M
MariaTeresa
About 1.5 weeks ago we added 3 new fish to the pond to replace the ones that got eaten. Two shubunkins and a sarasa. I thought the sarasa might have had a little white dot on it before I put it in the pond, but it was on its white body, so hard to tell. Obviously I should not have put it in the pond. (I don't have, and can't have, a set up for quarantine...so I do realize and accept the risk I take.) I kept an eye on that fish and it is my most active fish. Spawning has been going on between my comet and my common consistently for weeks. The poor common has lost a LOT of scales on both of her sides from being shoved into the rocks. She has been more sedate than usual, but I still think that is due to exhaustion from all the spawning...or complications from losing the scales. She's also been hiding a lot since the heron attack. I have seven "big" fish....the comet and common that are spawning, the sarasa, the two shubunkins and two 'mutts' born last fall who are about 5" and starting to turn orange. Beyond that, as of last night, I have a LOT of fry, from 1.5" down to the newly hatched. The water is 75F. Testing the water is not a possibility for me, but I'm guessing the quality isn't the greatest because the pump had been broken for a few weeks (new one in now) and the severe thunderstorm a week or two ago washed tons of mud and runoff into the pond. I have been adding a product that reduces ammonia in case that was an issue during the time the pump was broken.
Yesterday I had was looking very carefully at the fry and noticed that a lot of them had their gills swollen open with lots of white stuff hanging out. I'd say between 2/3 and 3/4 of the bigger fry were like that. I also noticed that 2/3 to 3/4 of those fry had white spots. Little tiny white ich spots. They were acting normal yesterdat, but this morning I haven't seen any of them and there is a large reduction in the amount of fry. So I'm guessing they died last night. Some remaining fry also have ich.
None of my "big" fish have any white spots (that I can see), no clamped fins, no isolating (except for my spawning female when she's not spawning she's sometimes hiding), all are active. I don't feed, but I've seen all of them munching around the pond. In other words, if it weren't for the ichy fry I wouldn't be concerned about them.
So here's my question: what do I do? The "Fancy Goldfish" book says when fry get ich there's not much you can do about it. For adults it recommends adding salt. It also mentions formalin and copper. According to the book both salt and copper would harm the plants and formalin would harm the fish. It also says ich is usually fatal, but that sometimes a healthy fish can eradicate the parasites from its body and sometimes fish can live with ich.
I'm assuming that the ich is replicating a lot from all the fry and so that even if the adults aren't infected now, they are stuck in the contaminated water and it will eventually wear them down. Plus, if the adults are munching on the fry, would ingesting an ichy fry give them ich?
Has anyone had ich in a pond with plants that can't be removed and been able to eradicate it? How?
Yesterday I had was looking very carefully at the fry and noticed that a lot of them had their gills swollen open with lots of white stuff hanging out. I'd say between 2/3 and 3/4 of the bigger fry were like that. I also noticed that 2/3 to 3/4 of those fry had white spots. Little tiny white ich spots. They were acting normal yesterdat, but this morning I haven't seen any of them and there is a large reduction in the amount of fry. So I'm guessing they died last night. Some remaining fry also have ich.
None of my "big" fish have any white spots (that I can see), no clamped fins, no isolating (except for my spawning female when she's not spawning she's sometimes hiding), all are active. I don't feed, but I've seen all of them munching around the pond. In other words, if it weren't for the ichy fry I wouldn't be concerned about them.
So here's my question: what do I do? The "Fancy Goldfish" book says when fry get ich there's not much you can do about it. For adults it recommends adding salt. It also mentions formalin and copper. According to the book both salt and copper would harm the plants and formalin would harm the fish. It also says ich is usually fatal, but that sometimes a healthy fish can eradicate the parasites from its body and sometimes fish can live with ich.
I'm assuming that the ich is replicating a lot from all the fry and so that even if the adults aren't infected now, they are stuck in the contaminated water and it will eventually wear them down. Plus, if the adults are munching on the fry, would ingesting an ichy fry give them ich?
Has anyone had ich in a pond with plants that can't be removed and been able to eradicate it? How?
