Hi All,
I think a couple of our fish have parasites,they are doing what I think is called flashing,they swimm fast as if trying to dislodge somthing then twist or roll in the water to reviel their very shinney underbelly,other than this they all seem fit and well.
the ones that are doing it are ......
large ghost carp (one of our 3 orininal survivors)
Small lemmon coloured koi carp
quite big yellow coloured gold fish
All the other 8 fish dont seem to be flashing or showing any signs
I wondered if you guys can advise because I dont want to go to my local aquatics/water garden centre as they will just say the best treatment is "the one they stock "suprise suprise.
I want a treatment that I can put in the pond ,and it wont hurt the fish or kill the good bacteria that my filter media has built up in it ,there seems to be so many advertised in the koi mags i get and on line its a minefield,better to get a recomendation from someone who has used one they like.I am not cofident to get the fish out the pond to inspect them and certainly wouldnt be able to do scrape samples etc .
Thanks for you help in anticipation of some replies .
all the best David AKA Funky Valeter

Hi there,

It is a tough time of year for any of our fish, the weather fluctuations aren't helping at all.

I would suggest, posting all your water parameters so we can understand how the water is doing.

Don't forget you cleaned out your whole system and then added in new fish. It could be that the new fish have brought something nasty with them, hence why a lot of us have qt ponds, but I know it always isn't so simple.

Once we know how your water doing, I would ask how much you're feeding. Because if the water parameters are out it could be because of this.It takes a long time for water to re-mature. I know as I did exactly the same as you at the beginning of the summer. (we had a major pond leak though and needed to sort that out.) And my pond water still isn't as perfect as it used to be. I still get the odd flashing fish in the evening as my ph swings. It will take prob another 6 months for that to settle. I know this because the very first year I put the pond in, it did exactly the same. And we tried everything to get it to stabalize. Spent a fortune.

With any problem I would suggest a process of elimination. First stop feeding for a few days. It won't harm your fish at all. Then check all water parameters, morning and night. Pond temperature. Then once you think that is out the way, you can think about parasites.

To relieve pressure on the affected fish, you could salt bath the affected ones. But it would cause stress as well, so you really do need to figure out where the prob could be before you think about that.

You would need to get a professional to do a scrape, or catch a fish and take it to one. (Preferably not the one you just got those new fish on) I doubt they'd want to admit to any parasites.

I only say this because at first like you said it would be difficult and you won't know what to look for really. You can ask hi to show you how to do it, have a go while he is there. Learn from him,

Then you can take it from there.

There is no treatment that will kill ALL parasites, and you need to know what you are dealing with to sort it. Because it costs money, and because the longer you leave it now, the harder it will be to treat as the weather cools down.

It isn't easy when things start going wrong. I know. Been there many a time and cost me an arm and a leg, and a fishy life.


Here to help if I can.

Dawn

Hi Dawn Thanks For your reply ,Right I will get a test kit and then post the results of some water tests.

David,

It could be just a slight imbalance in water. But it is defo the first port of call.

Hopefully it is something simple, and not to stressful for you or the fish. When it rains it pours.... Speak later. when you can get back on.

Always around the net, send me a private message to nab my attention if I'm not in the chat room.

D

Ph morning and night will also help as if the kh is low this could case ph flux and up set the fish