I suppose if one were in an isolated area with no access to modern medicine it might be necessary to fall back on home remedies for pneumonia, but that is probably what killed so many so soon in the days before modern medicine. Some illnesses are so severe, and move so rapidly, that traditional treatments do not have the strength to work. I have always considered pneumonia to be one of those. Essentially, the way I picture it, you have a concentrated ball of microorganisms rapidly doubling in quantity, and something has to be done to stop that fairly quickly before it kills you. Even today and hospitalized, many elderly still die of it. Traditional herbal treatments often cannot be safely taken in massive doses because they have not been treated by modern processes to remove any non-therapeutic constituents that could be harmful. There probably are remedies that could be taken to help ward off pneumonia, before a lung infection actually developed to the point it could be called that, but I don't know what they would be. I know the buds of forsythia have some antibiotic quality, but the Chinese grow a special strain in which that characteristic is stronger. There would be no guarantee, in either case, though, that the antibiotic quality of the forsythia buds would kill the harmful bacteria, rather than simply kill off more beneficial ones that might help to keep more lethal bacteria strains at bay. Only a practitioner in the area where the infection was occurring who had practiced on others with the same condition would tend to have this knowledge. Herbal treatment was probably by trial and error in the early days, and later patients probably benefited more than earlier ones during any particular epidemic. My theory is that most epidemics begin in more crowded and less affluent conditions, which would enable the ambitious practitioner to exercise his or her best remedies on the more affluent. Since herbs take more space to grow and store than today's pills, and transportation was also more limited, the average herbalist was probably rather limited in the number of remedies actually on hand. There were probably a few standards (like comfrey, because it grows so large and well in a variety of circumstances) which would be tried for almost every malady, since there was such a good supply of it, and other herbal remedies, which might acutually have been more effective, held in reserve for the very worst cases or the wealthiest clients. Herbs from warmer, or cooler, or dryer, or more humid climates than the practicing herbalist's would have been in short supply in the early days. An herbalist that relocated to an area with a different climate, for any reason, would have initially been able to bring a supply of his or her own remedies along, but would soon have needed to resupply with remedies that could grow in the new area, or which were obtainable through reliable trade with other areas. Even for conditions which the herbalist knew how to treat effectively, many probably died because of insufficient supplies of herbs or lack of anything to pay for treatment. All of that, again, would have resulted in those who had the knowledge and resources to do so, growing or gathering their own herbs where possible. It is possible that monks and nuns might have shared clones of valuable plants with parish priests, who then could pass offsets on to parishioners, but I don't know if anyone has documentation of that. Possibly, on pilgrimages, people also were on the lookout for curative plants that could be brought home.

Our garden ponds are artificial environments. This means that they need maintenance to keep the conditions acceptable for fish. Yes, carp (Koi) and goldfish are pretty tough but they do much better with the water temperature, pH and hardness in their optimum range and with a minimum of waste build up in the pond. Hydrogen Sulfide kills things very easily when in high enough concentrations. Parasites can knock out most of your fish in a few days if not caught early. We want our fish to be happy and healthy, not struggling to survive. The same goes for feeding, a healthy diet keeps them alive a lot longer.

Hi Swords/platies can't cross with goldfish due to an entirely different method of reproduction. They are livebearers while GF are egg layers. I raised platies swords in my pools for many years until the deep freeze of 09 lol. Last i heard there are at least 200 color /fin and size morphs They hybridize between the families of platies /swordtails easily, resulting in an incredible variation due to selective breeding. As to size they range from about an inch to around 6 inches ,maybe more?? a whole rainbow of colors and fin forms. Last I heard on the epitome of .swordtail breeding was "Red eyed /red, hi fin .double sword ,lyre tailed ." Don't even remotely resemble their wild ancestors lol i raised "Red wag" meaning red bodies with black fins but ended up with over 30 color and fin forms over the years. If interested in setting a strain you'll need some knowledge of genetics as well as a lot of control of parentage . My particular goal was a set strain of" Red jet" meaning half the body was black, half red but the closest I got was polka dot though i did get a nice strain of " red wag" without any trace of orange usually called "Red velvet" As to the yellows /gold/ orange varieties have no idea where the standard is today.There are books available on the subject gary

Quibloid. the first thing you have to do is remove the koi from the pond into a 'hospital tank' where you can attend to the cuts. You will have to use an antibiotic treatment to stop infection in the wounds. Your local pond specialist store or veterinarian can advise you on that treatment. Since you live in the UK I'm not sure what did the damage to your fish? Here in North America, that kind of wound can be caused by a raccoon, but you do not have them over there. Maybe a fox, heron or even a cat got at your fish. There is a UK pond forum [still with Garden Web] where you can obtain information that could be more relevent to your situation. Click the link below to see the UK pond forum. Good luck with your fish and please let us know how you make out with it. I have posted your question over onto the UK forum. Maybe some one over there will give you some more information about treatment. Use the link below to go there. "Horton" Here is a link that might be useful: UK Pond Forum.