Unhealthy Fish or Disease

[TheAlohaBoy]

Ugh. Lost 10 fish over last few days in one of my ponds. Something is seriously wrong. I added some fish these last few days that could have been infected..... I probably need to add salt into the pond. Some kind of fungas or disease is taking over. My fish are turning white on fins and entire body as if they were being dunked in flower. Anyone one have any suggestions before I execute my entire pond or know of any current disease that effecting the fish lately.

I lost two big catfish I had over a year now. Sad.

[roadwarriorsvt]

Yep, definitely sounds like a newly introduced fish may have infected your entire pond. I'd salt the pond immediately. As a general rule of thumb, about 1 cup of salt per 10 gallons. I use a over 4 lbs. of salt in my 600 gallon pond. Try to get some ick treatment from a pet store also. Good luck.

[Pegasus]

That sure sounds like ick to me. I've lost fish before to it. Good luck !

[BillFHM3C]

Treating "ick" can be very tricky. The way we did it at HCC was to prepare a big enough container, or containers, to fit the fish in and treat the water with commercial "ick" medicine. Let the fish swim around in the container(s) for the specified time. While they're swimming you need to drain the pond and scrub it with bleach, or a strong disinfectant, in a 10% solution. Salting the water sonds like it might work, but if it's a big pond you might not get it all and all your work would be for naught. Rinse out the pond several times, usually until there's no more sudsing of any kind or smell. Then fill the pond and let it sit for a few days. Then slowly reintroduce the fish into the pond. I've seen this work, but I've also seen it fail too. Some strains of "ick" are just to prevalent and damn hard to kill. I've even had to destroy the pond because we just couldn't get the "ick" out. It just kept coming back no matter what we used! Even our professor was stumped. Good luck!

[roadwarriorsvt]

I've been told that one cause of ick is the water's changing temps going from warm in the day to cool in the night. A water heater can be used in smaller aquariums. Can't really control the temp in larger ponds though.

[TheAlohaBoy]

Where can I buy bags of Salt that is safe for pond use and in large quanity for cheap. I tried Home Depot (dont have), In the mainland they sell salt for water softner systems etc. But in hawaii, they do not sell it....Ugh I have 2000+ Gallons to treat.

Lost all the Catfish. So sad. A years worth gone in one week.

[Ahnkochee]

Costco has 5 pound bags Hawaiian salt for $3.99.
Many swimming pools are switching from chlorine to salt based systems so I would think you could get salt in larger quantities from a pool supply store like Allpool & Spa.
Remember though if circulated in a aquaculture system too much salt with kill your plants.

[BillFHM3C]

It sounds as if you've got a handle on it. Here's a little more on the "Ich" problem & solutions. Good Luck.

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/ichthyophthirius