The Boss is Back
I'm referring to Dreamcicle, the queen of the pond. Some good news, for a change.
She had me worried through most of July. She just was not acting like her old self at all, and there was no way of being certain whether it was from illness or trying to get used to the new configuration of just two fish, herself and Blue.
In the past I've always treated the pond and not the fish, per se. So, for the first time, I used Medi-Koi food to treat the fish, believing that Dreamcicle was possibly dying a slow death, just like Keybo apparently did. I used it for 10 days. They seemed to ignore it for the first two days. They're used to floating food, and I think the first day's dose just sat on the bottom of the pond and crumbled, dissolved and made the pond cloudy. By the third day I was introducing the food gradually; I would sprinkle a few pellets on their heads, to get their attention. That seemed to freak them out a little the first time I did it, but they found their food. In another day or two they didn't seem to mind the head sprinkles at all, and would start diving right after I did it. It was hard to tell if they were diving for the food, though, because the pond was getting cloudy.
This has been such a weird season with whacky weather and the earlier loss of Pond Mojo, so I can't necessarily blame the Medi-Koi for the cloudiness, but I didn't like the way the uneaten Medi-koi crumbled on the bottom of the pond, where I couldn't easily skim it out. It seemed to counter the intent of treating the fish only. I don't know what the anti-bacterials are in that food, but my ammonia and nitrite levels became an issue and difficult control. After the 10 days, and another partial water change, those were back to zero and have stayed there.
In any case, back to Dreamcicle, even after 10 days of Medi-Koi I wasn't terribly confident she was going to make it. She hadn't previously ever seemed to "adopt" Blue in quite the way she had with Keybo, so I couldn't tell if she was keeping herself isolated in illness, or just ignoring Blue.
However, for at least two weeks now she has been swimming around and being her generally busy self again. Both fish are back on their usual floating diet and both have been eagerly eating again. And, this morning, at feeding time, Dreamcicle seemed to be herding Blue around a bit. I'm not sure if it was to get him to eat more or to keep him away from "her" food. In either case, Dreamcicle is back to being Dreamcicle.
She had me worried through most of July. She just was not acting like her old self at all, and there was no way of being certain whether it was from illness or trying to get used to the new configuration of just two fish, herself and Blue.
In the past I've always treated the pond and not the fish, per se. So, for the first time, I used Medi-Koi food to treat the fish, believing that Dreamcicle was possibly dying a slow death, just like Keybo apparently did. I used it for 10 days. They seemed to ignore it for the first two days. They're used to floating food, and I think the first day's dose just sat on the bottom of the pond and crumbled, dissolved and made the pond cloudy. By the third day I was introducing the food gradually; I would sprinkle a few pellets on their heads, to get their attention. That seemed to freak them out a little the first time I did it, but they found their food. In another day or two they didn't seem to mind the head sprinkles at all, and would start diving right after I did it. It was hard to tell if they were diving for the food, though, because the pond was getting cloudy.
This has been such a weird season with whacky weather and the earlier loss of Pond Mojo, so I can't necessarily blame the Medi-Koi for the cloudiness, but I didn't like the way the uneaten Medi-koi crumbled on the bottom of the pond, where I couldn't easily skim it out. It seemed to counter the intent of treating the fish only. I don't know what the anti-bacterials are in that food, but my ammonia and nitrite levels became an issue and difficult control. After the 10 days, and another partial water change, those were back to zero and have stayed there.
In any case, back to Dreamcicle, even after 10 days of Medi-Koi I wasn't terribly confident she was going to make it. She hadn't previously ever seemed to "adopt" Blue in quite the way she had with Keybo, so I couldn't tell if she was keeping herself isolated in illness, or just ignoring Blue.
However, for at least two weeks now she has been swimming around and being her generally busy self again. Both fish are back on their usual floating diet and both have been eagerly eating again. And, this morning, at feeding time, Dreamcicle seemed to be herding Blue around a bit. I'm not sure if it was to get him to eat more or to keep him away from "her" food. In either case, Dreamcicle is back to being Dreamcicle.
Labels: Dreamcicle, Fish Medication
posted by Bryrock at
3:23 PM
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