My best guess. Ammonia burn, perhaps it spiked after you cleaned the filter
or removed plants, and then settled down. Thus you'd see the problem, but
not the cause (0 reading). Salt is the direction I would go....

Keep in mind, a predator can cause stress, that in turn causes disease to
get the upper hand. So you may have to come up with some anti-predator
device(s) if you haven't already. ~ jan

On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 00:02:19 GMT, "humBill" wrote:

I recently posted about some of my long fin fish having split fins. I came
away feeling it was probably just spring stress, possibly trying to get away
from a heron and all was probably okay - add a little salt and watch them.
Well unfortunately they are definitely getting worse.

The worst symptom is my best guess velvet/oodinium. These symptoms popped
up over the weekend while it was rainy and overcast and are quite visible
today and were unobserved Friday. It would be difficult to see even on all
fish but my dark fish and even a few gold comets have would looks like a bad
case of dry skin and/or dandruff. Hard to see for sure but I would say some
of them literally have some scales/skin which is coming loose. Hard to
describe but it is a very white palour all over and on the fins in
particular large white flecks. It reminds me of when you get a sunburn on
a tan and you skin get white and flakey in some areas. Perhaps it is not
that bad, but that is its appearance. Also a few fish are beginning to
exhibit fin rot, where as previously it was just healthy fins but split.
There is a little bit of blood in a few tail fins, but thus far very little

I also have 2 white comets and 2 shubunkins who would appear to be
hemorrhaging(?) quite a bit starting at the base of the dorsal fin only. It
a dark red streaking pretty much around the scales. Initially I thought
they may just be gaining color, but now I think probably not. They are all
active, although I will occasionally find 4 or 5 of them huddling together.
These seem to linger in there huddle a little longer but once they see me
for long will join the others in swimming around begging for food.

As mentioned before the obvious parameters are perfect
Am-0, Nitri-0, Nitra-5, pH 7.6/7.8, Kh appr 120, Gh appr 180 - all normal
readings. I did do a small water change (15%?) after my last post - did
treat with Prime. Very thin muck layer in pond.

Due to laziness I did not add salt, but today did add .9lb/100 gal - pond is
around 850 gal. Water temp is 62 although it has been as high as 68
already. I have not done anything to the pond in months except cut the dead
Umbrella palms and remove quite a bit of anacharis and pennywort. (2 wks
ago). I throughly cleaned one of my two sink filters about 5 weeks ago. I
did resume feeding about half of normal since the water has consistently
been above 60, apprx. 15 days ago.

I would really appreciate help on a diagnosis and treatment. Do you agree
it is oodinium? Anything else? If this is my problem I have read
potentially adding salt - but no mention of percentages and also Copper
Sulfate. It is not clear to me if it's an either/or situation. Also my
primary pond meds place is closed today so I don't know what forms Copper
Sulfate comes in and any possible alternatives and/or precautions. I have
numerous plants which I will remove if I add any more salt. Someone told me
the Copper will kill all the plants, but was uncertain about the bio filter.
I do have a koi advisor potentially coming tomorrow however thus far they(4)
have none of them symptoms mentioned. It seems some Koi people are much
less familiar with the maladies of comets, shubunkins, and fantails.

Sorry to be so lengthy but I am VERY concerned it is an act swiftly
situation. btw I am almost certain that it is not ich or just milky
slimecoat. Thanks in advance!!
Bill



~ jan/WA
Zone 7a