thin red vein is chargoi ok ?

thereds · 21-01-2012, 04:25 PM

Hi All,

I was taking water samples as usual (once a week) from my pond today, ph 7.5-8, ammonia 0, kh 107ppm, nitrite 0, nitrate 0 (could see nothing abnormal) when i noticed my chargoi had a few small red hair like veins just behind his head and were about 20mm in length. on closer inspection ( finger in the water and there he is lol

) he has them on both sides. He has not been acting any different to usual his swimming is fine. can't see any sign of red lines in any of his fins, all other fish are fine. We have had a lot of temperature fluctuations just recently going between 10-5 degrees c lower in the night time. Could it be he is showing a little stress due to this?. My pond is unheated and don't think my partner wants me to get a whacking great heater to heat it up!!!.Any advice would be great as I have surfed the net (as you do) and am confused to say the least, some say stress others say ammonia poising

.

Thanks a lot guys and girls andy

pondy · 22-01-2012, 12:33 PM

firstly your pond temperature would i doubt be going down to minus 5 my pond is also unheated at the moment and when our outside temperature was down to -4 the other morning my pond was still sitting at 10c.
the veins on your fish should be ok, it could be showing some stress at the moment due to your cooler temps in your pond but they normally settle down.
As long as all your perameters are fine and your still doing regular water changes.. your chagoi should be fine. dont stress it out trying to net it up... what are you going to do when you do? (unless you were going to take a scapre and check the mucus under the microscope.)

thereds · 22-01-2012, 12:59 PM

Hi Pondy,

my pond temperature is between 10 to 5 degrees not minus that was a dash lol. I do have some stress coat plus which i could add to the water, do you think this would be a good idea?, or shall i just see what happens?. Many thanks for the advise
Andy

Gazfish · 22-01-2012, 01:08 PM

Hi Andy,

I think the advise from Pondy is sound don't panic at this moment and keep you eye on the fish making sure nothing gets worse.

Don't start adding anything to the pond as this could make it worse

never add anything to the pond until you are 100% sure what you are dealing with first.

That is a massive temperature change if you are going from 10c down to 5c and could stress a fish out is there no way you could put a cover on to reduce this and hold the heat ?

thereds · 22-01-2012, 01:33 PM

Hi Gazza, yes I was going to use a tarp but read somewhere that if the material is not fish safe or your not sure then dont use it as condensation can build up which can turn your water bad. A guy online said he done this and lost most of his fish because of it. I am getting some triple ply perspex insulation sheet and will fit this over most of the pond. I did not know that stress coat can harm fish, somebody said its good for replacing slime coat?. Just to add it took a week to reach 5 and has come back up to nine again over the last few days. Again thanks for the advice
Andy

Gazfish · 22-01-2012, 02:02 PM

Hi Andy,

Yes you must be careful with what you put over the pond as some can be dangerous for the fish so make sure its fish safe.

Also remember you don't want to make it an air tight cover as you need some are movement and most importantly make sure you keep all your filters clean and change water even during the winter.