know if I had a pond and it was drying out, I'd try to do something...It's a shame that some people just don't care about some things.

I'll see what I can do.

I'm seriously considering calling one of our friends - he's on the fire department - and seeing if he and the boys would consider bringing a firetruck over and lowering the ladder across.
I think I've heard that they've done that before for pond rescues. There's one girl who works with Animal Control who is a total fish freak. She's going to be in on the action tomorrow - so maybe she will consider that too.

I'll be back later - i have the camera to take home. I'm going to take pics of the whole mess, and post them for you all. It's very sad.

Maybe you can get the firetruck to pump some water into the pond. They should be able to pump it from the other pond if it isn't too far away. But right now it would even help to pump it from a fire hydrant or even a garden hose, just to give those fish some water. Might be able to help a few that way.

That is really terrible, next to bettas, Koi are amoung my favorite fish. ;_;

Hmm.
I might just be making an anonymous phone call to the fire department later. jay

Firemen are awesome - they would probably help out oodles.
Plus look at the awesome publicity it would get them.

Right now I have 2 plans - one, i'm going to tote a few rubbermaid totes full over from the big pond - I'll have to tote them like 50 yards but i'll do it.

Then I'm going to stomp right on over to the pool and *borrow* their big long pool net. And heaven help them if they try to stop me.

:bitchslap:

Wow.
I just got off the phone with the fire department. They're coming over!
I can't believe it.

I'm kinda stunned that they're coming. He said that they do things like this all the time, actually and that part of their responsibility is in taking care of the environment so this is classified as that.

Here are some pics really quick.


you can see footprints in this photo. Earlier this afternoon, our footprints went over to the edge of the water. That's how fast it's drying up:



*sigh* and just a few of the already dead ones...


When they're here I'm going to be taking pics - I'll post them up later.
I'm not sure what they'll do, but he did say they would do something.

I'll be back!

I'm so thrilled that you have help in this dilema! Those guys are wonderful...all deserve some hugs and chocolate chip cookies :D
Can't wait to hear how it goes.

bit hard to believe this is suburbia really, could try a pool cleaning net they extend a long way or a long piece of shade cloth with a person on each end and try to net them by walking either side of the pond hopefully scooping a few up in the process.

Aaaah I love those guys. And girls. :)

It's 10:30 and they just decided to quit pumping water from the big pond down into the smaller pond only cuz of the noise - people need to sleep I guess. They pumped about EDIT - 25,000 (I started doing some calculating after they left, and based on what I overheard - there's no way they moved 100,000 gallons. I estimate it was closer to 25,000, but either way it's awesome) gallons down there. It was so awesome - as soon as the water started pouring into the water the fish started swimming up toward the water.

Anyway, all the fish that were still alive should be doing well now, at least until tomorrow. They are coming back tomorrow, assuming we don't have a major rain downpour (Which we won't). The area that's got water in it now has at least tripled in size and the fish at least have some sort of depth to swim around in.

The coolest thing is that the chief was out here the whole time. VERY nice guy. When I got ready to leave for the night, he said to me "Thanks for caring. Thanks for calling us."

:)

Awesome job, Bettamomma! Those are some lucky fish!

BettaMomma you never cease to amaze me. You are so truly kind and wonderful. :wub: :urock: I have never known anyone with a heart as big as yours. Thank God for people like you. Those fishees will be thanking you for the rest of their lives :laugh: As for the management of your development :eatit: :dickhead: :dickhead: :dickhead:

WTG, BettaMomma! Glad to hear that your efforts paid off.

I got all choked up by what the chief said... very cool that he thanked you!

Glad it went so well! Those fish will be forever thankful to you :wub:
The Chief seems wonderful, being there the whole time and complimenting you...seems like a good guy.

Yeah, they totally suck (the apartment complex people).
The firemen were making fun of them last night. It was awesome!

Okay - so after I got to bed last night, I got to thinking about how much water they moved from big pond to little pond. There's no way that they could have moved 100,000 gallons based on what I overheard them say as far as water movement rates. I did some calculating of my own, and I figure they moved about 25,000 gallons.

So anyway - here's a view from the bridge at the end of the pond:
BEFORE:

AFTER:

I know you're probably thinking "What the heck - it doesn't look like there's much more water than before." But the size of the area of water at least tripled while they were putting water in. As soon as the water hit the pond the fish went nuts. They're coming back today to see if they can do more.

Here's more from the other end of the pond:
BEFORE:

AFTER:


I'll keep updating as the days go by :)

That's a great job! It looks to me that the small pond just isn't deep enough. Maybe it just looks that way in the pix, though? Mayb someone could mention that it may not happen (so bad, at least) again if the pond was dug out a little deeper. Of course that may not be possible, if there are lines buried. Wouldn't hurt to mention it though.
Either way it was great what all of you did!

No, you're right.
It's just not deep enough at all. I would say it's probably 4 feet deep max in the deepest place. They should dig it out but the fact that they're not even willing to make one phone call to get the fire dept or someone else to come out says to me that there's no way that they'll consider spending any money to dig it out. They are just idiots.

We've lived there for over 5 years, never once been late on our rent, never had ANY issues or problems with them - and I think I might just call them up and tell them that we're not going to renew our lease next year because of this whole fiasco with them doing NOTHING for these fish.

NOT to mention - if you see in those photos, there's a big ol' culvert-type thing sticking up in the middle of the pond. That's open, and it goes down several feet with lots and lots of yucky mud in it that a person could easily get trapped in, should they fall head first into that thing. It has been sitting out there in the open in the middle of the pond where anyone could wander up to. And lots of kids live at our apartment, including MINE. Safety is not a concern for them either apparently.

I am going to call them at some point today, but I haven't quite figured out my approach just yet.

So, these people have no idea *or in their heads have no idea* that if a young child decided to 'peek' down the 'hole' and fall in, that they could get their behinds sued like non-other *at least I'd assume that* :wtf: That is plain stupid. To be landlords they have to follow certian regulations, etc. the one Bill and I have in town for our apartment does NOT follow a damn thing IMO...I think the stairs going up to our place will break someday...I'm suprised Bill didn't knock them down when he fell down them during the winter. The landlord does not come and help dig us out of we have tons of snow, or come and put salt down for the ice...we have to do that ourselves. Eventually he'll come and shovel off the sidewalks, but that's like, middle of the day-ish. And soooome people have to work :P Hopefully I'll be moved out before it happens again this year. :P
I'm glad the fishies have some more water, that's wonderful. I hope they do better. It would be best to just move the ones that are remaining tho...as the pond *as mentioned* is not very deep, and from how the weather keeps changing each year, it won't get better methinks. :S

Well, it's almost 9 pm on Tuesday.
I just took a walk around the pond.
NO more water has been added.
The firemen's pump is still out there but no more water has been moved.
It's back to worse than it was yesterday before they came.

I really don't want to be a pest and call them but I think I might.
They said they'd be back and I want to let them come back when they can, but soon it will be too late again and not much water will be able to be moved.

UUgh.

OH yeah, and you're right - they just don't get the safety issue at all.
It drives me NUTS.

Well the firemen just left again.
They pumped 50,000 gallons of hydrant water into the big pond, and they're going to come back tomorrow to pump 50,000 gallons more into that pond, then they'll turn around and pump 100,000 gallons down into the little pond.

According to their calculations from last night, they moved about 20,000 gallons into the little pond so far.

They say they've cleared everything with the DNR and all creatures in both ponds will be fine.

More to come....

Cool :nod:

great work bettamomma. :urock: :urock: :nod: :rockon:

Wonderful! jay

As I've said all along one person can make a difference and BettaMomma, you can be proud of yourself because you have made one hell of a difference in a lot of fishy lives. I know we're all really proud of you. Sometimes it's really hard to read these threads and not be able to get there to help, but know our hearts are there with you. That's great about the fire department, too. It's a logical solution, but I never would have dreamed that they would have come out and pumped water in the pond. :rockon:

Awwww, thanks! :wub:

I actually felt really silly calling them. But they told me last night that they actually handle a bunch of stuff like this all the time. And that an exercise like this actually gives them good practice in pumping and all that stuff. AND - one of the guys was telling me that they've saved baby ducks from sewers after they fell into a storm drain grate and other sweet stories like that. They're being so completely awesome about it! The chief was back again for the long haul last night, and they showed up in shorts and tshirts this time. :)

ANNNNNNNNND... it rained here all morning. YAY!
I'm assuming that they're still going to do what they had planned to with all the pumping. I'll be back later, hopefully with some update photos!

After our rain yesterday, here's what the pond looks like now:

Woohoo!

The firemen didn't have to move any water yesterday but I'm assuming they're still planning on it to get the smaller pond full.

:omg: That looks so much better. You wouldn't know it was the same pond. Bet those fish are happy campers now. :woo:

Yep, I agree.
My biggest worry now is that the next time it gets hot, the same thing will happen.

But at least they're safe for now! :)

Yeah thats so much better :clap: , shame it got to the point that it did :banghead:

Just an update for anyone that's interested - we had a ton of rain so the second 50,000 gallons was never needed in the big pond, and the transfer of water from the big to the small pond happened naturally when it rained - the rain not only fell into the smaller pond but ran off from the big one.

Now the pond is entirely covered and in some spots appears to be well over a foot deep. I'll wander over there later and get some pics :)