Hi again. Don't know how deep your pond water is but goldfish don't do well in warmer water. The legarthic behavior and fins, shredding could just be from the stress of the water temps. They won't eat if its too hot just like if the water is too cold you shouldn't feed them. Kinda like when it's too hot for us we don't feel like eating. The deeper water is cooler. Do you have aeration? Even with a waterfall the aeration is necessary to keep oxygen in that hot water! It has stopped raining and the sun is out. Yeah! I don't know how much water I shop vaced out yesterday but there is still some in the furnace room seeping up through the concrete. Sump pump slowing down on running though. The town I live in used to be a lake a gazillion years ago but normally has a really high water table. With all the rain even if I had more sump pumps I doubt that it would have done much as the water is coming up through the floor--not along the walls. 5 ft of my basement is below ground level so that kinda says how high the water table is. Oh goldfishconnection.com has some excellent goldfish medicated food that I've used before with fish that had dropsy. It lasts a long time and the fish loved it. Also use their Progold on a regular basis. Best fish food I've found. Site also has lots of info on goldfish diseases. Good luck. Patti

This is the name of the other food I bought online, which hasn't arrived yet : Tetra BettaMin Tropical Medley

if your tank is heavily planted, i wouldn't recommend you use too much salt--your plants won't like it. when you bring in your fish, how do you acclimate them? as birdwidow suggests, you should float them in a container or open the bag while gradually replacing the water. when you buy your fish, bring the home as quickly as possible. CO2 and and fish waste build up inside the bag and drop the pH. when you open the bag, the rapid influx of oxygen will precipitate the pH and convert NH4 to NH3, resulting in gill burn (gill burn can take a few weeks to kill a fish, and you'll see sluggish behavior, lack of feeding etc.). on the subject of water quality...since your tank is cycled, you may want to do a large water change, including extensive gravel-vac'ing before you introduce your next fish--especially if you have a pad of waste and debris at the bottom of your tank harboring anaerobic bacteria. lastly, the water where i live is terribly shoddy so i added "chemi-pure elite" to my overflow filter and noticed a decrease in mysterious fish deaths. it takes care of some of the heavy metals you can't normally remove. it's not cheap ($25-ish), but neither is buying new fish! oh, and as to your driftwood question, the tannins in it tend to lower the pH. indian almond leaf has the same effect, and you may have come across it in relation to your bettas. good luck! -ming p.s. have you considered just keeping them outdoors in a pond or large trough? when i lived in oregon, i kept my fancies outside all year long and they loved it. p.s.s. sometimes certain fish aren't meant for us. since i moved to AZ, i can't keep a cory cat alive for more than a couple months to save my life!

Help! I have a point pond about 700 gals. I have tea colored water. I have a 850 gal pressurized pond filter, a UV light a small 600 gal. pond filter and a 900 gal. Laguna power jet filter. I have water lilies, hyacinth (3), creeping Jenny, black elephant ears ( planted in clay), a fountain, and two waterfalls. The pond gets morning sun only and only for 4 hours(daybreak till 10am or so) I have lost to of my fish to dropsy in the last month. Water tested good, all within limits. I have done a quick clean of the small filter, but left the big one alone. I have salted my pond, used pimafix and melafix, added good bacteria, partial water exchange (20%), and I am afraid I will lose more fish and be left with plants and a tea colored pond. I live in the Poco o Mtns. in Pa. and we have a small window for summer, and have had a ton of rain this year. Can someone give me advice! First time mommy to koi, dumb! ANY advise will be great. Thanks