My Pond Parameters

[Rick40]

Thank you all for your help in my my previous post

Here are my pond parameters that I just checked:

Ammonia .5 or maybe at the most 1. This one was hard for me to read accurately.
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH  7.6

Pond size about 1000 gallons
Pump 1250 GPH
Bio Filter

My question is : should I do a partial water change(with Dechlor added ) or should I leave it as is and let it run it course? My Goldfish seem to be always hiding weather it be underneath the rocks or underneath my water lilies. I tried feeding them a little bit this afternoon ,but none of them came out.I know they are still there because I saw one dart away today and I saw some yesterday that were hiding. No more dead fish seen. Thank you for the "tip" on my previous post about buying  feeder goldfish from a LPS. My neighbor asked me if I wanted some of his from his pond,but I am looking to get some mostly  white Comets. I saw some larger ones at a different LPS the other day. I don't want to "rush" into buying them until I start seeing the ones in my pond first.

   Thank you

  Rick

[Michiponder]

Hi Rick.  I see by your profile that you live in Illinois.  Dropsy like you described does show up on goldfish in the spring quite often.  Fish that are fed when the water is too cold can get this condition.  Often it does not show until spring when it warms up.  Did you feed your fish late in the fall or winter?  Did you clean the crud out before going into the winter?  Poor water quality or improper feeding are the most common causes of this from what I have seen.  Often by the time you see it the cause was long ago and the swelling and puffing up is because of internal damage from the infection.  Raising the salt level can help fish with this condition and reduce the swelling, but the damage has been done and does not go away.  The readings you gave are not good with amonia too high, but it is difficult to get acurate readings after using many declorinators.