Sick Goldies

[ozzyrockman]

Well it looks like winter has taken its toll on our little 100g pond that for some reason I never had to worry about until this spring arrived humm go figure. Anyway, two look like Ich so I will confirm and treat this afternoon but the odd part is nothing has changed since Sept 04 inc water parameters (except the obvious water temps changes) with the exception of no salt in this one so if I confirm Ich I will salt to .3 over the next couple days and see what happens.

Just as an experiment this winter we did not salt this one at all inc. going in or coming of winter to see what effects salt would have on bringing them out of sleep mode. As it stands I think we learned from this and we should have salted all three to prevent disease while their immune system is down. Do you think this would have been prevented with something as simple as a little dash of salt?

The other two as they started getting toward 45 degrees I brought the salt from .1 to .2 and when they hit 50 I brought it up to .3 and over the last couple of week have been doing water changes to bring the salt back down to .1 again now that the other two are out of the woods. Allen

[ozzyrockman]

Or mybe I'll seperate the two and treat one with MelaFix and one with Salt. HUMMMMM :grin: :twisted: !bonk :frisbee: I have two 30g aquiriums and I will check on to see if I have enough pumping action for both to keep seperate. Allen

[Jackie Ramo]

I never salt my pond.. so can't say whether it would make a difference or not.

Ich loves debris in the pond and will settle there awaiting an opportunity.

Are you bringing them inside then? Leave the melafix out of the equation, it may help heal wounds... but it will do nothing for anything else.

[ozzyrockman]

Jackie, I am just going to treat them in the little pond they are in since the water temps are getting close to 60 it won't hurt as bad on the elec bill to heat it with a 300w heater. Since they have not been salted I added 1lb yesterday and will add another today and the final tuesday morning. Allen

[Jackie Ramo]

Float some styrofoam on the top in the evenings will help keep it warm.

We are about to hit another deep freeze... I've hidden all the sharp knives in the house ..... it is sooooo depressing.

[Terri]

Ditto Jackie on the melafix... pretty useless for parasite infections.

We have never used salt over winter or for spring start up - if at all possible we try not to salt the ponds. I think you should look at the pond these goldfish are in as a whole... the conditions need to be "right" for ICH to rear it's ugly spots. Part of that may be coming into spring and low immune systems... but there's always more too it. At 60 degrees you're looking at 5-7 day life cycle, if you can raise the tamp to 78-80 degrees you can cut that down to 3 days. At any rate, treatment will need to be approximately 14 to 16 days. Water changes and a clean bottom are a must, if there are any potted plants in the pond remove them and repot with fresh dirt, I'd place them into something else until after the treatment is done.

[ozzyrockman]

Jackie, put the knives back in the drawer or take your frustrations out on an aquarium pharm product like I do :D . Also send a note to Cinnamon and tell her to quite with the rain dances :D I think she caused some of this weather non sense. OK I don't have a second pump to set up the two aquariums so I'll have to do the all in one treatment with salt, heat and styrofoam and remove the plants.

So why would I not treat with the WONDER cure Melafix? I heard it is a fix all for any problems a person has in their ponds !grrrr OH YA and let me be the first to promote their latest POS (point of sale) product PimaFix although I am wondering why they needed to make a second product when they have the miracle cure already? Allen

[Jackie Ramo]

Why sell you one product when they can seel you two, now folks are foolishly mixing the two and putting them in the tank.... snake oil salesmen find a customer every minute.... :smile:

Sounds like a good plan, keep an eye open for other problems like sap developing.