A friend of mine has a water garden shop, and has several containers
of goldfish and koi.

One tank, with fantail goldfish, got into trouble somehow, the fish
were in obvious distress, some floating at the top, some dying. He
moved the worst ones to another container, where they continued to
deteriorate. He had dosed, and maybe overdosed, them with salt and
melafix, and was concerned about disease.

I brought two home, put them into an aquarium that was setting idle,
and within minutes they were much recovered. I went back and got the
rest, divided them between tanks and they all seem almost normal.

We tested the water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, all were okay.
He is on a well, so we didn't have a city water event. fish in his
other containers all seem okay, no evidence of distress.

The fish I have here now, some of them have black markings on the fins
and a few black scales, which I associate with ammonia burns. some
also have small ulcers, which I am guessing are a result of whatever
went wrong with the container the fish were in at the shop.

The container at the shop is a 200 gallon round plastic tank, about
half filled with water. It has a PF-1 pond filter and a separate air
stone. Water is changed every two days, so the filter is there mainly
for mechanical filtration and aeriation.

I treated some of the fish with Myacin, the gram positive kind, chosen
because that is what I had available. I can get maracyn or mracyn-two
locally, should I use either, both, or neither? The antibiotic would
be to protect the fish while they heal.

I believe the problem was water quality related, not a disease, due to
the rapid recovery, but I have no idea what it might have been, and
would welcome any speculation.

Thanks



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- Charles
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-does not play well with others