White Itch

[wey2go]

First major problem showed up few days ago (after more than 2 years of keeping fish in my pond). 2 Silvers died so far from white itch (I ended their miserable life since they were clearly stressed with white itch). Pond is too big to do the normal way an aquarist will rid of white itch. This problem showed up after my UV-C packed up almost 10 weeks ago. And I thought I may be able to do without UV-C. Note that I still do not have enough plants to complete the nitrate cycle.

Dumped some 10 kgs of salt into the pond (30,000 litres) yesterday.

Ordered 2 x 36Watts UV-C, ETA Thursday.

Hope some fish will survive this.

[Dufflight]

I have a 55000ltr system and dumped in 150kg of salt.
1 to 2ppt as a preventive measure. 1ppt = 1kg per 1000ltrs.

[wey2go]

The pond water was already "salted" as it was previously a salt-chlorinated swimming pool. So, I am not sure how much salt is left.

I think I better dump in more salt. Anybody know how much salt can the Silvers cope with?

[Dufflight]

Do you have access to a salt meter. If you can get the fish into a smaller container you can treat with a higher level of salt.

[wey2go]

I do not have a salt meter. So, more or less guess work.
Catching the fish is going to be a problem, unless individual ones are already stressed out and slow enough for me to catch.

[wey2go]

So far 2 silvers died. Others seem to be quite OK. Goldfish are also OK. Wonder why only 2 caught white itch.

[wey2go]

No further cases of white itch. Water is nice and clear now (tea colour) and can see right to the bottom of the pond of around 2 metres.

Azolla growing well in pond. Water Lillies starting to grow with a few leaves now with warmer weather coming.

Interesting observation today, Silvers love munching on flowers from a nearby peach tree. Just as well I have not sprayed any fungicide (Leaf Curl) on the trees.

The Silvers still do not like eating the organic feed I bought few months back. Love bread and feed from Grobest (do not have much left). Notice also some Azolla seem to be missing every now and then. I have seen the Silvers taking some occassionally.

[Outbackozzie]

They will take all of the azolla once it warms up. Your ICH problem was most likely caused by cold water - happens to everyone, usually only a couple of fish get very sick and die, the rest are usually ok. This is assuming you have good water quality.

If you want to get the Perch onto the organic pellets:

Remove all other sources of food from the tank - azolla, water cress etc.
Mix the organic pellets with the grobest ones, and keep them in a container - this lets the smell get into the organics.
Feed very lightly for a few weeks to get them hungry, then they will take any food you give them.