Wow, again its been awhile since I posted. Unfortunately, the shushui in the last post died :(. I even went to the vet and got antibiotics to inject him with. In the mean time while I was doing all that, I noticed yet another of my "favorites" had a huge sore on its tail!!! OMG what is going on??? So since this fish was a 24" girl, I had to now set up the Qt tank and fast. She was too big for any large plastic tub like I had the shushui in. So I netted her out(by myself since Harry was gone) and brought her inside to. Since I had to fill the qtank, I now moved the shushui into the tank with the yamabuki. Figured the companionship would improve the stress of being pulled out of the ponds. I put the yamabuki to sleep and tried to at least clean the wound and get some iodine on it. At least she was still eating, so I began feeding her some medicated food. After just 2 days in bigger tank and after 4 shots of baytril, the shushui began to bloat and developed large pus pockets under every scale she had! So, I finally just pulled her and put her to sleep for good. I felt so bad. The initial sore really never broke into an open ulcer. Kind of weird. But the infection must of went systemic, cause she definitely was getting worse internally. I felt so bad for her. Meanwhile the yamabuki seems to be developing more red spots all over her. Especially on her fins. She continues to eat, so that is a good sign. Out in the ponds I notice my other blue shushui developing a very small spot behind his gill plate. I pulled him out, hit the sore with some iodine and put him now in with the yamabuki. His red spot seems to be clearing and doing better. So, maybe I got that one in time. I keep looking at the large ulcer on the yamabuki and would like to think it is slowly turning 'white" which would be a good thing. Its large and nasty. I did a complete scrape. fin clip, and gill clip on her and found nothing under the microscope. Never the less, that was three fish now with spots, so I'm treated the ponds with Terminex and will now treat with Superverm for flukes. Something is definitely out there. Even if I can't see it.
The ponds, which were turning brown from the millions of walnut leaves falling has now cleared this week. Possibly the cooler temps. I purchased some smaller food to feed the growing babies. There seems to be quite a few black or chagoi type ones out there. I assume their darker colors helps them from being eaten when they are very small. Will be real interesting this fall, when we try to pull some out of there. Really starting to feel like fall out there.
