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Koi pond and water garden information, pet information, pet care and Koi and Goldfish care from the nation's leading Koi health veterinarian.

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Yellowfoot Tortoises - Incubation of Eggs - Alligator Snapping Turtles - Spotted Turtles - SlowCoach Turtle Pages - Housing Terrestrial Turtles - HATCHLINGS! - CTTC [Great!] -African Spur Thighs - Wood Turtles- - -

Amphibians Information

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Tropical Freshwater Fish Information

Hole in the Head Disorder - Oscars - Paradise Gourami - Ideal Community Tank - Sudden death in Cory Cats - Serpae Tetras - Plecostomus [Beware!] - Hydrogen Sulfide! - Discus Care - Kissing Gouramis - First Aid for Tropical Fish - Use of Formalin - Fish Health for Retailers - Setting Up The Tank - Discus Wasting Diseases - Undergravel Filters! -

Tropical Marine Fish Information

Stray Voltage - Copper resistant trematodes - Sick Tomato Clown- Freshwater Dips- Using Copper - Treating Reef Tank Fish -

Backyard Pets & Foundlings Information

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Lizard and Snake Information

Iguana [Green] Care

Miscellaneous Pocket Pets

Hermit Crab Care- Crayfish as pets - Bunnies - Cockatiels - - -

 Discus Wasting Disease

My Discus is wasting away: What should I do?

Salt them, but remove plants first.

If that does not help, then consider the possibility that flukes, Hexamita, or Cestodes are ravaging them.

For flukes and Cestodes (worms) , the treatment will be the same: Praziquantel, trade name, Droncit, is available in a cat and dog form from the Vet in your neighborhood.

You simply add 2-3 ppm to the tank you are deworming/defluking. As an aside, this will eliminate Flukes very handily.

2-3 parts per million is had by calculating the gallons in your system into Liters, then you figure out how many milligrams per liter you need. Let's do an example:

10 gallon system, let's say.

10 gallons x 3.785 equals 37 liters in that 10 gallon system.

Let's shoot for 2 ppm. 2 ppm is the same thing as 2 mg/Liter. So we need 2 mg per liter, and there are 37 liters to treat. 2 x 37 is about 80 milligrams. Dog Droncit is 34 mg each. So we need 2 1/2 tabs to treat our 10 gallon tank.

You only need to treat once, for worms. But you should treat again in a week for flukes.

If you can confirm Hexamitiasis or Spironucleus, (related flagellated protozooans) then treat with Metro. Metronidazole is the treatment of choice for the intestinal parasite Hexamita and Spironucleus. You simply add 2 tablets of the 250mg strength Metronidazole (Flagyl) to the ten gallon isolation ward every 3-5th day for 3 treatments. On microscopic exam at the end of 10 days, I have never seen a treatment failure against Hexamita.

Metronidazole does not really upset the Nitrification cycle, but I still recommend you use it in the isolated system.

Here's a food that would work on Discus Wasting Disease

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Koi Beginner
Once you've leapfrogged through this tutorial you will have a solid, working concept of the Koi hobby and what it's all about. This is done just about exclusively with video and very little written material.

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By Frank Prince-Iles. A UK authority who put this site together some time ago and which is still relied upon as a major source of good Koi and pond fish information

Fish Medicines
Learn about fish medicines, what they do, and where to get them.

PondCrisis.com
If you have a koi, pond or fish problem, this site takes you through twenty easy questions and at the end you know what you need to fix in your pond to create restored Koi health.

KoiCrisis.com
Koi Crisis has a symptoms chart by system you can choose the symptom by fish part, and resolve a lot of Koi pond fish problems or at least, learn about them understand how to remedy them.

Buying Domestic Koi
What does "Domestic" koi mean? Why would you buy that kind? How do you pick good and healthy ones? Who sells them and where do you find the best ones?

Buying Imported Koi
A Japanese or Israeli imported Koi is a beautiful thing. Why would you buy one of those? How do you identify a "good one"? And what kinds are there? Who would you buy one from?

Koi Filtration - Bead
With a little bit of management every week or so, you can have gin clear water in your koi or fish pond. Bead filtration is more than ten years old and defines the state of the art in Koi and pond fish ponds.

Koi Filtration - Natural
Requiring no weekly management but one big yearly overhaul, natural filtration is the easiest there is. Relying on live plants and organic processes, water quality is usually superb. Described and common mistakes illustrated, visit this site!

Koi Food & Feeding
What should you feed your koi? How many times per day? Is Corn really that bad in a Koi diet? What are the most common feeding mistakes people make? What's the best food?

Koi and Pond Hard Goods
So many places these days, are pure ripoffs. Finding a reputable dealer of koi and pond hard goods isn't as easy as you would think but there's ways to tell. The product line should be to-the-point and not contain shams. Who's doing it right? Visit this site!

Finding Reputable Dealers
The fish are only as good as the dealer holding them. Quarantines, guarantees and fish quality all factor in. What to ask, what to see and how to handle your new fish.

Books on Koi Diseases
You will be introduced to Dr Johnson's Koi Health book but also to other books he's reviewed.

Help With Koi Problems
Koi Community rates a variety of forums and message boards on ease of use, friendliness and quality of help. Not all boards are created equal. Not mincing words here.
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