White area on comet

[Litzi1964]

I am concerned about one of my comets. I have had him for nearly a year. He is about 3 inches long and is mostly black except for some orange areas on his head. Last week I had to do a huge pond cleaning due to a filter problem (intake tubes cracked and water unfiltered). I have a pool and pond vacuum head that attaches to the pump. It has a prefilter in case any fish make it in. Well, Midnight got pulled into the prefilter. (He was one of my Houdini fish who ended up on the wrong side of the net). I removed him and he appeared unharmed. He has been acting and eating normally. I recently noticed an ellongated white area near his dorsal fin. I've seen no rice-grain or salt-grain type white spots on any fish. Could it still be Ich or fish pox, or just a scrape and some missing scales? I'll try to get a good photo to upload.

 

[addy1]

If it is not fuzzy, raised, I would go with some pulled of scales.

 

[Litzi1964]

As a precaution I treated the pond with anti ich and antifungal medication. I cleaned the filters, added some salt and changed about 25% of the water. I've been able to get a good look at my fish and it does look like some missing scales. The area is healing nicely and he's active and eating normally.

 

[HARO]

Let's hope the medications didn't stress him too badly!
John

 

[Dave 54]

Never treat a pond like this until you know exactly what you are up against it may well be nothing more than a missing scale but if its somergubg that requires a different medicine that means you have to stop everything empty the pond to clear it of the current treatment .
Then wait a week or two before you can start the next treatment when, all the of the wrong treatments effects are gone then a couple of weeks between treatment the fish is getting gradually worse.
You must always be sure of a treatment before treatment commences..I cant get this across enough this is why I suggest fiish health books thy are very affordable on Amazon and once you read them you'll never forget the information nor the problems a fish can get.
Interpet do a very good book The Interpet Manual of Fish Health buy it anfd use it as a fishy bible I do as do many others who have taken this advice seriously .


rgrds


Dave

 

[Litzi1964]

I tried to look up what I could online. And while I was fairly sure it wasn't ich or carp pox, I was concerned about the potential for an abrasion to become infected. Ordinarily I wouldn't have treated, but his abrasion was preceded by a significant filter and water quality problem. I wanted to basically stop any infection before it started. I liken it to antibiotic prophylaxis in traumatic wounds (both human and animal) where there is significant probability of pathogen introduction.

 

[Dave 54]

Most scales that become knocked off dont cause a problem to the fish and can be happily left alone for things to recover the scale growing back within a few short months with no infection.
The way you described things was a white growth but in your next sentance correctly diagnosed the problem yourself.
If you ever have a worry about a wound becoming infected a dab of Malachite Green and propolis would have taken care of things note minimal treatment here., not hitting the pond with an uneccessary treatment.
Anethatizing the fish before treatment using oil of cloves would have saved alott of hassle to yourself and our fish, once done once you'll be able to do it again see link a thread I started on this subject :-

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/11003-anesthetics-and-the-various-stages-of/


Putting togther a good first aid kit helps all the more see another thread I started

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/10984-make-a-complete-first-aid-kit-for-koi-and-goldfish/

This as it builds up into a complete kit covers every eventuality .
Promise me also that you'll buy a book on fish health and I'll make you this promise once read I doubt you'll ever look back and fish losses become a thing of the past, because you took the time to learn

rgrds


Dave

 

[Litzi1964]

I've checked out some books from the library and researched online but I wasn't able to really find much beyond introductory info.

How on earth do you anesthetize a fish?

I would have pulled the fish out and put him in a treatment tank, but since establishing my pond last year I haven't attempted to remove a live fish. There are plenty of places for them to hide and I worry that the process of capture or attempted capture would be too stressful (for them as well as me).

When I'm new at something I tend towards a "why use a flyswatter when a cannon will do" approach, mostly due to my own insecurities. When my oldest daughter was a newborn, I didn't think that baby wipes could possibly be adequate in cleaning baby poop, so every time she pooped she got a bath. The average newborn poops 3 or 4 times a day. At a baby check visit the doc noticed her itchy dry skin and said that one bath a day was plenty.

She's 13 and we still laugh about it.

I'll see what I can find on amazon.

 

[Nepen]

I was trying to give away some of my goldfish and was out of luck trying to use the net. I tried and tried and thought my fish probably will die of heart attack faster than I can catch and re-locate them! And my pond is not that big!!!

So here is the method I found created the least stress for me and the fish -

I got my son's beach bucket (not so small) and put them in the pond, with the handle up then I weigh it down with some rocks. I then fed the fish over the bucket. Some food would go down in the bucket and when the targetted fish went in the the bottom of the bucket, I grabbed the bucket and the fish with it I now left the bucket in the pond so the fish feel familiar and not afraid of it

 

[Mmathis]

Where can one purchase oil of clove? And what are the indications for when a novice would need to use it? I think I'm only at the "body scraping" stage in fish medical care -- I'm certainly not trained (or qualified) to do any more invasive procedures, so would anesthesia be necessary, say, for taking scrapings, or just a general exam? < don't laugh > It was hard enough to hold onto a dead fish when I tried to examine it, so I know a live & kickin' fish would be a challenge, and I'd be afraid of causing more harm!

 

[Dave 54]

You should be able to tie in what your fish has by reading the health book carefully matching the symptoms and be given the treatment all in the same page.
Anethatizing your fish though relitively simple should not be undertaken by a novice until you have practised this with a fish keeper who knows how to do it .
Only then should you take this up..."not before".
Most health books are from Novice upwards, if unsure of the fishes symptoms take your time and describe what you see in front of you ..
Oil of cloves like propolis can be bought from health food outlets you can also buy anesthetics on line. MS222 is one many folk use nowadays
If I remember we decided it was a scale that had been knocked off correct ?

rgrds

Dave

 

[Litzi1964]

Well, the scrape on my fish's head appears to be healing nicely, although I wonder, how long does it take to grow back scales?

This fish was named Midnight because he was almost entirely black. Now, other than his fins and tail he's almost completely orange. We had to change his name to Midnight Sun.

 

[HARO]

Well, the scrape on my fish's head appears to be healing nicely, although I wonder, how long does it take to grow back scales?

This fish was named Midnight because he was almost entirely black. Now, other than his fins and tail he's almost completely orange. We had to change his name to Midnight Sun.

Sam McGee would have been appropriate! :biggrin:
John

 

[Dave 54]

The scale may take months to colour up it may take weeks for the new scale to take over but eventually the scale will colour up again.
YOu can most probably help with this by feeding King Prawns ( raw chopped up) plus any other colour inhancing Pellets etc that you know of

rgrds

Dave