Shocked The Well.....

[Nikki]

I had fire ants get into my well. We caught it quickly. Installed new well pump (it was 20 yrs old), replaced water heater (because it was 15 yrs old), and we needed to shock the well to ensure the ants didn't bring disease into our drinking water. All normal water parameters - tested by me and the guys fixing the issue prior to shocking. We ran water for days afterward to flush everything out. I eventually had to change water in the 90g Angelfish tank and the 150 g goldfish tank. I overdosed prime even though my test kit said the water was free of chlorine. Ph was off, alkalinity was off so i buffered with baking soda and aged + aerated the water for 2 days befor using it. Did this for the next few water changes and all parameter returned to normal in a few weeks. All Angelfish good. The goldfish however...over the next 10 weeks of the 7 fancies I had I lost 1 4yr old Ryukin, and one by one lost all 4 of my Orandas. All 5 developed dropsy symptoms. The remaining 2 Ryukin seem fine. The 10 Hillstream Loaches in that 150g goldfish tank had no problem at all. What could I have done better? 

[Guppysnail]

I’m so sorry for your loss. @Colu any thoughts?

[Colu]

NMultiple fish having dropsy like symptoms could be a parasitic infections that will kill fish gradually over a period of weeks or there's something off with your well water and it's affecting your fancy goldfish as they aren't as robust due to inbreeding what are your water parameters ammonia nitrite nitrate pH KH GH temperature can you post a picture of any fish showing symptoms any loss of appetite weight loss white stringy poop any Reddening to fins or body @Nikki

[Tony s]

Sorry for your loss. Losing fish like those hits at a whole different level than nano fish. I’ve been thinking about responding for a bit now. Shocking wells is just so imprecise. When we were fostering kids, we often had to shock our well just to pass specs. I remember the first time I tried. I used about a whole jug. My wife woke me up screaming in our shower the next morning. Smelled worse than a badly chlorinated pool. The water stayed running in our garden for 24 hours straight after that. I don’t really think there was much more you could have done. Everything you did I probably would have done the same. The only thing I can think of is did you use a regular bleach or a splashless one. Splashless leaves a residue behind. Which I didn’t realize until reading the forums. And it didn’t matter for kids. But it might for fish 

[johnnyxxl]

Did you add anything else because of the ants?

[Nikki]

On 5/10/2024 at 9:13 PM, Colu said:

NMultiple fish having dropsy like symptoms could be a parasitic infections that will kill fish gradually over a period of weeks or there's something off with your well water and it's affecting your fancy goldfish as they aren't as robust due to inbreeding what are your water parameters ammonia nitrite nitrate pH KH GH temperature can you post a picture of any fish showing symptoms any loss of appetite weight loss white stringy poop any Reddening to fins or body @Nikki

The remaining 2 gf are Ryukins and about 4 yrs old and have no signs of sickness. None of the fish had weight loss, red finns or signs of parasites. They were all between 1and 2 yrs old except for 1 Ryukin at 4 yrs. I sit very close to the tank at work and I would notice small signs of a couple of scales not laying flat on their chest between pectoral fins. Then the typical progression of water retention until the fish became week over a period of 2 to 4 weeks. No antibiotics helped, salt or methylene blue treatments. When they became too week I euthanized with overdose of Syncain powder. The tank is 150 g, 2 Oase 800 filters, external thermostat set at 76.5 F. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 chlorine, less than 10 nitrates. Ph comes out of the tap at about 6.7 and rises to around 7.6 after 2 days. Water is a little soft here in NC and I add baking soda at weekly water change. The well was shocked by the plumbers using a packaged powered treatment. It threw all water parameters off. It took around a month before I was comfortable with the water again and for a return to normal water parameters again. The fire ants attacked the plumbers and plumbers fired up a torch and burned them. A few days later we sprinkled food grade diatomaceous earth near the well and no more ants. Some dead ants were picked up in the home filter for about a week or so. I treat for parasites once or twice per year. I have used prazipro, paracleanse in the past, and this year will probably use paracleanse then expel. Can't remember if I've used expel on the gf tank before. What I have started doIng differently since these fish deaths- only changing 25% instead of 50% water, always adding declorinator even though the well is normal again, breeder said to use Aqueon declorinator instead stead of Prime (i can't remember the reason), set up a tank to always use aerated and age water for every water change. Also I have changed their diets to reduce protein- live floating plants once per day, frozen brine shrimp or blood worms in morning and wheat-germ pellet soaked in vitachem for dinner. I am starting to restock now and will see if things stay good over months, but I can't think of anything else to do better and am open to all suggestions. There are pictures and video of the tank and gf @flamingfanny on Instagram from prior to the well issue which occurred in February. 

[Nikki]

On 5/10/2024 at 11:46 PM, Tony s said:

Sorry for your loss. Losing fish like those hits at a whole different level than nano fish. I’ve been thinking about responding for a bit now. Shocking wells is just so imprecise. When we were fostering kids, we often had to shock our well just to pass specs. I remember the first time I tried. I used about a whole jug. My wife woke me up screaming in our shower the next morning. Smelled worse than a badly chlorinated pool. The water stayed running in our garden for 24 hours straight after that. I don’t really think there was much more you could have done. Everything you did I probably would have done the same. The only thing I can think of is did you use a regular bleach or a splashless one. Splashless leaves a residue behind. Which I didn’t realize until reading the forums. And it didn’t matter for kids. But it might for fish 

Yes it was really horrible. The plumbers used a powered packaged product. They told us to run all the water but that it was safe and similar to city treatment.  I still refused to drink it for a month. Our well water has always tasted good and my fish grow and breed. It took about a month for all the normal parameters to return. I waited as long as I could to change water in all tanks. But eventually I had to do it.

[Nikki]

On 5/11/2024 at 12:41 AM, johnnyxxl said:

Did you add anything else because of the ants?

The ants attacked the plumbers. Fire ants really hurt. Plumbers broke out a torch and went after the ants around the well so they could work. Then a few days later we sprinled food grade diatomaceous earth around the well. Had dead ants in the in house filter for a week or 2 but all ants were gone pretty fast.

[johnnyxxl]

I wonder if the diatomaceous earth got in the well water also due to the ants?

[Tony s]

On 5/13/2024 at 4:02 PM, johnnyxxl said:

I wonder if the diatomaceous earth got in the well water also due to the ants?

Probably not. at least in our area the well is supposed to be about a foot above the ground with an aluminum cap to protect the water supply. pesticides applicators would have to be extremely negligent to contaminate it. We take license exams for pesticides (yes, i actually do have one, had a research level license at one point) on a yearly or semi-yearly basis. and for residential licenses it's worse. the other thing, diatomaceous earth is made from diatoms, think brown algae. it's mostly considered fish safe. unless there was an additive to it. It works in insects by using the sharp edges of the dried diatoms and basically shredding their internals.

more than likely what they used internally in the well was not even close to fish safe. I'm not sure they would have even thought about it or been concerned about it. It may have been safe for mammals to use but definitely not the fish. Honestly, the only way I can see out of that situation would have been to get some water from an lfs or petsmart/petco. which would have been a pain. And I would have been in @Nikki's shoes and would have thought it should have been gone in a month.