Mostly Dead?

[alaque]

I bought an oranda on Sunday afternoon for my newish pond.  He wasn't very active in the tank, but my daughter really wanted that particular one.  He flopped over on his side when they put him in the bag, but eventually righted himself.  I KNEW I should have said nevermind.  I put him in the pond (yes, I floated the bag for a while and added Stress Coat), and he went straight to the bottom.  A few hours later, and he was on his side.  The next morning, he was on his side again, but in a different spot.  I retrieved him with the net, but he was not dead...still moving just a little.  Today, same story.  I called the aquarium store, hoping they would offer to take him back (48 hrs is their guarantee), and they simply said they thought he was stressed and I should use salts. 

Any ideas?  In my experience (with indoor aquariums), they don't "come back to life". 

[tracey_shafer]

Stress coat & is one of the products I feel is more like snake oil. It has tea tree oil in it which coats the gills of the fish and then they have problems with 02 exchange. I mean it is fine for our skin but would you want to coat the insides of your lungs with an oil?
You are much better off trying salt until you can figure out what is wrong. Do .1% salt which is one cup per 100 gals of a canning salt or solar salt (one without caking agents, iodine or YPS). Do this every 12 hours for 3 doses.
See if you can get the info for a local koi club and find a KHA in your area to come do a scrap & scope to find out what is wrong. And help you treat it with the right meds. They do this for free, you might just need to order meds. I just lost 2 $200 dollar jikins and had to do this very thing. Sometimes salt alone will cure them. In my case I needs meds for other problems.

[alaque]

Wow, I'm sorry about your fish!  I have kosher salt...do you know if that is okay?  It doesn't appear to have any additives, but then, it doesn't say, either.  It just says pure & natural.

[alaque]

And one more thing...will the salt damage my lily/other plants?

[tracey_shafer]

Kosher is perfect and at levels above the .1% it will harm your plants so before the second dose try to get plants in a kitty pool with and 02 line and they will be ok or pull out the fish and treat in the aquarium.

[alaque]

Thanks so much for your help!  I'm treating him now and crossing my fingers...

[miguynmkoi]

Fancy fish require lots of help in a pond or tank environment, that is what I have been finding out.  I had a similar situation where the big orandas I purchased were from a very aerated tank.  I brought them home, quarantined them for 3 weeks.  Put them in the pond and they developed ich!  Ugggh!

Anyhow I had to quarantine them again and this time I had them in a 10 gallon bucket.  They looked worst than ever with just a pump pushing the water around, upside down or on their sides.  After putting an air stone in the bucket they seemed to look better, balance wise.   When I changed the water for their treatment and forgot to put the air stone in again they keeled over again until I through the air stone back in.

So try an air stone, see if that works!  Good luck.

[tracey_shafer]

Extra 02 never hurts but your fish most likely had ick when you bought them, the stress of the new pond environment just brought it out or ick is in your pond and the whole herd needs to be treated. Which is what should be done when you find an infected fish in the pond. That is one reason it is good to do the salt treatment to the whole pond. When I first started ponding I brought home a fish with ick and put it in the pond by the time saw what it was and got it out of the pond to treat it my whole herd was infected and we lost all but 1 of 20 fish.
We learn the hard way it seems & in that small of a container you must use 02 or any fish would die. Esp. with 3 larger fish. Sorry you lost the one and hope the others make it.