Koi Kastle alternative

I was going to buy a Koi Kastle after one of my neighbors recounted a raccoon attack from last winter on his backyard water feature. They cost from $25 to $45 depending on the size, model, and vendor.

The mesh model features an aluminum frame with fiberglass mesh. The fish are protected but somewhat visible, which I like.

The plastic model looks like a rock cave. Non-toxic, but you can’t see the fish.

I was a little worried about the mesh model as it is made of aluminum, and I was always told to avoid metal in the pond. Aluminum, however, does not form harmful compounds unless it is in an acidic environment (pH <6), and ponds typically stay safely alkaline. A pH crash that severe would probably kill the goldfish anyway, so the aluminum hydroxide frosting wouldn’t matter. I prefer seeing my fish, so I decided on the mesh.

Fortunately, I hadn’t invested in one before I read a post on one of the forums saying an inexpensive piece of plastic pipe could accomplish the same thing for far less money. I went to a home supply store, but they didn’t have the appropriate length of clear pipe on hand.

My aunt, uncle, mother and sister were in the lighting business, so a bulb went on in my head.  A hurricane shade, essentially a cylindrical glass shade with a bulge in the middle engineered to protect candles from gusts of wind, would be exactly what I needed! I went to the nearest craft supply store, who stocked them in three sizes for $3.99, $5.99, and $7.99.

Here is what to look for:

Classic

Contemporary, no bulge

Lay a couple of these on their sides in the pond, and you have great hideaways that protect your fish from predators while keeping them visible.

Be sure not to buy expensive crystal ones that contain lead. That will slowly poison the fish and, besides, defeat the purpose of being cheap, I mean, frugal.

Pond healthy again!

I finally gave in and fed the boys and girls some antibiotics, and the infections have cleared up. All the fish are swimming at depth, and my prize albino wakin Billy Idol has lost all her red streaks (which came not from the color food, as I had thought, but from a septicemia infection). Fortunately, she never stopped eating like a horse.

We had a temperature spike – water temperature surged back into the 70s – triggering a faux spring mating episode. The shubbies were banging Billy from every angle trying to dislodge non-existent eggs. A sure sign everything is back to normal in Big Puddle.

Horny, horny fishies!

Fall slow in coming

I have done all the necessary prep for fall/winter feeding and shutdown, but temperatures persist in the 70s and even 80s here in Philly, and the water temperature has stayed in the 60s F. I have started mixing in the wheat germ food just so they will be used to it when the water drops into the 50s.

I got Wacko out of the pond just in time. The other fish have perked up, and I don’t expect to lose any more. None behave like they are in distress, and the water is testing at 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 10 Nitrate, and 8.0 pH, ideal readings. I put the first dose of MicrobeLift autumn bacteria in the pond-smells like rotten eggs!

RIP Wacko

Wacko died last night in the hospital tank. He had made a brief recovery, but despite the salt and meds, he was too far gone to bounce all the way back.

I have no idea what killed him. His fins were ragged and clamped, and he lost some scales, but there was no bloating.

I have read on the boards about lots of sick wakins this year. These fish have been rare in the US until recently; perhaps the first ones bred here are not up to par.

Here’s a picture from his healthier days:

Close call

I had to go to Baltimore for a Sunday-Monday conference, and I left with all the fish beginning to behave normally except Wacko. He was hanging around nose up, fins clamped, and occasionally listing to the side. I couldn’t separate him, because my isolation tank is not large or filtered and 48 hours without cleaning the water might poison him, so I held my breath, netted the pond, and went away.

When I returned to Philly, he was floating motionless on his side. I did not smell rot, so I was happy that he had not been dead long enough to foul the pond. I quickly unnetted the pond and caught him in a freezer bag.

As soon as I put him in the body bag, he sprang to life!!! I quickly filled it with water and prepared the iso tank, salting it to .3 and adding a little prazi. He looked pretty sickly in the freezer bag, but when the treatment tank was full, and he floated the necessary 20 minutes to equalize temperature, I released him, only to see him swim about normally, fins open and at all depths.

I hope this works. Does anyone with experience with a hospital tank have advice on how long I should keep Wacko there?

Preparing for Winter, Part 2

Here are two small ponders who offer online advice for wintering your pond and fish.

Robyn is a legendary goldfish keeper who has both a small and a large pond:

Robyn’s Winterizing Page

Dan provides a lighthearted practical guide to ratcheting down the old puddle:

Dan’s Goldfish Pond Winterization Tips

Both of them supply lots of useful links as well as advice.

Still near the surface but otherwise okay

Billy Idol and Wacko’s cysts are gone today, and there are no other signs of distress, but the fish continue to swim almost exclusively in the top 6″ of the pond.

Another 10% water change, Ammo Lock and 24/7 aeration eliminate oxygen depletion/ammonia as a source of distress, though I did get my declining water hyacinths out of there just in case they were beginning to decay. The boys and girls don’t hang around the fountain and waterfall, either.

My only guess is that they did have some flukes, and the gills are still recovering.

Waiting it out

The fish are still swimming near the surface, but there is no such thing as an instant remedy, so I am staying patient. I did another 10% water change, which resulted in their swimming deeper for a couple of hours, but now they are back on top. There are no other symptoms of sickness. Maybe they are as weary of the October heat as I am. I want fall!

Two of my wakins have an abscess on on one of their fins. These come and go, and the treatment is like that for any other pimple, human or piscine – do nothing, and it will eventually burst. Antibiotic food helps with these cysts, but they are not really harmful, and the overuse of antibiotics will evolve resistant bacteria, which can be. I’ve been told to save the heavy artillery for bigger problems.

Less trouble

The ammonia level has dropped to just about zero today. The API ammonia test is not quite solid yellow, but it is better than yesterday, and closer to 0 than .25. The fish still spend a lot of time near the surface, but that may be because I haven’t fed them in two days. They do swim deeper when I walk away. Hungry, hungry fishies.
Fortunately, I can leave the ammonia bonder in the cabinet for now. Less is more.

Little trouble in Big Puddle

I went out to feed the fish this morning, and Bumpkin began to flash about. Once he saw I was around, he jumped above the surface three times in quick succession to get my attention. (Anyone who objects to my assigning my fish intelligence can stop reading now. Calling cats “fish with fur” is not fair to fish.)

Ammonia had tested at .25 ppm yesterday, my first ever positive reading, so I cut the feeding back to once a day, even though the thermometer amazingly still reads above 70 degrees F. Ammonia irritation can make fish flash. It could also be contributing to Billy Idol’s new red spots.

Flukes can cause flashing as well, and I did have a fluke outbreak about a month ago.

For the ammonia:

1. Have ceased feeding altogether until filter catches up and ammonia drops back to zero. There is still plenty of algae for them to munch.

2. Running auxillary fountain 24/7 for aeration.

3. Did a 10 percent water change and will do another later this week.

4. Have Ammo Lock at the ready if it does not recover. I apply chemicals as a last resort, as the ammonia binders reduce the harmful ammonia but create false positive tests because the test kits reflect “good” ammonia (bound and harmless) and “bad” ammonia (free). It’s like getting a cholesterol test without an HDL reading.

For the flukes:

A dose of praziquantel. It is safe and effective. Lethal dose is 15 to 20 times the therapeutic one. It does not harm beneficial bacteria or plants. There must have been some flukes, because some of the fish reacted immediately to its application by shimmying about as if on fire as the flukes burst.

Let’s hope it works.