Hi all, I love this newsgroup. There are so many good ideas and so many
thoughtful folks with those ideas. I hope you can help me. I was given ten
large GF with long flowing tailfins. I'm not even sure what kind they
are.They are about 8-10" long including the tail. A little more than a week
ago, I was taking roll call and noticed that I lost one of the larger fish.
I looked all over the pond which is only 14' by 18" irregularly
shaped.......Nothing. I gave up figuring a creature got it. Last night, I
saw a baby fish dart through one of the lighted areas of the pond and got a
flashlight to investigate closer. I was looking at the edges of the pond and
spotted something orange wedged between a plant pot and the rocks on the
edge of a very shallowing end of the pond. It was the head of a
fish.....and the mouth was moving!!!! I moved the pot and the fish just laid
there in the corner of the pond. I nudged it out and it weakly swam away. It
had a lot of black around the gills and the edges of its fins as well as
black spots on his back. Then all of the other fish started chasing it and
it looked very disoriented......probably because it was in the same position
for more than a week. It looked tired. Today it seems to be doing better and
the other fish are leaving it alone but I am concerned about it discolored
fins, gills and scales. None of the other fish look anything like this so I
ruled out parasites. Could it be simply that it was motionless for a long
time in a corner that had some leaf debris on the bottom and that it was
next to a plant pot? I don't know if I should remove him or not because I
don't know what caused the balck coloration. Ant thoughts or ideas would be
greatly appreciated.

Randy