Preventing and Treating Ich in Your Pond

Maintenance

I keep a well maintained and balanced pond. Treating in early spring with an Algae Fix, and beneficial bacteria after the water temperature is 55 degrees Fahrenheit for a consecutive period of time, and monitor the water for ammonia and PH balance. With a 10 day consecutive 55-degree Fahrenheit water temperature it is time to start with spring feeding and restarting your pond.

Balance

There are times when your pond gets out of balance. The questions I ask are, how big is your pond? How many fish are in it? What kind of filtering system are you using?

After we have established what is or is not working we can then go forward with how to treat it. It is now time to establish what we need to do if your fish are sick. For this instance, let's say they have Ich. Ich is a parasite that is on the exterior of the fish, looks like small grains of salt or sugar.

Treatments

To treat Ich, you need to add pond salt to the water. You add salt to provide essential electrolytes to help fish reach peak coloration and vitality. It also helps gill function, reduces stress, improves osmoregulation, and speeds disease recovery. You will then test your water content to determine the proper amount of pond salt to add.

We also have Super Ich Cure, as well as a product called Pimafix both of these are added to the water to help cure and prevent internal and external bacterial infections.

It is not a good idea to move your fish until after your pond is above 60 degrees consecutively for about 14 days, don't try to clean the pond as it will stress out the fish.

We recommend spring food as it is a wheat germ based product which is a lower digestible protein for the fish at this time.

Stress Coat

I know there are a lot of people who need to add water to their pond. When you do it, add Stress Coat to your water which will remove chlorine, and chloramines, as well as remove heavy metals from your tap water. It also has a slime Coat replenisher and Aloe Vera which helps in healing damaged fish tissue.

We are always happy to counsel you on your pond questions, concerns, or needs. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!