Quarantine!
If you have a pond, it would be a great idea to also have a
quarantine tank. Any sick fish would be easier to treat in a
quarantine tank and any new fish can be bringing in untold
diseases that aren’t even visible to the naked eye. Ponds are a
thing of beauty and fascination. The fish are our living
flowers. But when fish begin dying, all I’ve ever witnessed is
stress, anguish and remorse.
A
quarantine tank should be small enough to manage, have really
good filtration, and be set near a water source, out of the
direct sun. It also would be important to have an aquarium-type
heater available. You will need non-iodized pond salt (3 lb/100
gallons), a cover on the tank, test kits, and someone with a
microscope to do scraping for parasites. It needs to be easy to
do water changes. Have an expendable fish that can be used as
companion to the newcomer while in Quarantine.
Feed the fish medicated food initially, for safeguard against
internal infections. Use Praziquantel to protect against flukes
and worms. The salt will eliminate most of the more common
parasites within 15-21 days. If other parasites are diagnosed,
there are more treatments which are less costly to use in a
small Quarantine tank than in treating the whole pond.
Failure to Quarantine new fish can mean the end of the pond as
you know it. One fish infected with Koi Herpes Virus can wipe
out an entire pond in a matter of days and there is no
treatment. This KHV is temperature sensitive, hence the
thermometer and aquarium heater. Bring the temperature in the
quarantine tank up to 78F for safekeeping. At 74F the disease
will break and at 78, it will die. At 80F, it is supposedly
killed and the fish will be safe (if infected in the first
place). Dealers and former pond owners cannot tell by looking
at their fish whether it has been exposed to KHV, so be safe and
quarantine all new fish. There isn’t any pond owner who will
not buy another fish at some time in the future, so plan the
quarantine facilities now, while you have time.
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