Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Restocking fish Pond to pond

Just purchased a new property with an existing pond and I'm trying to take some of our existing pellet trained fish with us. Our fish don't seem to bite till right before disk so I got a plastic 55 gallon barel with an aquarium aerator I've been putting the fish in over night. Then I run them to the new pond early in morning. Some nights it works some mornings I find them dead in the barrel. This morning lost a 24" koi and a 19" striper. Anyone have any advice on how to keep them alive over night in the barrel?

Welcome corey...I would cage them in the pond overnight and move them to the barrel in the morning. Is that possible? Otherwise, more barrels and/or less fish. I am guessing that they are using all the oxygen from the water.

Yea I'll rig up a cage of some sort and try it. Thank you

Curious if your filling the barrel with pond water or tap/well water?
I wonder if the deaths are temp related.

Straight from pond

When in doubt, do what the professionals do. One, fish should not be fed 48-72 hours before transport.

Second, lower the water temperature. Throw in some frozen water bottles and cool the transport tank.

Third, salt. Canning salt actually, but to do this method properly, you need to know the alkalinity of the transport water. You could always wing it but, user beware.

Don't hold them over night in salt-only salt for transport, I'm sure that's what Joey meant but thought I'd add that.
Koi don't handle high salt content well, nor do BG, most others are OK except Catfish-no salt for Cats.

Be careful to get pure salt. A fishery guy I respect told me of killing fish because the salt contained anti-caking chemicals. Tiny amounts, but evidently made a difference to the fish.

We use Stock salt, pure NaCL from farm store for all of our State transport needs.