Ranchu Goldfish Parasite Treatment

It appears that bypassing my water storage tank has helped in eliminating my ranchu parasite problem. I'm almost certain that this (and potentially, buckets and hoses used in conjunction) had been providing an ongoing parasite supply to the ponds that were being treated. I overlooked this, as the tank had two permanganate treatments and shortly after appeared clean. However, on a recent refill, parasites were found when the supposedly clean water reached temperatures above 20 degreesC. Whether the Permanganate was not effective as a disinfectant or contamination was the source, i'm not sure.

It has shed some light on the apparent lack of effectiveness of any previous treatments. For example, it may have meant that during the FMG treatment, fresh parasites were being unintentionally added to ponds with each water change and not enduring the full course. The same may also have occurred with the salt treatments, giving the impression that they were resistant to the salt.

I'm hoping that any parasites on the ranchu themselves, would have gone through the full courses. The ranchu continue to appear to be in great health, showing no signs of infestation and reassuringly, scrapes of all the ranchu, have showed no parasites today. I look forward to getting the ranchu back into their main pond when i can begin preparing them for a now slightly delayed, winter period.

Ranchu Goldfish Parasites; Under Control

The ranchu have gone from .7% into their first .5% dissolved salt tubs today and thankfully, all appear well. The ranchu have been going into fresh ponds within 24 hours maximum. With a much stricter routine consisting of minimal feeds (to help maintain water quality) and tubs and equipment disinfected between the ranchu moving ponds, the parasite population has been hit hard. Random scrapes of a couple of the ranchu as well as the pond and heater this evening have shown no visible parasites.

After disinfecting the water storage tank, the reaction of the Permanganate clearly showed that there was a lot of organic matter present, somehow. I suspect this may have been the route cause of parasites constantly being introduced to ponds previously. Interestingly, the ranchu have never been in the tank, although heaters, air stones, buckets and hoses may have been in contact with multiple ponds and the tank (although generally everything is cleaned between uses). It's another example of just how how easily contamination could occur in an unfiltered system.

UK Ranchu Treatment Update

48 hours into the .7% salt treatment and scrapes of the ranchu tub, heater and fish have still shown strong numbers of Costia and Chilodonella, seemingly relatively happy in the .7% solution. I wondered if I should expect to see an initial peak in parasite numbers, as the increased temperatures speeds up the life cycle and therefor their reproduction? However, increasing numbers after a couple of days suggests the salt isn't killing the Costia before reproduction can occur. Sadly it appears I won't be getting the upper hand with this salt treatment.

Japanese Ranchu; The Battle Continues

It has been an eye opening couple of days with my Japanese ranchu, to say the least. Sunday evening, the group were moved back into their main pond, into fresh water that had been aged. The spot/ulcer identified in the funtan of one of my ranchu appeared to burst over night, unfortunately, changing the shape of the right funtan considerably. Interestingly, this ranchu (which had been one of the two sulking and off their food) has generally become more active and fed well.

The other noticeably weakened ranchu was still not right on the Monday morning before work, continuing to isolate itself from the group and not feed. After work was the same story, although the rest of the group appeared to be OK and feeding (although not as aggressively as i would like). Worryingly, I noticed a couple of the group flashing and so I took a scrape of the pond wall. The result? probably the most infested scrape i have seen yet. Unbelievable! Clearly something went amiss with my routine, contaminating the "clean" pond somehow, or not properly taking into account the life cycle of each parasite when disinfecting. Either ways, I could now see huge numbers of Costia and Chilonodella (previously what i thought was Tetrahymena).

Again, something had to be done, and quickly. I took the fish out of the main pond and put them back into a fresh tub (a much lesser infested environment will give me some thinking time at least!). I gave it some thought and decided to carry out an experiment, with a suggested salt treatment in mind. I took a small sample from the main pond and added a couple of drops of salt solution to the slide. The salt level was somewhere between .6% and .7% (or 6-7g per litre). Within several minutes, both the costia and particularly the chilodonella, were suffering. After 20 minutes or so, activity was dramatically reduced again, with some chilodonella motionless and others turning slowly on the spot. The costia were also becoming fewer and less active.

It led me to decide that a salt treatment may be effective and should be attempted. The treatment idea that I have been made aware of (by a very well known UK ranchu breeder) is 3 days at .7%, then 3 days at .5% (in a new pond), then 3 days at .25% (again, in a new pond), followed by move to an unsalted pond. This will be my plan. I also plan on keeping the temperature up as much as possible, to speed up the parasites life cycle. This afternoon the ranchu were moved into a disinfected tub, containing the salt solution of near on 7g per litre. On the face of it, the improvement in the ranchu's behaviour, within a couple of hours, has been astonishing. ALL ranchu have been active, including the previously very ill looking pieces. I fed bloodworm a little while ago and ALL ranchu fed more aggressively than i have ever seen, at any time. I hope this is a sign that we may be on the right path finally.

The Treatment Comes to an End.

This morning my japanese ranchu had completed 36 hours in the final treatment dose. Scrapes have shown ZERO parasites. Get in!! However, the ranchu were beginning to look very tired, most noticeably they were all breathing quite heavily and lacking appetite. I immediately refilled their main pond with prepared water. On moving them i noticed that one ranchu in particular has developed very bad veining in his tail fin and even  a couple of small sores on his back, which i suspect is related to being exposed to the formalin for this length of time.

Ranchu goldfish treatment - sorted!

I don't want to speak to soon, but, a scrape of the heater this morning showed zero tetrahymena, and a tiny number of Costia in the Ranchu tub. All of which looked like they were about to die (going nowhere and spinning slowly on the spot). I think the increased temperature certainly played a huge role in the effectiveness of the FMG this time round. The Ranchu were being kept in water around 22 degrees C and the same during the last course. For this treatment course, I gradually increased the temperature which touched 26/27 degrees C during the final dosing. This no doubt helped speed up the life cycle of the parasites, meaning the chemical could go to work on a maximum number of Costia, in their free swimming form.

The Ranchu may be moved back into the main pond this evening, although the higher temps have been more manageable in the smaller quarantine tubs. I also want to avoid pulling them out of the final treatment dose too soon, like last time. For that reason, I have a large water tank (disinfected) that has been pre-dosed identically to the pond they are in. This will give me the opportunity to keep the ranchu in the treated water, that is also fresh, for a couple of days longer.

I have noticed a couple of the ranchu no longer gulp at the surface after feeding which is interesting. As it only seemed to occur after feeding, and by the largest, heaviest feeders, this was a symptom that could well have been put down to a number of causes. Clearing gills of debris, Begging for food, Poor water quality(not so likely), or gill damage. Although scrapes were taken for the edge of the gill plate, no scrapes were taken from inside the gill, making it impossible to know for sure, just what took up residence there. Having previously identified and treated for gill flukes and now costia, it's certainly not a stretch to imagine the gills may have been infested at some point. It now seems clear to me that gill damage/weakness was the issue, with the change in behavior observed.

Treatment of The Ranchu Continues...

Day 4 of the 5 day anti parasite treatment has been dosed and the ranchu appear to be bearing up OK. My new dosing method is meaning the water appears to be retaining the treatment dye colour better than previously. Let's hope this means it will prove more successful in eradicating the costia.

I've noticed some minor veining in the tail finnage of a couple of the ranchu, which i expect to be stress and/or water quality related. However, the fish are going into fresh (aged) water every day, so until the treatment course is over, there's very little i can do currently. In all other ways, the ranchu seem well. They have been constantly active and feeding.

The tubs I'm using are proving to be great. They each hold up to about 70 litres and included a lid, which is useful and helps to keep the water temperature stable during the night. I think they will also be great as hatching tubs for ranchu fry in their earliest days/weeks. They also only cost £8 each, which will be useful come spring time when i hope to be raising thousands of potential All Japan Ranchu Winners!

Ranchu Parasites - A Closer Look and Plan B.

The ranchu have been moved into smaller temporary tubs whilst the pond has been "nuked" with a Potasium Permanganate treatment. Every effort will now be made to keep anything not sterilized from going into it. The ranchu will only go in there once i'm happy they are clean enough for the Winter and Spring periods. I really need to get them sorted quickly as i really want to start cooling them for a winter break as soon as possible.

My plan now is to attempt another course of FMG treatment. This time however i hope to use the smaller tubs, that I currently have the ranchu in. I intend to change the water daily, 100% fresh and with the required dose mixed in each day. Using the smaller tubs will help in a couple of ways:

1. I intend to increase the temperature this time, which will speed up the life cycle of the Costia, or even start killing them off if a high enough temperature is reached. 
2. It will keep the general level of waste down which should help the FMG perform to its potential (I also intend to feed even more strictly (or less) during this course. 
3. It will also keep the water in the best possible condition for the ranchu, which I hope will allow me to hold fire after the final dosage, giving the chemical an extra day or two to finish the job!

I managed to catch a decent mini clip of some of the little F#@%%@s today. This is from a scrape of a heater in one of the tubs which obviously gets some slime build up. It makes claims that parasites cannot live long off a host very questionable. Parasites shown on scrapes of the fish are still proving much harder to find thankfully, although they are there in very low numbers.

Back to the Drawing Board!

Twenty four hours passed since the final FMG dose was applied and scrapes of the pond, disappointingly, showed that the treatment had had very little impact. I pulled the fish out and put them into a smaller temporary tub. Out of interest, I dosed the fishless pond with another 25ml, left for several hours and again scraped the tub. You guessed it, Costia and Tetrahymena were still present in high numbers and looking just as active.

Ranchu Parasite Update

More thorough scrapes today have confirmed my fears and shown Costia on my Ranchu.

Fortunately, I had only recently started treating the pond with a Formalin and Malachite Green anti parasite treatment so my Ranchu have been returned to endure the treatment. Several hours in and everything appears to be normal. All fish active, breathing well and looking for food. Let's hope that the previous Gill Flukes and Costia have not caused to much damage to the gills and the fish can cope with the course of treatment.

I have researched a lot and read many conflicting recommendations regarding the preferred treatment for Ranchu, these included baths in salt upto 20g per litre, Potassium Permanganate, and Formalin and Malachite treatments all appearing to have varying results. Having some immediately available, and in an attempt to treat the issue as soon as possible, i've gone with the F&MG treatment.

A couple of tips that may be useful that i have discovered whilst using the microscope:

Ranchu Parasites

Having become somewhat obsessed with my new microscope, I have been inspecting many samples from the pond and the Ranchu in recent days.

The first issue identified clearly on the Ranchu were flukes. Both skin and gill flukes were identified following scrapes and a straight forward Praziquantel course of treatment appears to have successfully removed them.