Fishkeepers Guide for New Fishkeepers Fishkeepers Guide for New Fishkeepers |  | Fishkeepers Guide for New Fishkeepers |  | Pondkeepers nightmare
Attention all you koi keepers that are pulling their hair out at the moment.
Do you have this problem?
Fish off colour, with torn or ragged fins?
Fish with ulcers, or other large lesions.?
Fish with fungus, & pathogen damage?
Most of the fish O.k. but sudden deaths of an unexplained nature.
Fish feeding well, but one of them infected even though you have tried all the treatments?
We if you do, you probably have the following,
Spring Viremia in carp (KOI).
Well now you know what you have got you have to solve this problem.
Well here is the answer, and if you don't take notice, Don't tell me I didn't tell you.
What it is.
Viremia is a massive surge in pathogenic bacteria, what is this you might ask?
Pathogenic bacteria are the ones that start your filter up & eat the waste produced by fish. They are common in all water, though not in these quantities.
There are different types some called, Aeromonas and Pseudomonas and other nitrifying bacteria.
Why does this cause a problem? Well they attack the mucus on a fishes skin and breach the barrier, once in they leave it to all the rest of the nasty little blighters to infect the fish with all manner of disease, such as gill rot fin-rot fungus disease and the suchlike together with external parasites, such as leeches & gill maggots.
At the end of the season we all wanted to grow bigger fish, so we left it to the last minute to do the housekeeping on the pond. The items such as cut back the weed, remove the sludge, re-pot the plants, scrub out the filter etc. Now we are suffering the consequences.
Last years weed growth is dying under the new growth. Sludge is accumulating at the bottom of the waterfall and the pond, not allowing the gravel or substrate to do the job.
The filter is going, but is thick with dirt and that is suppressing the good bacteria. Any media is coated with sludge, which is suppressing the natural process taking place.
When at the beginning of the season we were not going to put in new weed after taking it so long to grow last year.
The lilies are competing for space between the reeds and a few other plants are colonating the tops of the baskets.
So now we are desperate, the fish are dying and we have spent a fortune on treatments that the big companies tell us will solve the problem.
So Start Anew.
Break down the filter & give it a good scrub, after saving a bucket of the worst sludge for restarting the filter.
Cut back all the weeds and take the best & replant them in new baskets.
Stir up all the old sludge & clean the settlement chamber 16 times if its still dirty.
Clean the waterfall & plant the new plants salvaged from the rotting debris.
Stir up the substrate and let the settlement chamber take it out after the 16 times to clear the pond.
Change 10% of the water or more every other day for a fortnight.
Aeriate the water with a air pump going continuously.
Start up the filter with a bucket of the old sludge and add Filter start to it as well.
Look at it this way. The water was killing the fish because it was full of harmful bacteria.
All that we are doing is to starve the little blighters to death and do away with the places that they live in.
Its that Simple.
When all this is done get an anti ulcer treatment & use it anyway.
Put stress coat in the pond to protect the old wounds
Put salt in the pond to disinfect it
Cycle your filter again and use adjusters to keep it in check.
Your fish will recover in time even though the wounds look terrible.
If you think you know better than this to solve the problem, visit this link, They will charge you through the nose to solve the problems above & some of you will be that desperate, that you will pay them. www.genesyz.com
Next year, remember at the end of the season that you will have the same problem, at that time prevention is better than cure.
Cut back massive weed growth.
Empty you settlement chamber through the winter.
Disturb your filter when the water is below 50 degrees.
Hopefully next year there may not be a problem.
There is no substitute for good advice.
Regards
www.fishkeepingsupplies.com
Aquarium and Fish Supply Tropical
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| Fishkeeping kits for beginners
What Aquarium for kids.
One million people will be asking this year, "What do I buy for the kids at Xmas.?"
Well this is the right way to do it.
Imagine you were a fish and you were put in a small bowl, with no escape. Only the world to see from the window that never closes, but never opens.
Destined to wind what brain you have, to going around in circles for the rest of your life, before you are poisoned because someone never changed the water or left you in the heat with no air.
Given to a child that does not understand what you live in or what makes you happy.
Born to live for up to 35 years, and the likelihood of you getting to old age is virtually nil. Being born & bred for the bowl, destined to live a life of hardship with poor water and sometimes no food. And the occasional look from a large beast that appears at the window now and again.
Sometimes the odd bit of gravel to root in and an ornament stuck in the middle so you cant swim straight. Given to someone else, as you could not travel unless all the water spilt. Driven to the depths of dis-pair with only death to look forward to.
Would you want to live.??
Well now imagine you are still that goldfish & your keepers parents decided to find out what you needed before subjecting you to this.
How would I know? You ask?
Well I will tell you and take the goldfishes side.
One goldfish can grow up to six or seven inches in its lifetime, it can live for up to 35 years. Some small carp such as crucian exceed this by ten years, and the big brother of the goldfish lasts over 100 years. He is called a Koi carp.
I need 24" of tank to be able to exercise my fins properly and a depth of at least 12" of water, to exercise my swim bladder between the top and the bottom, because there is a slight change of pressure, the deeper I get.
I need a filter to take out my faeces from the water so it does not poison me, or make me sick. I need air pumped into the water as I will suffocate without it. Grabbing bubbles at the surface is not good enough as I have Gills that filter oxygen from the water. It doesn't grow on trees it has to be put in with a pump.
This is the furniture I would like. A large carpet of small gravel over the bottom of my tank, preferably a plush depth of about an inch, under this I would like a gravel filter which will save you changing the gravel for the next three years because it will clean itself. I would like a nice ornament which will give me somewhere to hide when I am frightened by someone outside, and this will also do so everybody doesn't watch me go to the toilet. A couple of pieces of plastic weed would be nice, but if you can afford it I would like real weed to put in with me, That way if I am feeling peckish then I can have a snack. If you start with four pieces some will grow and I wont have to ask for more as it wont run out if I am kept warm..
That's the next thing, I don't mind central heating but if it gets up to far beyond 80 degrees I will suffocate without an airpump to replenish my oxygen. And I don't like the temperature to drop below 50 degrees as my joints get tight and I cant swim that well so I will have to lay near the bottom, and wait for sunny weather.
You can change 10% of my water once a week, any more and I will get bleached by the chlorine put into the water that you drink, but if you leave it in a bucket outside full up for five days the chlorine & the fluoride will disperse before you try to poison me.
Every six weeks to two months you can take my filter out and wash it in a bucket of my water from the aquarium (my home) and put it back in. I don't want it cleaned properly as there will be no nitrifying bacteria left to help my wee get changed into plant food. Just a rinse of all the horrible brown stuff called algae partly gone.
Now as I am no longer going to be in a prison I need food every day, a small pinch of flake every morning & evening, and on Sundays a nice small packet of bloodworm or daphnia to keep my colours up. I cant dye my skin you see so I have to use the stuff that I eat to enhance my coat.
For this I will reward you with lots of interest as my life will be lively with the right diet and the right home, please put me up on the side as I don't like being kicked by kids as it rattles my tank. I will look out at you every day and thank the man above that I have a good home and good keepers and people that love me.
If you do the job properly and then send me a girlfriend too, and then every year I will reward you with little babies galore.
Keep an eye on me every day and if I get spots or ragged fins you will have to take me to the vet to get me sorted, I don't like fleas at the best of time especially when they try to grow in my water, and my fins get finrot and red ended every now and again, so you will have to treat my water to make me feel better. I don't want to be a pain or have to scratch on my ornaments all my life.
So now you know what I want for a home and for my dinner and for the rest of my life, which will be a long and healthy one, and when your children grow up they can tell everyone that they still have that little goldfish that they got for Christmas when they were five, or what mummy & daddy did to make my life good.
I'm not the goldfish anymore, but you know what I mean, if you are going to give me a good home I want to come to live with you. If you are going to torture me, leave me on the shelf. Thank you.
See complete aquarium kits for kids, it wont matter if its not xmas.
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E.mail for prices Goldies from 2 euro Comets from 2.20 Shabunkins from 2.20 Moors & oranda from 2.99
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