Salt in pond water?

[sissy]

No I take a zip lock bag and put some finely chopped garlic in with the food and wait an hour and then give them the food and garlic since the food abzorbed some of the garlic also .They seem to love it but sure not gonna kiss them after there garlic feast .It is supposed to help there immune system and help them feed better. :razz: :goldfish:

 

[Dave 54]

Please cut her a bit of slack, as I said we all learn from our mistakes which she has this was some years ago now she's gone on in the hobby , I only posted the photo's because of the depth of ice .
But Surely if she was opening the ice every day that would negate gas build up .?
She was told by me chopping the ice was bad and as I've said we worked out a way to bring them indoors , since then she has had no losses and all her koi , infact they have gone from stength to strength ever since , she is one of the kindest fish keepers I know .

rgrds

Dave

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes we all make mistakes, even I have my own "horror" stories from many years ago. Glad to hear you have helped her out. I think it's safe to say we all know people who have had similar trouble. I helped a lady who was struggling with her pond as well, she killed all these big koi that someone gave her when they shut down there pond forever, couple winters ago, cause she left the pond and thought it would be fine with just a heater and went south for a month!! Then I know of other people in town who had koi for several years, and one year something went wrong and they too killed all there fish! It happens more than you think up here. Don't think we were trying to be mean, just trying to warn others that this does happen quite often and not be become complacent.

 

[addy1]

I wiped out a ton with my new pond being acidic........big mistake, learning curve it happens. I never even thought about well water being bad for fish until they died, it had even sat in the pond for 2 months before I added fish.........sure learned that lesson.

 

[Dave 54]

One of the main reasons I'm so hot about the subject of reading about your hobby is until Val bought me the then Fish health book by Salamander (now interpet Book of fish health ) I was the death of Goldfish killing around about 24 , all because I basically didn't have a clue oway back then .
Whatever website I go on I always Post our Library of fish/koi health books not to show off oranything like that but to give people the option of buying a book and learning about the hobby and fish health .
The number of emails weve recieved in the last 25 years as our library grew from people who have bought one reveiwed by us runs to about 60 people, all thanking us fo sharing the title Author and ISBN numbers so they could get into reading about our hobby buying books they didn't know existed on the subject..
The review helps them decide which to get at varying stages of the hobby .
I personally think all people buying fish for the first time should also buy a book as part of the purchase then the numbers of fish dying each year at the hands of a novice would be drasticly cut .
The idea of reveiwing our books was a chap called Spike Cover who ws then the head of the AKCA health officials , who are dedicate people who go round in their own time to help treat peoples koi in the US.
We are lucky to have his opposite number in our own Plymouth and Destrict koi keepers Society who was head of the BKKS heath officials.
I dont know how many of you would agree that reading is the way forwards but I'll bet its more than a few .

rgrds

Dave

 

[crsublette]

Yeah, sharing references is good and bad. Good in the sense that it helps grow knowledge. Bad in the sense the material, or sections, in the book can become outdated in a matter of 5~10 years, there's books the AKCA once a upon a time sponsored and don't now; ya might not hurt anything using old practices since the were useful once upon a time.

 

[Dave 54]

Yeah, sharing references is good and bad. Good in the sense that it helps grow knowledge. Bad in the sense the material, or sections, in the book can become outdated in a matter of 5~10 years, there's books the AKCA once a upon a time sponsored and don't now; ya might not hurt anything using old practices since the were useful once upon a time.

Totaly in agreement with you there if you look at my comments on some of the DR Axlerod koi books I was calling for an update from him .
In another I note there is nothing on KHV on a book written by a vet but its a far more advanced book than books for the novice .
There are new books for the novice I have yet to reveiw but its also a refrence Library for the more experianced keepers others are just nice to own , we have one book I cant even read as its all in Japanese lol .
They are there to give you an idea of what to buy from novice on up .

rgrds

Dave

 

[waynefrcan]

If koi where an endangered fish, and you could be fined if you killed one in an idiotic way, we all be short a few $$$.

 

[waynefrcan]

Lots of people get sucked into cappy pond stuff. I just find things that work very good that last a long time, like the bright orange heater for cattle from Peavy Mart (farmers store) that is only 25 bucks to buy and I always have a spare heater just in case. Been using that heater for two decades now. I have had the actual pond heater that sells for 100 and is 1200 watts, that one died long time ago and did not work as well as the "cattle trough heater"!

Then I feed my fish all summer this high quality Puppy food, no fillers, no grains, made right here in Alberta, called" Origin" dog food, works great and my fish love it way way more than the overpriced koi food, laugh if you want, but it works very well, Koi are over 20 years old and very very large. No sick fish here, good dog food keeps happy and healthy!

Keep up the good work, your methods amaze me but work great!!!!!!!!!!

 

[waynefrcan]

Please cut her a bit of slack, as I said we all learn from our mistakes which she has this was some years ago now she's gone on in the hobby , I only posted the photo's because of the depth of ice .
But Surely if she was opening the ice every day that would negate gas build up .?
She was told by me chopping the ice was bad and as I've said we worked out a way to bring them indoors , since then she has had no losses and all her koi , infact they have gone from stength to strength ever since , she is one of the kindest fish keepers I know .

rgrds

Dave

Bringing large pond koi inside has another set of problems. Most common is overcrowding & related diseases. Make sure she is set up for this. Might need extra filtration like member koiguy1969 does.

 

[Dave 54]

Keep up the good work, your methods amaze me but work great!!!!!!!!!!

I agree but feeding puppy food may not be delivering to your fish the right vitamins etc that they need , you really should feed them koi food at least you'll know they are getting the right ballance.
Wayne the setup she has takes this into account we worked it all through with her prior to last winter, all came through unscathed . .

rgrds

Dave

 

[callingcolleen1]

I been feeding them this high quality puppy chow for over 12 years now and they do great, never lost a koi yet, and I do think it is better than Koi food because it is so very fresh and has no filler, or grains, and has lots of botanicals. I think my fish get lots of vitamins from the very fresh algae all winter and the excess hornwort and other plants that my pond is packed full of. Lots of people when they take their fish indoors, they are deprived of the vitamin packed fresh plants. I have compared the vitamin content and have determined their is more in my dog food. There is lots of people that feed there fish dog food, and when I first heard of this practice I though it was crazy too. More expensive is not always fresher or better. Things with the KOI label are away overpriced too, the amount of money they want for a small bag of Koi food is crazy, and it does not smell and fresh as the dog food made right here in Alberta. ALL Food is a bag is really just "take out juck food" when it comes right down to it, cause the pond is packed full of natural food that is way better.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Oh ya, and my fish food is given the "PoPPy's SniFF and TaStE Test!!!! Ha ha ha

 

[Dave 54]

Poppy sniffing fish oh my whatever next lol we'll have fish floating about everywhere lol, if it works for you I'm not knocking it at all , I've even tried seaweed with mine, lol
Weed is a no no for them as it'll kill them but as long as it's good for them alls well and good I think you'll agree, experimenting .
is something weve always done and have quite a list of alternate foods for them after trying to get inside the koi's head for a while lol yes we are that nuts .........

rgrds

Dave

 

[crsublette]

Your fish might "look" healthy, but it's everybodies guess unless you're Mr. Ed. It's like people with clear water saying "clear means its clean and safe water", which is quite an ignorant "feel good" statement since I have also read this in a comment praising filtrations as well that "claim to be the best, the holy grail of filtration".

I'm a cat person. Farm cats that is. They will act completely normal, run normal, jump normal, eat normal. Then, I take a few of them to the vet once a year for checkups to find out one of my normal kitty cats had internal bleeding that would cause the cat to suddenly die and even the vet said the cat showed zero signs of any ailment.

It is my understanding that fish are carnivores for a reason, they need the special protien. This is why you will often find some sort of fish meat in the fish food.