Goldfish dying why?

[Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain]

I have a pond with goldfish. Several of them have gone missing recently, a few were dead and floated to the surface.

What else could be eating them? There is netting over the pond. The cat caught a rat (killed it) this week and I’ve seen a rat in the garden. Would a rat eat goldfish?

My dad had a pond when I was teen and the goldfish all died, I think there was an infection spreading if I recall correctly! He then decided keeping a pond was too much hard work so filled it in.

Goldfish can get diseases same as other animals. Have you had a look at one of the dead floating ones to get clues from its appearance? If you can get an idea of what's causing the deaths you may be able to buy treatment to put into the water and save the rest.

If there's secure netting over the pond it's less likely to be a predator and the "missing" ones have sunk or been eaten by other inhabitants of the pond.

Buy some pond test strips (I use Envii) and test the water. Are you oxygenating the pond?

Usually a water quality issue, has the pond been well maintained and filters cleaned etc?

Have you tested the water? make sure the pH, nitrites etc are all OK.

There are rats everywhere. If some of your fish are dying I think it's more likely to be a disease or a problem with the water.

The water quality has been tested recently and it’s fine.

See the thing is these fish have just vanished. So it’s not like with the others who were dead (and old) that they were floating on top of the water.