Since transferring my goldfish from their pond which was leaking into a drum for a few weeks, where it got dark and warm I suppose, we have now moved them back into their pond with mostly fresh water and now two days later I have lost one and the other eight have a dirty 'veil' covering them or a grey thready look on their heads and fins. I am so sorry! Please tell me what to do. I thought their water was freezing and added a LITTLE warm water to their pond carefully. They seemed to like that.
2007-09-03 14:59:33 · 4 answers · asked by halle 1 in Pets ➔ Fish
transferring them back and forth like that has probably stressed them out. When a fish is stressed it is more suseptible to illness. When you added more water, you may have stirred up something at the bottom of the pond. I would suggest having your water tested at a local fish store and go from there. They may be able to suggest a course of treatment also. Good luck and I hope they make it.
tina
2007-09-03 15:13:42 · answer #1 · answered by Tina N 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What you are describing sounds to me like it could be columnaris (sometimes called cotton-mouth). It needs to be treated with medication as soon as possible. This site will give you great info on it: www.aquariumcorner.com/disease.htm
If you have pond salt (or aquarium salt), I would use that according to the directions as soon as possible also. If you don't have pond salt, I would purchase it when purchasing the medication, as it has a lot of therapeutic uses. I use salt in my ponds (2) and my inside tanks (4) at all times. If I were you, I would put them back in the smaller area (so long as they are comfortable in it size wise) so it's easier to treat. The larger the tank/pond is, the more medication you need, obviously. If they are in a smaller area, it's easier to treat (sorry it's redundant, wanted to make myself clear). I would however, at this point, treat BOTH the pond and the drum for the disease. In the alternative, empty the pond and clean it and start again (letting it cycle, etc.). Also, BEFORE I used the medication I would do a partial water change. If you don't restart the pond, I would do a water change in that also prior to using the medication.
I hope this all makes sense to you. If you have any questions that I may be able to help with, please feel free to e-mail me, I'd be happy to help out as much as possible. Please be sure to check for other things that could be going on when you visit the link that I posted above, to see if what is going on resembles anything more then the columnaris. It could very well be something else, it was just my guess from what you were describing that it is probably columnaris.
Best of luck to you and your fish. ;o)
2007-09-03 15:21:06 · answer #2 · answered by MrsCrabs 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's not ich,it's a fungus,did you dechlorinate the water in the drum? Did you dechlorinate the replacement water in the pond? The fungus is a secondary symptom of damage to the fish's slime coat. That is what you should be treating.
2007-09-03 15:24:55 · answer #3 · answered by PeeTee 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
They probably have Ick. Go to a pet store or Walmart and buy stuff called ICK AWAY. It should take care of the problem.
2007-09-03 15:07:45 · answer #4 · answered by Laughing with you not at you 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋