[markf1fan]

Hi ya all

i just wanted to start a thread where i am going to go through what i am experiencing right now and what i do and the out come at the end.

yesterday i lost a fish in my quarantine tank of which i have had now for about 3 months a nice white ogon. about 1 week ago i noticed some of the fish rubbing them selfs on the bottom, what i did was add 1/2 once of salt to the quarantine tank. having watched them more it was not making much difference so i then added Acriflavine of which still made no difference as i still lost the fish yesterday. i got up this morning and did my first ever scrape of which i learnt so much in 20 mins for sure. what i learnt was what white spot looks like under a microscope. well i then went and brought some NT Labs EX5 of which is a 5 day treatment for so many parasites. i put in my first dose today and will carry on for next 4 days and then do another scrape. then i will see how things are then.
what i would advise to every one is go out and buy a microscope for sure and if you get any fish rubbing do a scrape. what i have learnt today will for sure help me in the future.

mark

[bcfc]

good advice there, if u have koi, invest in a microscope. do not treat blind. or at least know some one, u can ask to help. why spend money on a pond, and koi, then don`t know wot to treat for?? and loose some? happy new everyone.

[terrydog]

HI MARK
can you tell me wht you did in more detail what did you scrape did you use a scalpel how did you know what they look like on the microscope

[markf1fan]

Originally Posted by terrydog

HI MARK
can you tell me wht you did in more detail what did you scrape did you use a scalpel how did you know what they look like on the microscope

well what i did was buy a cheap microscope off ebay awhile back for about £30 and in the set it has 10 slides. so what you do is net the fish out and use one slide to run from head to tail in this way so you dont pull the scales up. what your doing is getting some slime on the edge of the clear slide then you get another slide and rub the slime into the centre of the second slide then put one drop of pond water onto the slime. once you done this lightly put the 2 slides together so the slime is in between the slides. then put this onto your microscope and use x100. or you can use x400. once you have done this you move the slide about and focus in on what you can see. i then looked on the net for costia, trichodina, and white spot. i first thought it would be costia or trichodina. but then i found a picture of white and a video and bingo it was white spot that i could see on the microscope. i then just went and brought some nt labs EX5 and have treated today and for the next 4 days. hope this has helped you and if you need any more info pm me and we can have a chat on the phone. its really worth learning todo this because from now on i will be more on the ball. mark

[trickydicky]

You must be well chuffed as you were very worried on the phone last night mate . probably didnt help me reading from the book to you either,but hey like you say buying that cheap microscope saved you money and hassel in the long run

[markf1fan]

not the best video for taking a scrape but will give you an idea.

YouTube - How to take a scrape

white spot video

YouTube - koi white spot ?

costia video

YouTube - Costia

trichodina video

YouTube - Trichodina

[markf1fan]

Originally Posted by trickydicky

You must be well chuffed as you were very worried on the phone last night mate . probably didnt help me reading from the book to you either,but hey like you say buying that cheap microscope saved you money and hassel in the long run

i was worried mate but it is well worth spending £30 on a ebay microscope for sure. having done this today i have now learnt some thing that all koi keepers should learn. maybe then we would not all loose fish including myself.

[bcfc]

i never had a micro at first, untill i started reading koi forums. so instead of buying a koi for £50 £100 . i got a micro. last year there seemed to be a lot of flukes about. i had to treat twice, so glad i got one.

[markf1fan]

well been out today and treated again with EX5 on the second day and to say the fish look better is good. some of them was clamping there fins yesterday but today all swimming about alot better and not even seen them flick yet. mark

[freddy]

Hiya Mark.
An excellent thread, very helpful for those of us who know absolutely nothing about taking scrapes/samples. Well done !

Cheers...Freddy.