Velvet!

[chilligirl]

I came home from holidays to discover that two of my pond fish appear to have velvet. They're still active and eating, just have that thickened slime coat and gold-dusting look.

Advice?

Treat the whole pond? If yes, with what? Bear in mind this is a largish pond (1400g), so doing big water changes is not easy.

Pull the fish with visible symptoms and treat them? I have a couple empty 10 gallons around, but no spare filters.

Just leave it?

Anything else I can/should do?

Pond has been running with fish for around a month. 2100gph pump, only filtration at the moment is a Laguna Powerflo Max (putting in a 200g upper pond, bog garden, and waterfall over the next few weeks). A fair amount of plants. I've been struggling with some green water, but seems to be clearing up. Temp stays around the mid 70's (pond is 6 feet deep).

I haven't been able to test the water. I have test kits, but the water is tinted blue with a pond shade product, so I can't read results. However, I seriously doubt there's any ammonia or anything, as it's not overstocked: I've got 17 fish in there ranging from 1-4" in length.

 

[koikeepr]

First off, this is a common disease but you need to act quickly. You need to treat all the fish as velvet is very contagious. Usually it occurs due to poor water quality. Not sure if something happened when you went on vacation, but you do need to do water changes often regardless of its size--at least 20% per week. Good water mainenance wards off all sorts of problems such as velvet.

Copper sulphate is what most folks use for velvet, or you could try pond salt as well. You should visit your fish shop and pick up a product like Coppersafe that is made by a company named Mardel. There might be others that are similar in your area.

 

[chilligirl]

Are products like Coppersafe plant-friendly?

I don't know that anything happened while I was away - the water is clearer than when I left. however, it was hot and sunny the whole time, and the spitter wasn't turned on (I normally turn it on in the morning and off at night).

Regarding the big water changes - I read and hear such mixed advice on that. Some, like yourself, say do big water changes. Others say the less you do to it, the better.

I've got a bunch of fish tanks, and, in my experience, the fish tanks I fuss with the least do the best...

 

[koikeepr]

20% isn't big. That's actually pretty small compared to what most folks do. Think of your pond or fish tank as a toilet--the fish are pooping and peeing in it, and you are never flushing it out basically. There are some folks who choose to just refill after water evaporates instead, but all you've done is diluted the poop and pee in the toilet a bit, you haven't removed what's bad in there. And goldfish and koi (you don't mention which you have) are some of the biggest poopers there are as far as fish are concerned. They eat like hogs, and they excrete like 'em too.

Water changes reduce diseases and illnesses that your fish can suffer from and help foster a quality environment for your fish (same way you open you windows at home to let the fresh air in). Velvet, as I mentioned, is typically caused by poor water quality. The fact that you are saying you rarely do water changes is a direct reason your fish likely got velvet. It's a parasitic disease--and parasites either hitch a ride on new fish you've introduced (like if someone hasn't quarantined a new fish properly); and they thrive in poor water quality conditions.

I'm all for trying to reduce my pond maintenance and leaving well enough alone--but that is not the case with water changes. They are a necessity. Period. If you continue to not "fuss" with your pond, then you can't be surprised to have things like velvet pop up.

Have you tested your water for ammonia, nitrates, etc.?

 

[chilligirl]

I know 20% isn't big in relation to the pond - but it's a large amount of water to be pumping out and filling (almost 300G!), especially given it takes a solid 10 minutes to raise the pond's water level a single inch.

I hear you on the living in a toilet bit - I've been keeping goldies for a few years now (tropicals for over 10 years), and they're absolute pigs. I spent a year and a half doing twice weekly water changes on my goldfish tanks, then read up on some Diana Walstead stuff. Decided to increase the plants, lower the fish load, and leave it alone. My tanks are GREAT. I rinse out the filter pads every 3 weeks or so (never touch the biomedia), top up with fresh water, and do a 25-50% water change every month or two. My ammonia and nitrite are consistently 0 (even before a change), and nitrates hang out around 5-10. Fish are healthy, plants are healthy, everything looks GREAT.

With the pond, I haven't been able to test the water, as mentioned above - there's some tinting product in there so the water is blue. Makes it impossible to read the test results. However, I can't see there being any ammonia/nitrite/nitrates in there - pond is lightly stocked, lots of plants, and I don't overfeed.

On the upside, my two velvet fish are looking better. I did buy some meds, but I think I'm just going to keep a close eye on them and wait and see...

 

[chilligirl]

Well, culprit found.

I was away last week, and left very specific instructions on feeding, including a measured amount (1/2 tsp of pellets once per day).

My mom-in-law, who house sat, grossly overfed the fish. I pulled up the filter for maintenance this morning - yuck!!! I also had one of my moors, who'd been missing since I got back from holidays, show up to eat - she's lost an eye I've pulled her out and put her in a QT tank with some melafix. We'll see how she does. The two fish that looked like they had velvet no longer have any visible symptoms. The one little oranda still has a bit of a thickened slimecoat on her head, but that's it - she's definitely improving.

Hopefully, with the filter cleaned out, things will continue to get better.

I can't believe how much clearer my pond is every day! A week and a half ago, it was pea soup. Now I can see down a good two feet!

 

[DrDave]

Well there you go, them pesky mothers in law. I hope she doesn't watch your kids, they might turn out to be porkers LOL.

It is hard to convince people who don't know fish not to over feed them. You have to explain that overfeeding, poisons the water. Most people understand that.

 

[koikeepr]

That certainly would create a problem and upend the water quality for sure.

Glad to hear you velvet fish recovered. Did you use the CopperSafe? If not, what? I always like to keep a mental note of what works.

 

[chilligirl]

I actually didn't use anything - I got home Tuesday night, did a 10 % water change Wednesday morning and threw some Melafix in there (I got a bottle of the super concentrated stuff for ponds for just $13!) since I'd noticed my one oranda had a thickened slime coat on his wen before I left. I noticed as I was adding the Melafix that the fish with the thickened slime coat looked a bit worse, and that one of my moors had a bit of velvet.

I went out and bought meds, but before I could put them in, both fish started to improve. It's been steady improvement since then.

I *suppose* the Melafix may have improved things. However, I think it's far more likely that the water change and time were what made the difference.

 

[DrDave]

If the water had reached its critical point for your fishes survival, the water change would immediately help.
Water changes are the most beneficail and benign way to help the health of your fish. People are too quick to add chemicals without doing the obvious first.
I am happy your fish are doing better. You might want to do additional water exchanges soon.

 

[koikeepr]

Great point DrDave. With partial water changes you immediately help the quality of your water and 9 times outta 10 you won't need to toy with any meds. It's amazing what a great thing good water quality does to the health of our fish. Best part is that it's simple and free.

 

[DrDave]

If I had know that water was free in NC, I would have moved there a long time ago.LOL
We have a serious shortage here, the reservoirs are the lowest in a long time. So we face increases and fines for excess use. It sucks when you have to do a major re-fill of a large pond.

 

[koikeepr]

Well, mine is since I am on a well. LOL! Otherwise, for the folks on city water I hear its quite pricey.

I meant that it was free to do because your water is easily accessible...not necessarily that your water would be free. LOL!

I can relate to drought situations. NC just got out of a many years long drought this year with all the rainfall we've had this year. But it was pretty bad for years. But you are right, every drop is precious.

 

[chilligirl]

Yeah, water's not free here either. Hubby has a heart attack when I start doing a water change on the pond, lol.

Wanted to report, the velvet is completely cleared up. My water is also continuing to clear up - I can now see down a full two feet easily!

Fish and plants look great. Aphids are almost gone (I had aphids crop up while I was away, I've been dealing with them by dunking/rinsing).

I got the wood cut for building the upper pond/bog/waterfall, and hope to get that done this week. Maybe not running yet (I suspect I'll have to buy some fill on pay day to fill the frame up to the level I want the water at), but at least built. My taro is getting quite overgrown, so I'm looking forward to have the bog to plant it in where it can spread out.

I'm also please to say that the deep water is keeping things cool: It's been 85-95F outside the last couple of days, and the pond temp has stayed at 79F or below - yay!