Cleveland Ohio, April 28, 2000
- To get an early start on the weekend, on Friday, Rick Hess of the Goldfish Connection arranged for world renown Koi and Goldfish health specialist Dr. Erik (Doc) Johnson to present his eight hour Goldfish and Health seminar. Doc is a not only knowledgeable on the subject of fish health he is also a very dynamic presenter. Doc’s material was scaled to all levels of fish keeping expertise.
For the first part of the session Doc covered water quality and it’s effect on fish’s health. From this class the participants got a great understanding of the nitrification cycle, the effect of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH on goldfish.
After a delicious lunch, provided as part of the seminar, Doc then discussed the parasites that affect goldfish and Koi. Along with details on identifying these parasites Doc discussed the possible treatment protocols and the pros and cons of each treatment.
Following the parasite discussion Doc then moved on to the bacterial pathogens and treatment protocols, which include ingestible antibiotics, injectible antibiotics, water borne antibiotics, and topical treatments.
After covering the bacterial pathogens Doc narrowed the focus of the discussion to goldfish specific health issues such as bloat, dropsy, nutrition, and swim bladder problems. With that the lecture portion of the seminar ended and on to the wet lab to do microscopy on slime scrapes from goldfish and Koi that were suspected as having parasites. To no one’s disappointment a few flukes were spotted.
And if all this wasn’t enough Doc Johnson then perform surgery on two chronic floaters. First he discussed and demonstrated proper technique for anesthetizing goldfish with oil of cloves. Then the surgery to correct floating of a Demekin and an Oranda. Both fish had quartz stones implanted into their peritoneal cavity to provide ballast. As of this writing both fish are recovering well from their respective surgeries.
With the surgery complete at 8:00 P.M. it ended a full day of goldfish health information. Many thanks to Doc Johnson for going the extra mile to increase our knowledge of goldfish health.