[MWG] Today's Pond Q&A

------------------------------- Today's Pond Q&A In this issue: - LILIES FOR LUNCH - ULCERS ----------------------------- Question> Dear Carolyn, We have a very curious situation going on in our pond recently. We have an 11 X 16 foot, 1900 gallon pond in our back yard. There are 2 planted lily's and 3 potted lily's all are hardy. They were all doing well and flowering regularly. However today we noticed several leaves on 3 plants are missing. One looks half chewed away, the rest (about 6) are just chewed right to the stem. This is our second year with the pond and our Koi which survived the New England winter are thriving and have had babies twice since last summer. Do you have any idea what may be lunching on our lilies? Help! Sincerely, Marty _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ "Is Your Drinking Water Slowly, Silently Killing You?" Breakthrough New Technology Eliminates Harmful Chemicals From Your Drinking Water -- While Providing Essential Minerals For Good Health (At a Fraction of the Cost of Bottled Water) ... and it Tastes Great, 100% Guaranteed! NASA Technology Gives You Pure, Healthy Water... -->> http://www.home-water-filters.com <<-- _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Answer> Well, Marty, it sounds like your koi may be having company you aren't aware of. You might want to look for a turtle in there somewhere. When koi spawn they can destroy lilies and any other plants that are in a pond but what you are describing really sounds like more than that. I suspect either turtles or even a visiting raccoon may be coming in at night. The raccoons don't actually eat the leaves, but they will break and tear them trying to get the fish. See if any of the missing leaves are on the bottom of the pond somewhere. Otherwise, you can look for the turtle. A word to the wise? Turtles also eat fish and carry a bacterium that is not healthy in a koi pond. - Carolyn == Question> I don't have a question for you. I actually have some good news to share. Last year was the first year we had our pond. We built in July. It is approximately 2400 gallons with a nice waterfall and stream. We lost a total of 3 koi last year to ulcers that we just couldn't get under control. It started with 2 new koi we purchased which we did not quarantine as we should have. Small marks on one's side and on the top of the other one soon became ulcers. We tried everything from medicated food to salt to Melafix to Potassium Permanganate. I had read on a vet website somewhere about injections and that was just beyond my ability as a 1st year koi keeper. I then came across an article about using clove oil to put the fish to sleep and simply treating the wound directly with iodine, then waking it up in fresh water and returning it to the pond. One of our favorite fish was the only one with an ulcer and still alive. I decided to try it. It worked. It took 4 treatments and she was completely healed. She does have a scar, but that I can live with. This year we had one fish that we believe was scraped along her back during spawning by a rock. It was beginning to turn into an ulcer. We pulled her out, treated her twice with the iodine (once a week for 2 weeks) and the wound has completely healed. I see questions all of the time about ulcers and I hoped maybe it could be helpful. By doing it as soon as we noticed something not right on her, we were able to prevent it from growing as it did last year. The time it takes for all of those other solutions (except injections) allowed the ulcers to become so horrendous. I wanted to share this option since it really was so simple and worked so well. I know that you must be careful not to put them too to sleep but I used 5 drops of clove oil to each gallon of water- mixed first in a small amount of water to emulsify. I placed the fish in the water and within 5-10 minutes they begin to fall asleep. They are very easy to hold at this point. Using gloves I removed the fish and quickly treated the wound directly with iodine. We then placed the fish in a container of fresh water to recover for 15 minutes. We covered the buckets each time with a light net just to be sure they don't jump out. Thanks for reading my long storyâ¦ I just hope it can help someone save a fish in a way that they may be much more comfortable with then injections. Melissa Rekos == Answer> Thanks Melissa for the helpful information! I generally tell people to put 2-3 drops of Oil of Cloves into one gallon of water to anesthetize fish however, and make sure they never walk away while the fish are in the solution because the fish can keep sleeping -and die. This is the same solution we use to euthanize fish when necessary, very humanely. But your directions are wonderful and will be very helpful to others. Also consider using LynnoZyme of KoiZyme to eliminate Aeromonas (the guilty bacteria that causes ulcer disease in koi) from the pond as a maintenance regimen. It only takes one parasite bite or a knocked off scale to open a fish to infection. - Carolyn == Happy Pondkeeping! Brett Fogle MacArthur Water Gardens www.macarthurwatergardens.com Â© MacArthur Water Gardens 1698 SW 16th ST Boca Raton, FL 33486 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=- This email is never sent without permission. You (or someone using your email address) bought something from MacArthur Water Gardens, or signed up for our newsletter, affiliate program, mini-course or requested a fr^e report.. The information we have on file is Your name: Friend Your email: If you wish to be removed from this list, simply click once on the link below.

Share and Enjoy:

Message Added: August 25th, 2005 at 1:00 pm