Ich in 1100L Pond!!

[jn1]

Hi there, Have discovered white spot on our pond fish. I am very new at this so have alot of questions! (Pond was 'inherited' with a proprety purchase)

Can I treat this in the winter or will the water be too cold to have much success? (ie: will the parasite largely be dormant?)

Was hoping to treat with sea salt as per recommendations on KoiVet.com but don't know enough about the lifecycle at a cold temp. Pond water will be at most 8 deg. C... possibly less (I'm in Christchurch).

The other thing is.. there are only 5 fish! Should I bring them indoors and treat them? Then wait to treat the pond until spring? I don't have any indoor tanks or pumps so I would have to 'invest' in some which I'd rather not do at this stage if I can avoid it. If indoor treatment is the answer what temp. would I have to get the water to to be successful?

Also how would the salt affect water lilies and marginals (acorus, arum, milfoil, babies tears, papyrus, irises)? Would I be better of removing these and treating with something else? (Formalin, Potassium Permangenate?) Or would removing the fish break the lifecycle and avoid the need to treat the pond?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!!

[Discusguru]

Salt will not be good for your plants. How big are the fish? Your best way is to remove the fish and treat them in a tank. Temp doesn't matter.

Without any host in the pond the parasite will die off and the cycle broken.

Do a big water change before you put the fish back in the pond after treating them.

Cheers,

Ron

[jn1]

Thanks for the quick reply. The fish aren't real big 3 are small fantails maybe 6cm and there are 2 bigger comets at maybe 10-12cm.

Maybe I can use plastic bins to treat them with salt?

Thinking I can put the 3 small ones in one bin and the 2 bigger ones in another? I have some bins that will handle maybe 40L each. Would this be ok without a pump? The bins are rectangular so have good surface area.

How long would they have to be out of the pond to break the cycle?

I have a biological filter in the pond. If I take the fish out but leave the filter running will this prevent the water from cycling when I reintroduce the fish?

Actually.. since this is effectively quarrantine treatment (albeit in reverse) should I be treating for/with anything else to make sure the fish are free of any other parasite or diseases?

Was thinking of dosing the pond with acriflavin for good measure but I can only find 20ml bottles at $5 each... I need about 50mls I think. Anyone know where I can get some medium quantity at a reasonable price?

[Caryl]

White spot means the fish are stressed. You can remove them from the pond and treat them but unless you identify the cause it will recur. The plastic bins will be fine and should be OK without a pump but you will need to do regular partial water changes. If the fish start gasping at the surface it is a sign of lack of oxygen.

With so few fish in a pond that size it will recycle easily when the fish are returned. Seems odd to me the fish are getting white spot at this time of year. They should be semi-hibernating at the bottom of the pond. I hope you are not feeding them at this time. Goldfish shut down their digestive systems at 10C and below and do not need to eat until it is a lot warmer.

Take this opportunity to clean out the pond, check the bottom for rotting matter and clean out the filter (including the impeller).

Only ever use one medication at a time, do not be tempted to treat with something else "just to make sure".

Salt will kill your plants.

Keep the fish out of the pond for 2 weeks minimum. Not sure how much the white spot cycle slows down in cold water.

[jn1]

The place is a rental. The tenants phoned after someone who knew about fish noticed the spots on them. They may well have been like that for some time. We had no experience with fish nor have the tenants. we are all trying to learn very quickly! (Can you recommend a good book?)

The previous tenants overfed the fish and there were serious water quality problems with some deaths. The pond was vacuumed (maybe 50% water change) and water problems corrected (and tested to be sure.. pH was 7.8, nitrite and ammonia were nil and nitrate was in the normal range).

The filter was added after this to help mitigate any future problems. There was already a pump which runs 24/7 to a trickling pedestal so the water is aerated. The pond is now well stocked with plants (it was only stocked to a lesser degree before the overfeeding which wouldn't have helped I guess) This was some time ago now (april/may?) but yes the fish would have been stressed at the time.

Tenants have a net and have been diligently scooping out all leaves etc so there is definitely very little decomposing matter in there apart from a very fine layer of sediment/sludge (with the fish out we might take the opportunity to hire the pondvac again and clean that up) Pond is only 40-50cm deep so we definitely have a good view of the bottom and are sure it's looking good.

Q: Under normal conditions is it too stressful for the fish to vacuum the pond in winter? (ie: perform a significant water change?)

The new tenants were feeding very carefully as per our instructions but stopped when the water got cold (we have a thermometer in there that says when they should stop being fed). Fish are definitely hibernating but when we take them out and bring them into bins inside is it possible I may have to start feeding them again? I guess I'll bring the thermometer with the fish to check that. I understand that I should wait about a week after the temp comes into the 'feeding zone' before starting to feed them?

I think I will leave the salt in the bins until a week after I stop seeing spots. Then I guess gradually flush out the salt with small water changes until I get to virtually no salt before putting them back into the pond.

Does this all sound ok? Really do appreciate your expertise.

[Alan]

Salt doesn't kill the parasite

Methylene blue does.

Treat them in the buckets, leave them a fortnight, maybe more, (as the warmer the water, the quicker the life cycle of the whitespot), before reintroducing them.

The parasites as noted will not have survived as stated before in another post.

But make sure the pond is the same temp as the buckets, or viseversa when returning them.

When doing the cleanout of the pond, allow plenty of time for the water to age, that is, the chlorine out of it.

With so few fish even a complete clean out wouldn't hurt as the water volume would be able to handle the load as it setles down and cycles.

Alan 104

[Freakyfish]

I dont believe that white spot means the fish are stressed

Also your right Alan salt wont kill the white spot but it doesnt help prevent new whitespot parasites from attaching themselves to the fish

I would totally clean out the pond and treat the fish inside somewhere you can keep the temp up alittle to make the cycle of life for the whitespot faster

As Alan also said make sure its not a big temp change when you release the fish back into the pond

I dont think with that temp of the water you will have problems with a lack of oxygen as the lower the temp the higher ability to hold oxygen

And as Caryl has pointed out only use one medication at a time

Though salt is fine to dose with at the same time as a white spot remedy

Brad

[herefishiefishie]

I believe salt to be overrated as a treatment. Yes salt is used to burn off the old mucus...but if the water is dirty, fish are stressed....with no slime coat opens the fish to other diseases.

I believe white spot needs a host, so if there are no fish in the pond, then the white spot will die off. Being cold is tricky to work out the length of cycle, 2 weeks should be fine.

You can treat the white spot in the drums, I would just use white spot remedy, try not to adjust temperature much as that will stress the fish out a bit too.

Treat them in the pond will work, just do one or 2 treaments after the white spot disappears.

Frenchy