Urgent fish help, please

Gold_Dust_2

My sister began to empty out a seemingly empty pond, only to find out the next day that there are a couple of little fish in it the pond water is so dark and the fish themselves dark that they were previously impossible to spot. The pump has been removed, as have the lily pads, and she removed about half of the water. How should we go about refilling the pond? I think that there may be water in the water butt, and if there is, we'll try to use that, but if there isn't how should we go about using tap water? I'm planning to fill a few buckets, leave them out for a while and then add them slowly after a few hours or a day or so. I've got some tap water dechlorinator that I had left over from when I had an aquarium, should I add that to the buckets? Even though it is meant to be for aquarium use, I don't think it'd be any different using it for a pond, would it?

I'm also planning to replace the pump and transplant another lily from one of the other ponds. Should I leave the new water buckets in the pond itself to allow the temperatures to equalize, or will just leaving them by the side be ok?

Polmop

I am no expert but i am sure that will be ok. We constantly top our pond up with the hose pipe

no1catman

Good luck with the pond.


I have heard the temperature of the pond can effect the colouration of baby fish. Yet, I've seen baby fish in amongst the weeds - some have 'colour' while others have a more 'natural' brown colour.
But despair over the colour, it can change, usually change within six-months, but I've had a couple of large dark ones that took three years !!


With the water, use the butt water if you can, it's all down to percentages, the greater percentage of tap water the more need for 'tap water treatment'.