I'm not sure what the pink cottony mass is, so I can't comment on that, but what about the white spots on the fish? Do they look like grains of salt scattered about the fins and body?

Could you please post a picture? There are so many things it could be, it's just hard to know without actually seeing it. See if you can net him up and get some really good shots. thanks.....

Nancy, the white cottony fungal mass turned pink after 5 days of medication.
The white spots do NOT look like grains of salt, they look like bumps..sorta like they have small mosquito bites, if ya know what I mean, that kinda lil lump. Now the 2nd orange goldie has them too! But the bumps are't exactly white at closer examination..they are more like a very light orange..with a grey tint to it?

Thanks guys, I will get out there now and try to get some pix. I hope the Koi doesn't get it.

OK I Just got some pix, only bothered with the one orange goldie, cuz both of them are the same. Now he has the spots on his tail! Some on his body are slightly raised, and some aren't. The spots are on both sides, up to the face.

{{gwi:221613}}

Here is the Calico, the one that had the white mass that turned pink..when I looked real close, as you can see..towards his tail in between the two black spots, is the raised bump which actually has red in it. And is that a wound up by his gill? Or is that his gill? Call me a dope but I am worried about everything now.
{{gwi:221614}}

Everyone is swimming fine, and eating fine. I am putting in the 6th dose of PimaFix today. Should I discontinue that and use something else? Keep using this in conjunction with something else? Such as MelaFix?
Also, I did a partial water change yesterday hoping it may help.
Should I add salt too?

Just in case someone doesnt know, but I'm sure you all do..clicking on the pic, opens it up in a new window and makes it bigger..clicking on the pic in the new window will make it even bigger still so you can see real good.

thank you so much for helping me..I really don't want to lose any of my fish. Now I'm getting upset cuz it's worse than I thought.
Daniella

It looks like two totally different issues to me. Lets talk about the calico first. Goldfish commonly get fleshy tumors and that is exactly what this looks like to me. Fungus starts out as white fluffy looking tufts that quickly turn greeenish because of the algae in the pond. I do not believe that is what this (or the other fish) have. I believe this fish has a tumor of some sort....for which there is no treatment. Its also possible it is carp pox, although that is not very common in warmer summer water....so I am thinking tumor. Don't worry about it...there is nothing you can do for a tumor anyway.

The other fish looks like it has slightly raised white patches. That spells out parasite infestation to me, probably colonys of a protozoa-type parasites. Please throw pimafix and melafix away. They do nothing more than smell good and clog up the gills of fish that are already sick. You should probably treat with a chemical such as ProformC....something that contains formalin and malachite green. That will kill the protozoa parasites. But since we don't know exactly what parasites we are without a microscope, we need to assume that it could be ich. Ich is very different from most parasites. It has 3 different phases of it's life and it is only susceptible to parasite killers during one brief period in it's lifecycle. So it is necessary to keep the parasite treatment in the pond for at least 7 days, repeating the dose according to the manufactures directions. Do you know the volume of your pond? And do you have salt in your pond? Salt is not compatible with some parasite treatments.

Ccoombs,
Calico did have the white cottony mass at first, then after 5 days of PF it turned to what it looks like now, with the red in it. That was why I thought fungal infection.

As for the orange guys, why would they get this if I have been treating with the PimaFix? Becuase it is a parasite, not a fungal thing, right? SO I should go buy some of that ProFormC today? That should take care of the Ich if it is that, as well as any other parasites, correct? I am going to go to PetCo..what if they don't have it? Is there something else I can get? My PetCo only carries the PondCare stuff for ponds. It's very hard to get pond stuff around here.

My pond volume is aprox 270, I think. No salt in the pond. Should I add it?

Actually my ponds are 2 small preforms and a skippy. the smaller one is aprox 5x3 and the other is aprox 6x4 both 18" deep. and the skippy is about 20 gallons. The fish are only in the one bigger, lower preform which is last stop before the skippy. Hoping to go bigger for next year. Wanted to start small for the first year. Here is my pond;

upper pond
{{gwi:221615}}


lower pond, and tiny stream that connects the 2
{{gwi:221616}}
{{gwi:221617}}

Thank you again Ccoombs for helping me out with this.

pimafix is not really an effective fish medication. I checked PetCo's web site and it looks like they offer a product made by Kordon called Ric-ich. It kills all the common protozoan parasites and will do the same thing ProformC will do. They have another one called "Aquarium Products Quick Cure" which I know nothing about, but it might also work. Don't add salt....sometimes salt and parasite treatments are not compatible. Do add some air though, get a big aquarium pump with an air stone going....that will help. I wish you knew for sure the volume of your pond though. If you guess at it and overestimate then you end up overdosing the fish. If you underestimate, you underdose the parasites and don't kill them. that's why it's pretty important to know the volume of your pond. I have used proformC at 1.5 times the recommended dosage before (I had a very resistant strain of costia to treat) and had no problems, but I am reluctant to tell you to try that. Just watch the fish closely after dosing them for signs of distress. Be prepared to move them out of the pond or do a big water change. Also, if you have a carbon filter going, remove it as it will filter out the medication before it has time to work.

I just started a new thread that will tell you how to calculate he volume of your pond. The levels of salt used for this calculation are low enough that they can be used with parasite medications. You may want to pick up some pond salt and also a salt test kit while you are at the store so you can dose your pond accuratly.

Cindy

I know how to calculate the pond volume..what throws me off is the plant shelves, and that the ponds are odd shapes. Then I have the plants in there in pots which take up space that the water would otherwise be occupying. But I think that the skippy probably makes up for that. When I put anything in I work it out for 270. Believe me, I wish I knew the exact volume too.

I just got back from PetCo, and they were out of stick in both of those. I wound up getting the only thing they had besides the MelaFix, I got TetraPond stuff for Ich and other parasites. The bottle says 1/4 cup for 300 gallons, so that's what I did for the first dose, for the rest of the 7 days I will do slightly less than 1/4 cup.

I did also pick up some pond salt. They havent even had any in stock till just now. The bottle says not to add any other treatments while using this, so I'll hold off on the salt. Do you think Iafter this treatment is over I should throw some salt in for good measure? Just in case?

Thanks for starting that new thread, I am gonna check that out.

O and yes, I did remove the carbon when I started using the PF. Bought some fresh stuff today as well as some fresh zeolite. I don't wanna put the old stuff back in, and risk re-infecting.

As for the air, I have an extra pump in the lower pond where the fish are, and I have it going as a fountain 24 hrs a day, so they always have lotsa oxygen.

Cindy, I can't thank you enough for helping me out with this. I hope they'll be OK.
Daniella