Ulcer treatment

[CombatPotato]

my pond is in Scotland UK and I have recently suffered problems with ulcers.
lost 6 fish to date. I have tried the remedies available in pet shops to no
avail. I have taken my large Koi to the vet to be injected with antibiotics
but catching the smaller fish is almost impossible. Probably have 6 fish
still infected, varying from goldfish, shubunkins and comets. My pond is
well established 10+ years and this is the first fish that I have lost for 5
years. Water quality is good.

Best regards
John

PS this is my first post ever on a newsgroup.

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

>my pond is in Scotland UK and I have recently suffered problems with ulcers.
>lost 6 fish to date. I have tried the remedies available in pet shops to no
>avail. I have taken my large Koi to the vet to be injected with antibiotics
>but catching the smaller fish is almost impossible. Probably have 6 fish
>still infected, varying from goldfish, shubunkins and comets. My pond is
>well established 10+ years and this is the first fish that I have lost for 5
>years. Water quality is good. Best regards John
>
>PS this is my first post ever on a newsgroup.

Hi John, and welcome to rec.ponds.

So what did the vet say was wrong with your fish?

Water quality is good, is not much to go on, could we have the numbers for
Ammonia, Nitrite, pH & KH, pond water temperature? Maybe we'll see
something you don't. ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

[RichToyBox]

In addition to Jan's request for info, you might also describe any behaviors
you have seen with the fish, that might indicate parasites, and if the vet
did a scrape and mentioned any parasites. Ulcers show up on fish that have
parasites, or are otherwise stressed. The water quality is one potential
stressor.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/index.html

"~ jan JJsPond.us" > wrote in message
...
> >my pond is in Scotland UK and I have recently suffered problems with
ulcers.
> >lost 6 fish to date. I have tried the remedies available in pet shops to
no
> >avail. I have taken my large Koi to the vet to be injected with
antibiotics
> >but catching the smaller fish is almost impossible. Probably have 6 fish
> >still infected, varying from goldfish, shubunkins and comets. My pond is
> >well established 10+ years and this is the first fish that I have lost
for 5
> >years. Water quality is good. Best regards John
> >
> >PS this is my first post ever on a newsgroup.
>
> Hi John, and welcome to rec.ponds.
>
> So what did the vet say was wrong with your fish?
>
> Water quality is good, is not much to go on, could we have the numbers for
> Ammonia, Nitrite, pH & KH, pond water temperature? Maybe we'll see
> something you don't. ~ jan
>
>
> See my ponds and filter design:
> http://users.owt.com/jjspond/
>
> ~Keep 'em Wet!~
> Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
> To e-mail see website

[CombatPotato]

When I say water quality is good I don't have actual numbers. When I tested,
the kits had a colour chart to go on which indicated that the nitrate,
nitrite and ammonia levels were in the acceptable band. the ph is 6.5.
Pond temperature is 12.3 celcius today.
I had one of my fish taken to Stirling univercity where they diagnosed a
bacterial viral infection tha the vet says antibiotics are required for,
still awaiting the full report. The vet says that he cannot treat the whole
pond as this will kill the friendly bacteria in my filter.

Thanks once again
John D
"~ jan JJsPond.us" > wrote in message
...
> >my pond is in Scotland UK and I have recently suffered problems with
ulcers.
> >lost 6 fish to date. I have tried the remedies available in pet shops to
no
> >avail. I have taken my large Koi to the vet to be injected with
antibiotics
> >but catching the smaller fish is almost impossible. Probably have 6 fish
> >still infected, varying from goldfish, shubunkins and comets. My pond is
> >well established 10+ years and this is the first fish that I have lost
for 5
> >years. Water quality is good. Best regards John
> >
> >PS this is my first post ever on a newsgroup.
>
> Hi John, and welcome to rec.ponds.
>
> So what did the vet say was wrong with your fish?
>
> Water quality is good, is not much to go on, could we have the numbers for
> Ammonia, Nitrite, pH & KH, pond water temperature? Maybe we'll see
> something you don't. ~ jan
>
>
> See my ponds and filter design:
> http://users.owt.com/jjspond/
>
> ~Keep 'em Wet!~
> Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
> To e-mail see website

[CombatPotato]

The behaviour of my fish is unchanged. they are still active and feeding
well. One thing I forgot to mention previously was that several ogf the
tails are also frayed/ulcered.

Regard
John D.

"RichToyBox" > wrote in message
news:et42d.96721$3l3.73592@attbi_s03...
> In addition to Jan's request for info, you might also describe any
behaviors
> you have seen with the fish, that might indicate parasites, and if the vet
> did a scrape and mentioned any parasites. Ulcers show up on fish that
have
> parasites, or are otherwise stressed. The water quality is one potential
> stressor.
> --
> RichToyBox
> http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/index.html
>
> "~ jan JJsPond.us" > wrote in message
> ...
> > >my pond is in Scotland UK and I have recently suffered problems with
> ulcers.
> > >lost 6 fish to date. I have tried the remedies available in pet shops
to
> no
> > >avail. I have taken my large Koi to the vet to be injected with
> antibiotics
> > >but catching the smaller fish is almost impossible. Probably have 6
fish
> > >still infected, varying from goldfish, shubunkins and comets. My pond
is
> > >well established 10+ years and this is the first fish that I have lost
> for 5
> > >years. Water quality is good. Best regards John
> > >
> > >PS this is my first post ever on a newsgroup.
> >
> > Hi John, and welcome to rec.ponds.
> >
> > So what did the vet say was wrong with your fish?
> >
> > Water quality is good, is not much to go on, could we have the numbers
for
> > Ammonia, Nitrite, pH & KH, pond water temperature? Maybe we'll see
> > something you don't. ~ jan
> >
> >
> > See my ponds and filter design:
> > http://users.owt.com/jjspond/
> >
> > ~Keep 'em Wet!~
> > Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
> > To e-mail see website
>
>

[Rodney Pont]

On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 09:11:44 +0100, CombatPotato wrote:

>When I say water quality is good I don't have actual numbers. When I tested,
>the kits had a colour chart to go on which indicated that the nitrate,
>nitrite and ammonia levels were in the acceptable band. the ph is 6.5.
>Pond temperature is 12.3 celcius today.
>I had one of my fish taken to Stirling univercity where they diagnosed a
>bacterial viral infection tha the vet says antibiotics are required for,
>still awaiting the full report. The vet says that he cannot treat the whole
>pond as this will kill the friendly bacteria in my filter.

Your filter bacteria is about to take some time off for the winter
anyway John and, to me at least, the fish are far more important. Could
you bypass the filter and stuff an airstone in it?

Do you have much detritus on the bottom of the pond or in the filter?
There are always some nasty bacteria around but something has caused
them to increase in levels and/or make your fish susceptible. A ph of
6.5 is a bit low I think, it's acidic and they like alkaline
conditions, something like 7.2 to 9 would be better.

We had a similar problem about this time last year and in the end our
Vet got us some Baytril to treat the whole pond and so far we haven't
had a return of the problem. We changed the filter to a Fishmate
pressurized one last year and it let most things through, even
tadpoles. I threw out the sponges and put some beads in this year and
it's cleaned up the bottom nicely.

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail ngpsm4 (at) infohitsystems (dot) ltd (dot) uk

[[email protected]]

how big is your pond in gallons? when was the last time you cleaned out the bottom
of the pond? when was the last time you changed out some water? did you introduce
any new fish? how cloudy is your water?
parasites are almost always the first infestation and breach the slime coat and leave
the fish open to infection by bacteria. there is no such thing as bacterial viral
infection. there is an infection with bacteria and/.or an infection with a virus.
you need to first treat the parasite problem, usually formaldehyde of some kind and
feed antibiotic food. to save the fish you may need to drain the pond and bring them
all into some kind of quarantine tank where you can properly take care of the sores.

http://www.mu.edu/~buxtoni/puregold/disease/disease.htm
Ingrid

"CombatPotato" > wrote:

>When I say water quality is good I don't have actual numbers. When I tested,
>the kits had a colour chart to go on which indicated that the nitrate,
>nitrite and ammonia levels were in the acceptable band. the ph is 6.5.
>Pond temperature is 12.3 celcius today.
>I had one of my fish taken to Stirling univercity where they diagnosed a
>bacterial viral infection tha the vet says antibiotics are required for,
>still awaiting the full report. The vet says that he cannot treat the whole
>pond as this will kill the friendly bacteria in my filter.
>
>Thanks once again
>John D

>> >my pond is in Scotland UK and I have recently suffered problems with
>ulcers.
>> >lost 6 fish to date. I have tried the remedies available in pet shops to
>no
>> >avail. I have taken my large Koi to the vet to be injected with
>antibiotics
>> >but catching the smaller fish is almost impossible. Probably have 6 fish
>> >still infected, varying from goldfish, shubunkins and comets. My pond is
>> >well established 10+ years and this is the first fish that I have lost
>for 5
>> >years. Water quality is good. Best regards John



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

Besides what others have asked, more of my musings....

>When I say water quality is good I don't have actual numbers. When I tested,
>the kits had a colour chart to go on which indicated that the nitrate,
>nitrite and ammonia levels were in the acceptable band.

That's too bad (no numbers), as the only acceptable measure of nitrite &
ammonia is zero and sometimes those color charts will fudge a bit. As in, a
little is still acceptable to them.

> the ph is 6.5.

That's kind of low, if I remember right you said your pond has been in
operation a number of years, and I'm wondering if maybe you might (have)
been overcrowded and if not watching the KH perhaps you've had a pH crash
(usually though this shows up with readings of ammonia). The fray
fins/tails though, usually signal ammonia. Perhaps because you've lost a
few, the test didn't register at the time you took it?

The product I've used with success is KoiZyme, also known as Lymnozyme.
This product gets rid of the bad bacteria by starving it, it doesn't not
hurt the bacteria in the filter.

If your pet shops test water, I'd take a sample to them and find out the
numbers and have a KH test done. ~ jan
~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~