jn

Taking some old water is more about just letting them adjust to a new temp/ph a little more gradually then dropping them into a totally new environment. If I half fill some buckets with old water I can slowly add new water to that and let them adjust before putting them in a new 'home'. I'll grab some of the large potted pond plants for some nitrifying bacteria. I have a filter in there but I dont think I'll be able to conveniently operate a pump on a temporary setup at home so i think some of the plants will have to do. I'll settle for a paddling pond if I have to but have my eye on something deeper (some of the fish are probably 7 years old and quite big). I have 6 cats and am also not likely to be able to easily shade the pool, so dont want them being 'hooked' or 'cooked'.

Damn. Bad news, building is red-stickered not so much because of its own state, but due to there being some potentially-unstable buildings that are too close for comfort. The possible good (OH!! Big AFTERSHOCK!) news is that our body corp secretary got to go along with the inspectors who were doing the assessment, and when we asked him if there was any water left in the pond he said he though there was. Not 100% sure, but I dare say if it was completely empty that probably would have been obvious, so with a bit of luck they might still be ok (mind you we did have a good lot of rain yesterday so it could have been rainwater that hadn't drained awsay yet!). Hmm.. I think I've just taken the gloss off what I though might have been a bit of good luck.. Guess it'll be at least another week before I know. Still feeling very thankful that this is the worst of what's worrying me! Time to source a big enough temporary pond. I've wanted to have one anyway (for example would have been useful for a case of whitespot I had to treat a short while back) so there's no time like the present. ps: when I do collect them, I'll take them away in as much of their existing water as possible and acclimatise them gradually as usual. With a bit of luck I'll get something soon and fill it, dechlorinate it and let it sit at ambient temps for a few days, so the water might be as closer in temp to their current situation.

Thanks everyone. That's extremely helpful. So i have a couple days to source some stuff in the hopes that i have some fish to re-home. Will post an update once I know if they're ok!

Hi all, Have a property in the CBD which was evacuated the day after the quake. Had some liquefaction and the tenants said the pond was leaking when they left. Don't know from where, bottom or sides (its concrete and the courtyard is a mess apparently). Anyway.. point is if there is any water left and fish are still alive I will need to work out somewhere to hold them. How do I safely dechlorinate a larger quantity of water? I know this is a coldwater/pond type topic but being chlorine related I thought it would apply here as well and have a better chance of being seen. I've very fond of those fish and I sure hope they made it through. We're in zone 3, so not accessible till at least middle of the week :tears:

Ok, sounds like it should be ok. It's just a temporary tank for a couple juvenile goldfish for now. I'll keep an eye on the parameters and I'm likely to be doing frequent enough wc's. I have to say.. I quite like the effect The gravel isn't rounded, it's all fine,small flattish bits, slightly irregular sizes with a few lumps here and there. Looks pretty cool. Also found a cool stone that is shaped just like a ship . Wish I'd had a bag or container in Kingston.. what a treasure trove out there. The gravel is stunning, smooth and round and beautiful colours.. and the driftwood was making me drooool! I'd highly recommend the short drive out there from queenstown if you're after any additions to your tanks.

Hi all, had a trip down to queenstown recently and brought back a bit of fine gravel from lake Wakitipu. Was just wondering is its likely to affect my pH? Anybody know? I think that's all schist down there.

Hi there, I need a kilo of carbon for a pond in Christchurch. If anyone has a favourite supplier I'd be happy to receive any suggestions. (Have put a WTB ad in the private trade and exchange in case someone has some of their own they want to sell. There are no local listings on trade me at the mo'.)

Until you have an earthquake

We had sheep for a while, went out one morning and found one with its leg tangled and twisted in between some fencing wires. We got him free but it bled like mad and I had to stand there applying pressure while we got some more supplies out. He stood perfectly still for me and we definitely had his trust from that day forward. So glad to hear the Kaka is being looked after (and that its on pain meds!) Fingers crossed for a good result. Please keep us posted.

I suspects lots of people lost their dignity.. :oops: due to standing in doorways or otuside with less on than they might have ever intended!! I lost my nerve for a couple days But I've got that back again now! I'm one of those people who are feeling too lucky and I'm waiting for it to catch up with me somehow

If you can understand about water quality you can help make your life easier and better for the fish. Make sure your boss lets you buy a test kit and use it on a regular basis, it will be a good guide for how much and how often your water changes should be. Do post a picture of that bowl. It sounds nice and big but it'll help people get a better idea of what you're in for. To make it more interesing for the fish maybe you can find some long fine twisty pieces of driftwood and make an arrangement in there. Give them something to poke at and swim around. Maybe add some plants that like low light to help use up some nutrients (Java moss comes to mind, and ludwigia repens) and THEN you might see that you probably could hide filter somewhere behind it I've seen hollow resin 'trunk' ornaments at animatates that are designed to cover the type of filters that sit in a tank! I'll see if I can find a link somewhere. If the fish are unhealthy the tank will be a failure and IMHO.. nothing grabs your attention like tank of unthriving goldfish placed in view of everyone! You can get canister filters like this below that don't actually sit in the tank (bowl), and could be easily disguised next to it (behing a potted plant or under a little table or in a cabinet). http://www.petmart.co.nz/cart_product22 ... ory_ID=251 Best of luck and keep us posted.

That was a really nasty one wasn't it.. amazing how much difference there is between a 4.2 and 4.4. I'd be glad to stop being reminded though! (My poor cats are so freaked out too!)

It never ceases to amaze me that animals KNOW when they're being helped. Just awesome that they're so clever. Hope it recovers soon (and good on you!)

Well, the plants use up the nutrients but there's still a layer of sludge and gunk (leaves etc) down there that gets ugly and smelly and does build up over time, even with heaps of plants (I do run a filter, but it just can't suck EVERYTHING up!)

How to you get the layer of stuff that settles on the bottom?

Most pond pumps are not really set up to handle 'dirty water', and by that I mean clumps and lumps and leaves and stones etc which are unavoidable in a pond. You'd ruin a regular pump unless you had at least a bit of a pre-filter on it to keep solids out. Also if you're going to take the advice given above and 'stir up' the water, I'd make sure you got the fish out first, pockets of anaerobic bacteria can be unhealthy for the fish from what I've read. I've used a hose driven siphon (not the one they're selling on TM now). It's better than nothing but they get clogged up pretty quickly from sucking up too much muck and you can waste half your time cleaning the wretched thing out. That said, I haven't found a really good solution yet. Those siphon things might be ok for very frequent small cleaning jobs, but we do one at our rental only 1/year. We did once hire a sump pump (made sure it was clean), caught the fish after lowering the water level some, then emptied the rest of the pond, repeated hosing and emptying until it was pretty good, then got the rest clean with a scoop. The pond hadn't been cleaned in ages. It went quickly and the results were good, but you end up with 100% water change of course. In a perfect world, I'd like to devise a coarse pre-filter to run to a pond pump (careful cause some need to be submersed and other's don't) and then run the water to a large tub that would polish the water up again (loads of filter media going from coarse to fine and then running the water back to the pond Lots of ides on the web about DIY pond vacs, but the stuff they show is 'cheap as' overseas but quickly adds up to $$$$$ over here I hate wasting water!

Any more news Caryl? Have any new fish been affected? Hope things are settling.

Sorry to hear that Caryl, I came very close to salting my whole pond once but realised i had some water condition problems so I fixed that and things settled.. but I was only seeing 'restlessness'.. not anything scary like you've got! I have successfully salted goldfish a few times to the full recommended dosage of 3g/L (for longer term baths), but I built it up over 1.5-2 days. Basically adding 1g/L at a time, slowly (like over 30 mins pouring in just some of the dissolved solution and letting it dissipate in the water). Them giving them some time to adjust to that 6-8 hours and then adding the 2nd g/L dose etc. Say like morning, evening and then the next morning. The trouble with taking them out to treat them is they're still producing so much waste, you end up fighting to keep the water safe while still getting them the benefits of the salt. I'd try salting a few in one of your kiddie pools and see how that goes maybe? Perhaps grab a plant or 2 if you can reach some easily enough as a source of some good bacteria and to help use up any waste. (Crikey that's a large pond....ok you'd be looking at 30+kg!!!) You could swab the worst of the spots with malachite green...? Or have a fish bin/bucket with some in there at the recommended dose for short term dips and dip them for a few mins as you move them into a salt treatment pond? The recommendation is not to combine salt and other meds together, but you can use them before or after the salt. Its sounding like you haven't got too much to lose

This compares columnaris and saprolegnia which often look similar: http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html This has a few descriptions with treatment options and might be a good starting point. http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/Q&A/skin_disorders.html I know we don't have koi here but I'm betting there's a lot of commonality in the problems with goldfish and koi ponds and since people tend to have a lot invested in their koi, there are lots of resources available so try checking those out. I read somewhere just last week that sometimes when there are greenish bits on growths it's actually algae that's taken advantage of the situation and it growing on top of the problem patches! (I can't find the reference though sorry!) This is a parasite problem, says it often starts as lesions and is sometimes accompanied by white slime. http://www.koivet.com/a_costia.html And here.. see the topic 'spring is in the air' http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PondSubWebIn ... isfaqs.htm http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/diseasehome.htm and lastly http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/treatments/salt.htm Maybe salt would be the easiest fist attempt cause its cheap and works on a variety of ailments, maybe do a medicated dip for the worst affected fish (maybe something like a 'quick cure' type mix that could target a few different things.) Found one reference that said lots of rain could cause a pH crash, which would stress them and make them more open to the various nasties that normally don't cause any harm. Keep us posted. Sure hope you can fix them and that it doesn't spread much more!!

Hi fishplants I know it probably seems like it but I still haven't forgotten your bags! Hopepfully some time this week. Ok.. so its mystery stuff huh? Oh well...as long as it does what it says it does I guess we can't complain. Will take your advice and do a w/c before redosing. I still see a few 'dusty' looking areas (and some cloudy areas) but definitely fewer than before. It can't have heaps of copper in it caue I found a live snail in my tank this morning! Didn't know I had any either! (Probably wasn't your stuff fishplants, I bought some oxygen weed and stupidly didn't dip it!)

Thanks guy. Nope - no info on the label as far as ingredients go. Says its good for chilodonella, costiasis, and ich and that its safe for plants. I dont have ich, but the other 2 were distinct possibilities (it doesn't mention velvet/oodinium but the dusty looking bits didn't seem to have a golden sheen so hopefully that wasn't it) I've used straight meth blue before and it stayed blue a long time, so i couldn't help but wonder. It says its approved under the animal remedies and gives a license number. I may look that up when I have time to see what extra info I can find. My fish look and seem better, but it says to treat again in 3 days if required so I will probably do that. Says not to dose more than 3 times in a row without a big water change.

Hi again, Had some of this around and is was listed as being effective on a range of external parasites in addition to white spot so decided to give it a go. Just wondering what the ingredients might be in case it doesn't cure my fish and I'd need to try something else. I dosed at the recommended level very late last night and by this morning all the 'blue' was gone. Is that unusual?

Ok, so after I turned out their tank light last night I sat and watched them closely, I did see some flashing so I'd better get in and treat the tank with something. I'll have to re-read the disease threads to decide which meds to use. I think I have wunder tonic, meth blue, malachite green, and droncit, so have to choose what might best work. Since its not ich, and doesn't seem fungal that leaves flukes, costia or velvet I guess (any other possibilities? doesn't seem bacterial) I see the lifecycle of costia is really short, maybe that would be the easiest first step, I can treat them with malachite green in a large tub, turn the light off in the tank and turn up the temp a little and put them back in the tank the next day. I've got an air pump I can set up in the tub. I know the lifecycle for flukes is longer, but treatment is less harsh. Dunno about velvet..gotta look than one up.

ps: I'm also aware that most parasites should not really be visible to the naked eye, which is why I'm open to the fact that I could just be paranoid :oops:

Ok.. I could be paranoid but if I look extremely closely at my black moors I can see tiny white filaments on them. For all i know it could be normal (I dont know what's normal for them as they are new to me). Its definitely not white spot. I'm also betting that if I asked someone else, they'd say they can't see anything! Their skin doesn't look hazy, or shimmery or blotchy. Just the tiny white filaments all over the fish, fairly widely spaced and dont seem to be 'clustered' at all. The 2 smallish fish are on their own in about 85L, the water tests are all good (pH ~7.6, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, nitrates ~10, temp 22degs), the fish are comfortable and happy. Fins open, no flashing, gill movement looks regular to me. They arrived with a few scrapes probably damage done when they were caught, those have healed over fine. I considered giving them some preventative treatment before putting them in the tank, but I knew the tank was going to cycle and I didn't really want to strip their slime coat without reason. Trouble is I was planning on adding my BN's to the tank, but dont want them getting infected if there's soemthing in there. Any ideas? The tank is planted, and I would also prefer not to kill my filter bacteria. I do have a couple droncit tabs from many moons ago, I guess these would work if it was flukes but not for something else. Does anyone think I should I try salt first? Or should I just tranfer the BN's anyway and stop being paranoid?? Anyone have a really close up picture of what a black moors skin should look like? Or anyone have a microscope and know about looking at a mucus scraping