2. Remove adsorbent filter material - carbon, zeolite etc.
3 Switch off UV
Many disease treatments can reduce oxygen levels but none of them will be
harmed by extra
aeration so it makes sense to increase aeration if possible especially if
treating during warm
weather.
Never chuck the treatment in the pond and then go straight off to work or
out shopping. Even if
you have used the treatment many times before, there is always a
possibility that the fish may
react badly this time and you need to be there to change water or
increase air or do whatever is
needed if there is an unexpected reaction.
NT Labs’ Malachite green and Formaldehyde can be used together according
to the instructions
supplied.
We do not recommend mixing any other treatments especially those from
different manufacturers
because you can have no idea what the effect might be.
There are, however, one or two myths about treatments which seem to be
widely held as true.
One of these is never to use formaldehyde when there is salt in the
water. The only theory we
have heard about why this should be is that the presence of salt will
make the formaldehyde
come out of the water as a gas. This seems a bit strange to us since
formaldehyde is used in
marine aquariums where the salt level is very much higher without any
problems. We can find
no scientific reason not to use formaldehyde when there is salt in the
water.
Allow time for the treatment to have an effect and to break down
naturally before adding another
treatment which may react with the first. If no improvement is seen after
the first treatment,
check the diagnosis and make sure that the treatment is appropriate.
Malachite Green and Formaldehyde, for example, are not appropriate
treatments for skin and gill
flukes, fish lice or fin-rot. Although they may help by removing any skin
parasites which could be
aggravating the problem, the main symptoms will remain.
Examining a skin scrape under the microscope may reveal skin parasites
and flukes together.
Then you need to decide which is the most important problem to treat. If
you see loads of different
parasites in a skin scrape, the best treatment may be a simple water
change because such a
mixture of diseases indicates poor water quality unless, of course, the
fish have just been bought
and put in the pond without quarantine.
4 Increase Aeration
5 Allow plenty of time to observe fish
6 Do not mix medications
7 Leave 10 days between treatments if no improvement is seen
Adding a treatment to a pond where the water is very cold will probably
not do any harm, nor will
it do any good.
We recommend not treating if the water temperature is below 10 C( 50 F).
Of course, if it is an
emergency and the fish look likely to die without treatment, you can
treat when the water is
colder.
The point is that, if the water is cold, the metabolism of any parasite,
bacteria (and the fish itself)
is greatly reduced. As the temperature falls, the fish become dormant and
stop feeding. This is
because the chemical reactions going on in the fish’s body are much
slower and not enough to
digest food properly. Also, the fish is not using much energy when it is
dormant and doesn’t need
to create more by digesting food.
Treatment chemicals will also react more slowly in cold water, or not
work at all.
So it is unlikely that the fish will benefit from treatment when the
water is very cold.
If the water is very warm, it has a reduced oxygen holding capacity and
adding a treatment may
reduce this further thus causing oxygen stress which could make the fish
worse. So we
recommend avoiding treatments when the water temperature is above 25 C
(77 F).
Obviously, if the situation is very urgent and nothing can be done to
reduce the water temperature,
the treatment will have to be used and even more care taken to watch how
the fish react.
Always follow any specific instructions regarding feeding given on the
label of the treatment. If
the fish are sick and not eating much anyway it will be better not to
feed for a few days at the
start of the treatment until the fish recover and are actively looking
for food again.
In general, NT Labs’ food products neither react with treatments nor
affect filters and fish can
safely be fed whilst there is treatment in the pond.
If, however, the biological filtration system should be damaged by the
addition of a treatment,
feeding the fish could cause raised nitrite and ammonia levels which
could stress the fish further.
Regular, routine testing of the water will show if this is happening and
allow you to decide what
action, if any, is needed.
8 Be careful of water temperature
9 Feeding
