Lumps on my Fish.

My fish have lumps. That's the recent phone call I received. A friend of mine was calling to say several of her really large goldfish had these huge lumps on them. What do I do? she asked. She was already buying Melifix to put in the pond and thinking about big parasite treatments. She emailed me these pictures of her dead fish and was worried that what ever they had would be catchy to the other fish in her pond. I asked her to quit throwing her money away on these sort of pond additives. While I couldn't say what caused the fish to die, the lumps were probably not the cause. Possibly a symptom of a poor immune system, but not the cause. I have seen cases like this before, usually always on goldfish. To the best of my research they are actually skin tumors. They are hard pimple like lumps that are often bumpy in texture also. Being tumors they are not life threatening and a fish may live a normal life so long as they don't get too large. Still do not know why they died. The pond owner had not a single water testing kit. (As normal) The rest of the fish in the pond seem to be doing fine. There were no other ulcers, but the fish looked grossly bloated in one picture. So the mystery of their death remains.
On another note, it will soon be August. July was brutally hot. I heard one pond club member's pond was 97 degrees! Surprised he didn't loose all his fish. At home we've been doing water changes to help keep the water cool. I brought the last of the baby fish out of the basement pond and put them outside. Basically, got tired of taking care of them. Put them in the bottom pond where they will find lots of natural algae on the pond walls to munch on. Surprisingly they have joined right in with the rest of the fish. Usually they stay alone and hide in the deep corners of the pond. The outside pond is actually warmer than the inside pond, so they have to be liking that. Bottom pond continues to do fine, actually looking a little crowded again with all the little fish bouncing around now. Upper pond still shows low signs of ammonia and nitrites. Still has a little green cast in the water. Its killing Harry to not be able to feed them several times a day, like he wants to and does the lower pond fish. Took the net off the upper pond for a recent pond meeting at our house and haven't put it back on. So far, so good. No jumpers. I'm loving the new pond and being so close to the fish. Easy to flush the filter, and well...I just like it all around.

Hot, hot, hot...Got to Love July

July 1st, and the heat index is only 105 degrees out. Both ponds have been doing ok. Still trying to cycle the new pond to get the ammonia and nitrites out. I'm still getting low readings, but with these high temps and my high pH any ammonia is almost twice as toxic. Just because your test kits read say .25 ppm it really depends on water temp and pH. With water temps in the 70's-80's and a pH of 9 or more, I'm really looking at almost twice that reading which is very stressful if not lethal. So, I'm adding Amquil and now that I'm out of that will be adding the cheaper ClorAm-X. I've been adding Microlift PL and gel to try to get the bacteria going faster and even a little salt to help with the low nitrite reading I'm getting. I have nitrites in my well water, which doesn't help. So, its very important to get my bacteria going as soon as possible. It's been a full month now since I put the fish out there and while the levels have held pretty steady, they have not begun to go away. It's hard to get a brand new, never used filter material to start growing bacteria. I keep watching the liner for signs of a growing patina. The water is taking on a slight green tinge, which I don't like, but know it is probably good for the fish. And, while Harry wants to feed about 6 times a day, they get just a small amount once a day. Not good for growing. But a dead fish won't grow at all, so water quality comes first.
The old lower pond is doing great. Maybe our best year in a long time as far as string algae. I got to give "Pond Balance" all the credit. Using it has taken all the string algae out of our pond. Filters have been half as full and pumps are a lot easier to keep clean. I've had no problems with that pond this summer so far. Knock on wood!!! Usually when we leave for the 4th of July weekend, we come home to a creek and pond full of the stuff. Not this year. Yaaa whooo!
Getting ready for the 4-H fish club's debut at the Linn Co. Fair next week. Kind of excited and getting some good press, too. A lot of work. Thank goodness for the help of Carol and Dennis Sindelar and Greg Bickal. They're the best!!!!
Gardens are doing ok, tomatoes and peppers are slow to grow though. We'll be gone for the next 4 days, fishing in southern Iowa, so I suppose I'll come home to shriveled up plants with all this heat and no rain.
Both pond clubs will be holding their pond tours on the same day, July 10th. Unfortunately, I can only work at one, and that will be EIPS. It is also during fair week, so I'll be busy, busy.

jumping fish!!!

Well, the new pond has been going good so far! I'm fighting ammonia and nitrite levels, though. I had added some aged bio balls to the filter to help seed it, but I can tell the pond has not begun to cycle at all. Harry is doing small water changes and adding Amquil to help bind the ammonia and salt to help with the nitrite up take which can cause brown blood disease. The water has a green cast, but I'm ok with that for now. I think the UV has been helping with that but have recently shut it off too in an effort to get the bacteria established. Started adding a little Microlift PL hoping that will help get the bacteria going, also. We've been keeping the pond netted, just because I'm nervous about the fish jumping out. We took it off Sunday while we were home all day and it's so much nicer viewing the fish, but put it back on Sunday night.

We've been watching one particular doitsu kohaku we recently purchased at Koi Acres. His mucus seemed to be taking on a milky cast. Possible ammonia burn??? Stress??? Salt I was adding bothering it???So, Harry was concerned and didn't want to just "watch" it any longer. We decided to net it out and put it in a QT tank for awhile to see if it would improve. So about 5:00 pm we put it in a tank in the basement, added a little anti bacterial medicine to the water, covered the whole tank with a double layer tarp to keep him in and left him to rest and adjust. Went to check on him around 8:00 that evening and you guessed it, he had jumped out of the tank and laid dead on the basement floor!!! d**m d**m dang!!!! There was no movement at all, but I still worked with it to try to revive it for at least an hour. Moving it through the water in figure 8's and holding it directly in the bubbler with it's gill plates propped open. No luck. So another favorite fish gone. Just like that. Try to do something proactive and it ends in tragedy. Just the opposite of what we were trying to do. Lesson learned...cover on tank must be weighted down all around!!!He jumped up hard enough to lift the tarp and slip under it and over the top, which was a good 12 inches above the top of the water! This is not the first time we've lost fish in QT tanks from jumping so you would think we'd know better, but I actually thought it would be enough. In other cases it was because of no cover or a particular hole at one end or something. Sad, just very sad!! So the 15 inch fish is now flower food in the garden. Just so frustrating. Harry just shook his head at me. I wanted to cry. So now we are both worried about the netted pond outside. Do we need to always keep it on? It should be no different than a pond at ground level, right? The water level on the new pond is only 4 inches from the top. An easy jump for any of them. Got my favorites in there. It would be just devastating to loose one of those.. oh, what to do.....

Finally the fish are out!

Finally the fish are outside! Harry has worked so hard to get them out. With just a little more touch up paint and some primping with flowers and all around the edges to soften things up, and the new pond will be finally done. The fish seem to enjoy the current. With the addition of the eductors which can triple the water flow coming out of a pipe, the water becomes a river of current in the pond. You can watch the fish swim to it, relax, and just get kind of thrown back from the current. The water swirls around the pond edge while the bottom drain aerator creates a upward current in the middle. I'm totally happy with that. The only problem we are having is the floating skimmer is not working. Seems we don't have enough pull through it. The single 4" bottom drain is supplying enough water for the pump so that there is no pull through the skimmer. If we taper the drain down in the filter or put a stand pipe in it, then the filter begins to go down as the 1 1/2" pipe from the skimmer is not enough to stay ahead of the pump. So, we need to play with that. But, I'm just so happy to have the fish out. I purchased a small hoola hoop to use as a feeding ring. But, it doesn't work. It either floats too high in the water, or the before mentioned current is so strong that it pushes the food right underneath the ring and out into the pond. So, one more thing I need to figure out. Any suggestions are welcomed!
I've covered the pond with a net at least for the first few days. I don't want any of my larger fish jumping out. Am hoping after a while they'll get used to their new home and not even try to escape like the 2 little fish we put in earlier did. By the way, one of those tiny guys did die, while the other chagoi one is still swimming around. I should post a picture of this chag. This is a 6" koi from my basement pond that has had a unhealing sore on it's shoulder for months. It starts to heal, then stops and then starts again. He's just been a mess since way last fall. But, he's hung on and I haven't had the heart to pitch him. Thus, he became one of the sacrificial koi. Then after he jumped out of the new pond and I picked him out of the dirt and put him back in, he kind of got this fin rot and white spots starting to grow on him, but I couldn't catch him, so he again got to stay in the new pond. Now, I see him, and can not believe how he hangs in there. Almost feel like he deserves to stay alive and grow big. Hopefully he will. He certainly is a survivor! If he had been a 100.00 beautiful fish that I bought, he'd of been dead a long time ago, I guaranty that! Funny how the fishy world works.
Am loving the window we put in the pond! I can now see every little imperfection on the fish, though. Kind of scary. Koi are definitely meant to be viewed from above. They are no where as pretty from their sides. The fish seem to like the window too. It was designed to be seen from my kitchen table. I can sit and eat and watch the fish go buy. Harry is already wishing he had put a second one in, viewable from the deck were we sit outside.
Here's a few pics of the filter set up, the fish and my view from the kitchen table. We finished it to look like the filter house in the yard that we use for the other pond. I'm just so happy it's done!!! Can't stop smiling.

It's getting there!

Gee, it's a month later and the new pond still is not finished. At first it was competing with Turkey hunting season, then mushroom season... but now, Harry has been working all day on this for me. It's near finished but now comes a 3 day Memorial weekend and another halt in work. Can't really figure out why this is taking so long. Perhaps because there is no real plans. Everything is figure out as you go, so that means fifty trips to the store for materials. It has rained all day today, forcing Harry back into the garage, which is ok, cause now he'll spend a day putting together the filter pad cubes. An indoor job that we've been putting off for a rain day. Monday we put in 3 small sacrificial koi to check the water quality, as much of the water in the pond is the original water put in after the new liner was installed. I have not done a full water change on it. Anyway, Tuesday morning as I went out to work, I found 2 of the koi in the dirt along side of the pond! Both were still breathing! I quickly picked them up and washed them off a little and put them back into the pond. The only thing I can think of is in a black pond, maybe with the first daylight they wanted to swim towards the light. Fortunately for them, I was up going to work and they must of just tried their get away or they would be dried up toast on the ground. Today, they are still alive and haven't tried that trick again. But, I did buy a net, which I will be putting over the pond after I add the rest of the fish. With the water level a mere 3 inches below the edge it's a subject that has come up before in conversation. I'm hopeful they will stay put in the pond and we don't have any trapeze artist in the group.

The temps have still been pretty cool. Water temps were an all time high of 68 degrees last weekend. Fish have shown no sign of spawning. There were done, this time last year. Toads have been procreating, though. Hundreds of them! I netted out at least 30 pair a couple weeks ago, simply because I didn't want that many eggs in the pond. I have a lot of hostas and plants, though, so I like the toads. I welcome their kinship, just not in my pond.

We've been so busy trying to finish the pond that I haven't even taken the time to enjoy the other flowers in my gardens. The weeds have. They are enjoying themselves everywhere I look. Just finally got my tomatoes and peppers in. I still have flowers I bought sitting on the deck waiting to be planted. Still have tropicals in the basement with the fish that need brought out and planted. And, it's almost June!!! Going to be a short Summer. Feeling overwhelmed just writing this. I need a week off work, just to get caught up with my normal gardening. Got a long weekend coming, but are we going to stay home and get caught up? Nooo way! We're headed to southern Iowa to go fishing and camping all weekend. It's a family tradition. So, again, everything is on hold. Fish will wait till after the weekend to go into the pond as I want to be around to keep an eye on them when we do. In the mean time, we'll keep picking at it. We are close, so very, very close.

Rain, rain, go away

Man the weather has just sucked this month. We're trying to get this pond thing done, but it wants to rain every other day if not every day. And when it's not raining, its freezing out. I feel so sorry for the fish in the basement. I want so badly to get them outside. The water temps in the big pond were only 54 degrees last night. I have to have another 10-15 degrees yet before I can get the fish outside. As I look at my records, I've had the basement fish outside on May 1st for the last 2 years. Not going to happen this year. I really wanted the tank empty by the time we went to the Koi Acres open house, just in case we bought a fish there that would need qt'd. But, the new pond will certainly not be done by then and at the rate we're going the other outside pond will still be too cold! So we wait for mother nature. Hopefully the April showers that bring May flowers will also leave with the month of April.

Despite their crowded conditions in the basement, the fish seem to be doing a lot better. The single fish I brought in earlier from the outside pond because it was starting to pine cone, seems to be all better. Thank goodness. All the fin and mouth rot is gone also. So, think we're on the mend. (Knock on Wood)The fish outside are already eating daily and seem to love the new Madafu. Between turkey hunting and pond construction Harry is keeping super busy.

Sat/Sun work on new pond

Oh, I'm so sore! Spent all Saturday and Sunday constructing the walls of the new pond. It looks huge for now. This is a picture from inside my kitchen window. It's made from 2x6 treated lumber that weighs a ton. Throw in the fact that most of it is below grade or near ground level and you are constantly bending and crawling around on the ground. This old body doesn't move like it used to. Up and down, up and down. And tiny rocks from the nearby walking path everywhere. On the upside, it was beautiful out. Temps in the 70s to near 80 degrees on Sunday. I actually fed my outdoor fish for the first time this season. They quickly gobbled up the Mandfu and Tomigoi I fed them. Easy does it, though. Their tummy's have been basically empty for 4 months. My largest Bekko was showing some severe signs of pineconning. So first thing Friday night we netted him out and set up a hospital tank in the basement for him. I'm slowly trying to warm him up in a little salted water. The temps in my outside pond still only read 48 degrees. I'm hoping with this weeks temps getting up to 60 every day, that maybe the pond will pickup a few degrees. The Bekko is the largest female I have, and I'd sure hate to loose her. QT is hard on them too, so am hoping the heat and salt will help her feel better. Debating on antibiotics, but need to get her temps up before that can even do her any good. The pineconning doesn't seem as bad today, but she's still very red, which is not good. You should see my basement. I've got one tub full of 20 shubunkins I'm holding for my 4-H fish club members, one 100 gallon tub for the Bekko, and the big pond for wintering over some of my koi. So,it's a regular maze down there. There is barely room to move between all the tanks. Without proper filtration, I'm doing manual water change outs every night to help maintain water quality. It's quite the operation. Just trying to keep everyone alive and well. Sure will be nice when everybody goes outside. Am so looking forward to the new pond. I'm excited. It's not coming along as planned though. After putting up the walls, I've realized there is so much fall between the house and garage, that my gravity fed filtration now has to be elevated. Not good. I'm going to have to have steps to get on top of it. Well, you'll see as it progresses. I thought it would be like maybe 2 foot high, but it's more like 3 foot. Not good at all! I'll keep you posted.