In another post, I described our situation with really soft water. We've been adding Epsom salt, calcium chloride (for GH) and plain old baking soda for KH. Both numbers are looking better, a bit above 100 ppm for both.
Most of our fish that looked a bit sickly coming out of winter (I'm not competent enough to say whether it's just thicker slime coat or parasites or what) seem to be looking better.
However, one fish, a tri-tail goldfish that's been somewhat of a worry over the last couple of years, is doing much worse. It's never been an active fish, save for a few weeks in the spring when they're all chasing each other around. The rest of the time he's sorta moped around. He almost never ate with the other fish. He'd just nibble at the algae on the pond walls. But his scales always looked OK to us, and his tail was never chewed up.
So we start dosing the pond as described in the other thread. A few days ago he went to the bottom of the pond and wouldn't come up. Now he's at the surface, looking really weak. He's looking kind of grayish (again, I don't know how to discern whether it's slime or something else) and his tailfins have deep tatters in them.
Any suggestions? I can't understand how his tail could get that beat up in just a couple of days. We've never isolated a fish for salting or meds so I don't have any idea what to do. I thought about bringing him in to house to warm him up some but don't know whether that's always a good idea?
Most of our fish that looked a bit sickly coming out of winter (I'm not competent enough to say whether it's just thicker slime coat or parasites or what) seem to be looking better.
However, one fish, a tri-tail goldfish that's been somewhat of a worry over the last couple of years, is doing much worse. It's never been an active fish, save for a few weeks in the spring when they're all chasing each other around. The rest of the time he's sorta moped around. He almost never ate with the other fish. He'd just nibble at the algae on the pond walls. But his scales always looked OK to us, and his tail was never chewed up.
So we start dosing the pond as described in the other thread. A few days ago he went to the bottom of the pond and wouldn't come up. Now he's at the surface, looking really weak. He's looking kind of grayish (again, I don't know how to discern whether it's slime or something else) and his tailfins have deep tatters in them.
Any suggestions? I can't understand how his tail could get that beat up in just a couple of days. We've never isolated a fish for salting or meds so I don't have any idea what to do. I thought about bringing him in to house to warm him up some but don't know whether that's always a good idea?
