Topic: Sick Fish

[RedMia]

Hi
Could someone please help this newbie?I`ve had a pond for around 4 years now, containing a few goldfish and several mirror (ghost?) carp.About 6 weeks ago I purchased 4 small butterfly Koi, but in the last week 3 of them have died.Each of them displayed the same symptoms...not feeding, listless, surface resting.At the time I couldn`t see anything on the skin i.e. fungus, but I think this was made more difficult by virtue of the fact that they were all white in colour, although I did notice blood steaks in the tail of one of them.Now 3 of my mirror carp are sick, only now, as they are all dark in colour, I can see that they seem to have a white film over most of their bodies and in one of them their eyes.

[Roy Bham UK]

Hi RedMia, welcome to the A4A ;) It is very difficult to diagnose fish disease through text alone, so I thought you may spot the problem on the FishDoc site.

Here’s a couple of links that I thought it may be the problem.
http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/fungus.htm
http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/chilodonella.htm

It sounds like you may have introduced the disease when you purchased your Koi ??? Did you not quarantine them first ???

[RedMia]

Hello Roy,
Thanks for the welcome :) I`m afraid I didn`t quarantine them :(  I buy so few fish and have never had any problems in the past in that respect that I didn`t bother :( Seems I`m going to learn a hard lesson. From the links you posted,some of the symptoms seem to relate to a parasitic infection, others to a bacterial one .  :-\ I`m into day 3 of a 5 day course of AntiParasite(Hozelock) but theres not much in the way of improvement. Can I start an antibacterial/fungal course as soon as I`ve finished this one, as I`m not sure the fish will survive long enough if I leave a break inbetween.   Many thanks   Mia

[legless]

sounds bacterial to me. bloody streaks in the tail and a film on the skin usually indicaztes some sort of bacterial infection.

if you do treat using an antibacterial treatment remember that it will ruin your filter and also kill helpful bacteria so be prepared for water quality issues or isolate and treat the fish outside the pond.

don't use more than one treatment at once as this can weaken the fish further.

best of luck

Jo

[portway farm]

Def watch the water quality though water tests for nitrate, nitrite, amonia, ph etc should be done weekly any way. I would not say anti bacterial medication would ruin a filter but I guess that depends largely on what type of system you have, mechanical, chemical or biological or even a mixture. But you will need to let the pond recycle again. You should always treat fish in a separate set up but add some of the original pond water to hospital pond so bacteria is correct levels else fish could go into shock during the cycling of the hospital pond. Some meds can be used together some cannot unfortunately the world of fish is never simple even the correct level of stocking for the amount of gallons your pond holds.

Chin up.

[legless]

almost all filter systems rely on a lot of bacterial growth, whatever type they are principally, anti bacterial medication would kill those bacteria and compromise the filtration severely.