Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
Koi Lying On His Side At Bottom Of Pond
- JamesG (James Gargan)
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In my post yesterday I mentioned my one bigger Koi seemed to be acting a bit odd and sucking on the liner on the very top of the pond. Now he is at the bottom lying on his side looking a bit contorted. I've stopped feeding them but it may be a bit too late for this one. I gave him a poke when I came home this evening and he moved a little on his side (inches). The temperature dropped quite a bit last night and this morning.
I tested water last night, PH about 7.5 and Ammonia 0.25.
Is there anything I can do to save this fish???
All suggestions welcome.
James.
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Kev.
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- JamesG (James Gargan)
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I have an oversized pump and filter which supposidly turns the pond over 2 or 3 times an hour. The water drops from about a foot into the pond from four difference nozzles in the filter so I would have thought it was OK.
What do you reckon?
I have the pump on a winter 'sludge' setting. I could switch it to summer? The only thing is my sick fish is lying beside the pump.
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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There is no real test for Oxygen concentration outside professional equipment, what size is the ill fish?
Your Ammonia reading could be the culprit, I'd suggest a partial water change, I'm guessing the Tap is outside, if that is the case there should be little in the way of temperature changes. Also, if you can get a lend of a Pond vac to remove waste from the bottom it will go a long way to curing the problem of Ammonia. PH has a bearing on the affect of Ammonia depending on how hi or lo it is, higher PH makes Ammonia tolerance lower.
Kev.
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- JamesG (James Gargan)
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Tap is outside. I'll start a water change. 30%.
Should I turn up the pump to summer setting (faster). I don't know anyone with a pond vac or even a pond!!!
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Kev
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- JamesG (James Gargan)
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Kev.
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- JamesG (James Gargan)
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Is there anything else I can do?
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- k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
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Down here in Cork it has been quite mild for November but last night got cold really quickly, everywhere was white this morning.
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- k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
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- JamesG (James Gargan)
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From reading up it seems I should have stopped feeding a few weeks ago. That coupled with the sudden cold temperature and 0.25 ammonia - I seem to have killed him.
Just got home this evening and he hasn't budged, I thought he was dead but seems like he's just about still breathing.
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- k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
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- JamesG (James Gargan)
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- BlueRam (Sean Crowe)
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Sean Crowe
ITFS Member
Location: Navan
Always Remember Surviving Is Not Thriving
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Kev
Sorry he died, you didn't kill him, circumstances did, we have all done or heard of someone doing things the shouldn't have, as long as we learn from our mistakes it's a plus.
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- JamesG (James Gargan)
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- k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
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With the right care regime your fish will be fine I have only 250 litres in my plastic pond 36" diam x 15" deep and my 6 goldfish even survived last winter when temps got down to -15 at one stage, no food from end of Oct to beginning of Feb, 1" of ice on the pond most mornings (leave a couple of footballs floating in the pond and it wont ice over completely) but the fish came out the other end unfazed by it, and the waterlily had twice as many flowers as the previous year. It's sad to lose your best fish but you know why it happened now ,100% of fishkeepers have made mistakes along the line, so don't let it put you off

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- stretnik (stretnik)
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It's funny that you should say that, I'm a Horticulturist and I specialise in some of the rarer warm climate species of Plants and this year they have flowered much more profusely than any other year, Plants under stress are forced to try to reproduce themselves and subsequently more Flowers are produced.
Kev.
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- k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
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Kieran.
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- JamesG (James Gargan)
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Thanks for all the advice over the past few days, much appreciated.
Seems like I a bit to learn - very quickly! So the shopping list for the weekend is:-
1. A bucket for hiding from the heron.
2. A couple of footballs for the ice.
Is there anything else I need other than to keep checking the Ph, Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite?
James.
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