need help one fish floating on top

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Hi all i have a small pond it's about 700 litters. It has a Hozelock 3000 pump and a Lotus/Oasis 6000 uv filter gravity fed.

One goldfish is now floating on the top.
Ive read about rocks in the bottom can course some issues, so i will remove today.
I cant see any problems with the fish.
Ive stopped feeding them as from today cos also read should be feeding them wheatgem now.
Whats the salt bath thing all about ive tried finding more info?
Should i add some Primafix?
Is there anything i can do as a complete novis.


Any advice would be great.
Thanks
 
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If you believe what you read about rocks on the bottom causing issues I can tell you moving the rocks will stir up muck, what some people consider to be the problem, would make the issue 100 times worst in the short term. If your fish died after doing this you might blame yourself, whether true or not.

I'm not one who believes rocks on the bottom always means poisoned fish. It is true that a pond with a lot of fish which are fed a lot produce a lot of waste and that can certainly cause problems. I'm talking about large Koi fed many times a day, putting pounds of food into the pond each day. But a pond with a few small fish, fed a little, isn't a problem. Very close to the way it works in nature. It works just like a compost pile, the waste breaks down into soil (called muck or silt when in water). Another way of thinking of it is cows in a pasture vs cows packed into a barn. In the pasture the waste load is light, has time to break down. In the barn the waste becomes a serious problem fast.

So not all ponds are the same as many people would have you believe.

I don't really like treating fish when I don't have a good idea what I'm treating. Good way to push a sick fish over the edge. But if you want to try the shotgun approach I'd start with the safest first. Salt baths are pretty safe if you're good at math. Basically salt can be used 2 ways. A high level can kill some parasites outright. Lower levels just cause the fish to produce more mucous than normal and can help push parasites and bacteria out away from the fish. Salt is far from being a 100% cure. It's used because it's cheap, easy and can help some things.

For medications you really want to read the label. I've read a lot of posts from people throwing everything at their fish and not realizing mixing some things is harmful because they were in too much of a hurry. Beyond that, without knowing the problem there's no way to know which would work. Your guess would be as good as anyone's.

You could try providing more symptoms here. Floating on its side? Does it swim? Does it eat? Is its body distended? How do the scales look? That kind of stuff. But I think it's pretty much impossible to diagnose these things in a chat. The best that can be done is give you some ideas you could research.

Hope it works out. Sick fish suck.
 
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Took some pond water got it tested and it was high in nitrates, got some bactiria balls and within 3 hours the fish was right as rain.
Ya learn something everyday.
Thanks for the advice Waterbug cheers mate
 

addy1

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Make sure you have some air going into your pond also. Aerator, water fall etc. It sounds like you have good filtration.
 
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Madbloke, glad it worked out. I am curious what you learned, I don't like to infer meaning. Maybe I can learn something too if you share.
 
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Madbloke, glad it worked out. I am curious what you learned, I don't like to infer meaning. Maybe I can learn something too if you share.
Im a complete novis but here goes.
I set up pond in Sept its now Oct so very young pond, I was informed that a new pond needs bacteria to help lower bad toxins, one being nitrate which is harmful to most fish if high amounts found in water, which mine had.
I have got a testing kit now.
There is friendly bactiria you can buy in little black balls (Purepond - Evolution Aqua - 500ml £9.95) that you either throw straight in or put in your filter (so i did both).
All I can say within 2-3 hours the fish were much happier and fish that was floating is now back to his normal fishy way :D
Moral of the story check pond levels on a regular basis.
Hope this helps a novis like me........
 

addy1

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A quick fix for some issues is a water change. Get your fish some fresh water quick. The pond cycle can take up to 8 weeks if not longer to get going well.
 
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It certainly takes days for most bacteria to reproduce enough to have much of an effect. But that's the beauty of the bacteria products...they don't say the kind of bacteria, not that anyone cares, so you don't know what to expect. You can't see the bacteria so you can't tell if anything is happening. If the buyers see any positive results the product gets the credit, the buyer tells everyone. If the buyer doesn't see positive results they generally blame themselves or at least don't tell others it didn't work. Absolutely a great product design for making money.
 
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nitrates is not as harmful to fish as nitrites ... those sound like miracle balls did you do a water change too ? as far as i know bio takes weeks to kick in

No I didn't do a water change as pond was only about 6 weeks old.
P.S it must have been nitrites then, my bad sound similar lol
 

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