pool busted

[Melinda]

Ugh someone help me figure out what to do. I had my koi and alot of my goldies in a kiddie pool that was about 800 gallons for the winter. Well I did a water change today and everything seemed fine. My son just came running in here and said my pool was empty. The side had split at the seem. The goldies I threw into a 45 rubbermaid tub. There is 15 goldies in there ranging from 3 to 5 inches each. They are now being shotgunned with prazi and quick cure. The koi are in my bathtub. I have no idea what to do with them. I have the pond out front. Its more of a puddle 480 gallons, but I do not want to put them in there because it has the fish in it that had flukes and a few other bugs that were treated and the pond sterilized. So that area is free from bad things and I do not know if the koi are ok and have no access to a microscope till friday. I ahve not started any treatment on the koi. There is only 4 of them ranging from 5 to 8 inches. I have a 20 gallon tank, a 10 gallon tank, and a 20 gallon rubbermaid tub left. I thought about putting 2 in each 20 and treating them and throwing them in the pond after the 2 weeks of treatment. Someone if you have a better idea let me know. I know I am in panic mode right now and need to clam down.
Melinda

[Terri]

Yup, calm down... and no shot guns(put the meds away! ;-) )

If the pond out front is good, fish healthy(?), then I suggest you bag up those koi in the bathtub and put them in the pond. This would be better than splitting them in the 20 gallon tanks. If these koi are in good shape then there should be no issues that arise - as long as you pay attention to the waterQ in the 480 gal pond.

Why are you treating the goldfish? Keep this in the back of your mind Melinda :-) "shot guns can kill" ~ meaning they tend to do more harm than good. While this was a horrible situation the last thing your fish need is to be bombed with meds... rest and clean water with lots of O2 would suffice ;-)

Now go have a cup of tea and relax... I'm sorry you had this mishap :(

[Melinda]

I have relaxed now terri. the koi are still in the bathtub. My daughter wants to take a bath with them as long as they do not bite her butt. :grin: I should have went more into why I am shotguning considering I posted this everywhere looking for fast answers. About a month or so ago I pulled 3 goldies from this pool to bring inside because they were not doing so well. they were the fantails of the group and I saw 2 of them laying over. When I did a scrape of them just out of curiousity to see if something besided the cold were making them do this behavior. I found flukes on one of them. the others I did not see much. These koi were pulled from a mud pond end of last summer and have never been treated. At that time I did not have access to a microscope. I do not want to put these fish in the small pond not knowing. With what I found on one of the goldies a while back as soon as it warmed up the whole groups was going to be hit with prazi anyways. I hit the goldies with quick cure too because when treating another group (that have never been in with these fish) for flukes I was not having much luck with just prazi and someone recommended I try proform c with prazi and see if it worked. It did wonderfully. I do not want to take the time to treat them 3 or 4 times with prazi alone so I dumped both in. I can not keep 15 goldies in 45 gallons for any length of time. The 4 koi should not be as big of a problem to hold for longer if I just had a place to put them NOW. But with these fish being in with fish not so long ago with flukes I do not want to take any chances on having to retreat the 20 guys I have out in the little pond.
Melinda

[Busy B]

Not going to help you this late at night, but do they have a store where you can buy a stock tank or something? Something heavier than the kiddie pool...you could set it up for quarintine/treatment and have an emergency holding tank at the same time?

Sorry...it always happens on a weekend huh?

[Melinda]

Yes busy I know of a place that I can get one the problem is they do not stock them. You go in and place an order for one and they get it in for you in about 3-5 days. If nothing else I can get a big rubbermaid to hold me over. I think walmart has some that are about 60 gallons now. I am thinking of just going to lowes here and buying a small liner and making a box to lay it in. They will have to remain in the bathtub tonight. My kids are loving having them inside and refusing to go to bed.

[Terri]

Ok, I can see where you might have a concern. You know your systems and fish better than I ;-)

So I think you've answered your own question along with Busy's suggestion. (if you can afford it - they sell 300 and 500 gallon stock tanks here at our local co-op - they are a great investment)

Let us know how it goes :-)

[Melinda]

Terri I knew the answer to this before I even posted I have too many fish in too litte space find something to do with them and quick. I was hoping that someone out there would throw out a suggestion I could put into place tonight. But then This post was more of a vent for me to get out my frustration at the moment because no matter what I do with koi something always goes wrong. This is supposed to be a relaxing hobby not one that is more stress than pleasure. Think someone lied to me when they said it was easy.

[Jackie Ramo]

Sorry to hear you are once again having adventures. I've kept fish inthe bathtub before but no kids to pay with them.... Do remember that a pond is never completely without flukes, but a healthy fish will be fine. Its bad water and stress that strengthen the parasite and weaken the fish.

Have the koi been treat for flukes at all? If so I'd put them in the pond. If not treat them, and put them in the pond. Be sure to cover the bathtub...

[Melinda]

These guys have had nothing done to them except brought up to .1% salt when I first got them for stress. I now know its impossible to get everything 100% wish someone woudl have told me that 3 months ago when I kept retreating and retreating the same fish so many times. Because I would find one thing on 25 different scrapes.

[Terri]

I understand where you are coming from Melinda, so please read the following in the gentle spirit it is intended.. and you already know what I'm about to say.... :-)

No it's not easy but it can be very enjoyable if you give yourself the time and can afford the resources needed to be in this wonderful hobby. Starting off with less than the ideal or "minimum" requirements tends to frustrate many along with poor advice that new comers are so often given... they eventualy give up(some stick it out and improve on what they started out with but not many). There are those that get their backs up when given good solid advice from seasoned hobbyists... maybe it's the way that advice is presented - I don't know, but what they say is offered up from their own experiences along the way...

You yourself know your limitations, and you know the drill. I thank you for sharing what you have with others as we will all take something away from reading your words. I wish there were more we all could have offered you, but there really was no "quick fix" for your situation... other than what you have done. Each of us would have handled this differently...

[Melinda]

I fixed my problem I think. At least it is what I am going to try.. I took the goldies and moved them yet again they are inside in the 2 20 gallon containers. They are being treated so I can get them into the pond soon. The koi were put into the 45 gallon rubber maid container but just for a few days. I went out today (took off work, daughter sick anyways so I will use her as an excuse) and got a piece of liner. Instead of waisting this liner just for a month or so building them a place I decided to go ahead and build my filter chamber for my pond and just not put the bulk heads through the sides yet. Figure I would knock 2 things out with one stone kind deal. Get my chamber built and get them in more water. Later I can drain it and put in all the drains and stuff. I am making it so it can be moved with several people helping me just in case I do not get it placed in just the perfect spot.

[ozzyrockman]

Melinda, Sorry to hear about your situation I really sucks when you are trying to take the steps needed and something like that happens however you are in good hands. What caused the pool to split? As a side note if you have access to a couple of yard waste containers they hold 96 gallons and as long as the lift handles do not turn they hold water well and make good emergancy holding container for small fish. Below is the tote I am talking about and a couple years ago I used it once to hold our goldies while I modified there pond and enlarged it from 50-100g and worked well just make sure they are clean and you use one that has a lift handle that does not leak. :D Allen
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/ozzyrockman/Revisedfilter5.jpg
PS clean out with mild bleach water and yes I use them for filters too.

[Jackie Ramo]

Sounds like you have a good plan in place Melinda. Fish always seem to make life exciting just when we don't need it.

[Terri]

That's pretty cool Allen :grin:

Take pics of your build Melinda :)

**pssst Jackie, 500 posts!!wow! **

[Jackie Ramo]

Well some one has to be the top poster :-? :-? I'm waiting for you and Busy to keep up BTW this is 502, so get typing :-P

:backon:

[captk]

You have been busy over here, Jackie. ;)

[Jackie Ramo]

You my dear have a long way to go to catch up.