Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Fin Rot?

I've recently began to notice my coppernose having what looks like white on their dorsal fins.So i caught a few and this is what i found. What is the cause or this and is there any remedy?

CNBG have as a trait white or light fin margins. The fish above seems to have been under attack/stress. Scales missing and wound. Can you describe the fin margins - are there soft gooey growths on them ?

It inst just a hand full of fish, its a bunch now.If i had to guess around 100 or so that come to feed. I agree that the above fish was attacked , there has been quite a few cormorants diving in the pond. Wouldn't consider it growths but rather just a deterioration of the fins.Is this due to too many fish?

How is your water quality ? Crowding of fish can result in stress problems including disease but many other factors can as well. Cormorants can be a serious problem. See this link from the archives second post on fungus.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92438#Post92438

Fish that are stressed can be more susceptible to disease and sickness such as the Fin Rot that you are seeing. Stressors are things like evading predators, poor water quality, etc.

In one clients 7/8 ac pond that had 3-5 cormorants on it every day, over 80% of the fish that were caught during a fish survey had marks on them from escaping being eaten by the cormorants.

I think that if you reduce the stress on the fish the problem will fix itself.

Depending on the size of the pond, should some salt be added?

Here's what's going on with those fish.
First, there's a stressor. That's the actual 'problem'. That stressor can come in the form of anything from rapid water temperature changes to an assault by a predator to a turnover.
The stress compromises the fish's defense systems, which allows the onset of an infection.
In this case, it looks like that particular fish suffered a bird strike. Then, a bacterial infection started...either an aeromonas or pseudomonas infection. When water temperatures are cool, or cold, our warmwater fish can't fight off these infections as quickly as they can in warmer water. These bacterial infections can either start on the outside of the fish and move in, or inside and move out. Either way, if that infection has a chance to move, it will. What stops it is warm environmental conditions for the fish to heal, or treating it with an antibiotic. More on that in a minute.
If untreated, in cool water, an external bacterial infection allows the growth of a fungus, called saprolegnia. That's the white fuzzy-looking stuff growing on the edges of that fish's fins.
So, there are three things that are a cause and effect situation.
The cause: Stress.
2nd: Bacterial infection.
3rd: Fungus.

The 4th, when saprolegnia hits, is death...most of the time.

For your fish, in your location, I would expect some healing. Part of the reason more than one fish has it is likely because of population density around the feeder and a mutual stressor.

When we start seeing lesions or red spots, or sores, we'll medicate a batch of feed with an over-the-counter antibiotic and feed it to bluegills. Here's what we do: Any antibiotic from your local feed store is good. It can be penicillin, terramycin (oxytetracycline)...whatever they have to treat farm animals. Mix two ounces of the antibiotic with a small bottle of either Karo syrup or vegetable oil. Drizzle that over a bag of fish food. We do it in a wheelbarrow or a big tub. Mix thoroughly and let it settle and absorb. Feed to your fish for ten days.

That works well for us.

The pond is right at 1/2 acre. I haven't tested my water yet, but i am planning to do this really soon. We've had a pretty warm winter here, but now that you mention cool water i have noticed that as winter came i started to see more fish affected by this.I'm thinking its mostly due to overcrowding and will start to take a bunch of fish out. Haven't had much time to work on the pond like i should have due to work.

Its been an uphill battle from the beginning, for some reason i let my fish supplier convince me to stock with about double the amount of fish that i called for. I guess you could say he was a good salesman.Within the first 18 months of having the fish stocked i had 2 fish kills.

We should start warming up pretty good soon, so ill pull out a bunch of fish and hope the warm water helps cure them. If it doesnt i will certainly get an antibiotic.Thanks for the help.