I have a 100 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank on my front porch, filtered with a Rena xP canister filter. The filter output is arranged so that a strong stream of water comes out parallel to the surface, about an inch above the water. My fish love this and spend the whole day playing salmon swimming up the stream, swimming against the current and leaping into the filter output. It is very cute.

I thought I had my water level low enough (about 8 inches below the lip of that tank), but apparently not. Today when I got home my favorite, most enthusiastic comet was laying on the ground. He was all covered with dirt and his skin was very dry. I thought for sure that there was no hope. When I went to pick him up, I saw that his gills were moving. I ran for a bowl, filled it with tank water, and put him in there with a bubble wand. I used my fingers to gently brush the dirt and rocks off his body, especially around the gills. He is actually swimming around now!

What now?! I am sure his slime coat is totally wrecked and that now he is vulnerable to infection. I am sure he is also majorly stressed. So I figure pristine water and lots of aeration, but what else? Can he go back into the tank with his friends, or should he be isolated?

Very well saved Sounds like you did all the right things. You may want to check your tub for a dropping pH or a sudden ammonia spike as both these can make fish jump. If it was enthusiasm and has happened before you may need to make some kind of fence around the barrell pond.

Wow, welcome to the jumper club, Acupunk! It happens to us pond keepers at one point or the other. My hubby accidentally had the water hose running at night, forgetting to shut it off before he went to bed. He dosed with Pond Prime, but of course it couldn't handle all the additional chlorine that went into the pond overnight. A lot of his koi died, and the pond overflowed, taking some of his koi with it. They were on the ground half the night, and almost all of them did make it.
You did a nice safe there. Is there a filter on the rubbermaid he is in now? If not, I would rather have him back in the main tank. He doesn't have any open sores or abreviations, does he? If he does, I would treat those first before putting him back. A nice paste of PP in a few drops of water, or Neosporin if you don't have anything else. It will stay on the fish long enough to do its thing.

You guessed right with the pristine water, and keeping it as stressfree as possible. Thats why I suggested putting him back into the pond where all his familiar surroundings and friends are. A strange rubbermaid might just upset him too much. After pouring all the Prime we had into hubby's pond, we put all the surviving koi back in. Those pond fish, comets included, are resiliant little things.

Last night at bedtime my little jumper was swimming around the popcorn bowl I had him in, looking impatient. So I followed Ranchugirl's advice put him back in the stock tank outside. This morning he wasn't quite as animated as usual, but he did eat his share of breakfast. I am figuring this is a good sign, huh?

I changed the filter output by attaching a spray bar. Now it trickles much more gently back into the pond, rather than whooshing in and creating the river rapids that the fish liked to jump through. I think my fishies are disappointed about this, but I sure don't want to come home to any more dried up goldfish on my front porch.

Anyway, I need names for these guys. I have two sarasa comets. One is orange and white and the other is red and white (the red and white one is the jumper). I also have a shubunkin, who is, of course, calico. I want a name for the jumper to commemorate his brush with death -- I was thinking Flip for him and Tang for the orange and white one. Any ideas of good shubunkin names?

I will post photos of them soon. It looks like my new lily will have a fresh bloom today, so maybe I will take photos this afternoon.

Another update: I am amazed to say that Flip seems to have recovered almost completely from last week's incident. After he'd been back in the tank a day or so some small abrasions became visible on his head and side (they looked white on his red patches). I added Melafix to the tank, then swabbed the abrasions with peroxide and covered them with neosporin. Since then I have just added the daily dose of Melafix and today I did a 50% water change. Flip is back to being the fastest, most enthusiastic fish in the tank and is getting more than his share at each meal. Amazing!

That is wonderful news, Acupunk! A very scary incident ended happy. You did a great job with him - Flip sounds perfect...

that is great news

how about a pic?

Okay, now Flip is covered in ick. I guess this is no surprise, given the amount of stress his little experience must have caused him. He went from being normal in appearance the day before yesterday to being covered with white spots from head to tail last night.

I am in the process of salting my stock tank to 0.3%. Is there anything else I should do? I don't have a thermometer on the stock tank, but the water is cold enough that it is uncomfortable to put your hand in there for any amount of time. I am figuring that this will make the ick life cycle loooooooong. How long do I need to maintain the 0.3% salt?

Would I be better off moving Flip to another container? Are there other treatments that he should have? I will thoroughly vacuum out the bottom of the tank today. Anything else to do?

I'm sorry that your poor fish is going from one problem to another, although after his jumping escapade - it's good that he's still here to have another problem. Thanks to your loving care!
Personally, I think you should put him in another container. The cold water will most definitley slow down the life cycle of the ich, so if you could possible bring him in (getting him adjusted to the warmer temps slowly, of course) I think it would be best. Keeping track of the salt might be easier, too.

Hopefully someone with better knowledge can chime in with their opinions - in case mine is wrong.
Best of luck to you and your fish!

Debbie

Well, I had to euthanize Flip. It was amazing how quickly his condition deteriorated -- after the initial recovery from his jumping incident, he went pretty much back to himself for about a week. Then over the course of about 36 hours he went from having just a couple of ich spots to being absolutely covered in ich from head to tail, with gobs and gobs of slime coat, red sores all over his body, and a clear case of fin rot. He was deteriorating from hour to hour and clearly was suffering. All my water parameters are good, so I think it just had to do with him being so stressed by his afternoon laying on my patio that he eventually developed complete immune system collapse. I just feel so bad about the whole situation -- perhaps I should have let him die way back on April 8th when this all started.

So to add insult to injury, my other comet and my shubunkin now have ich as well! Again, it seems to have hit them pretty hard. Yesterday I inspected them carefully and didn't see any spots. This afternoon they have lots and lots. My water is salted to 0.3%, but the water temperature out there is still pretty low. This probably won't last for long, however, because tomorrow is forecast to be 94 degrees! Because my water parameters are good and nothing else has changed recently, I figure that the ich used Flip to multiply to the point that they were able to attack the other two healthy fish. Is this possible?

Yesterday I did a 90% water change and really thoroughly vacuumed the bottom of my stock tank. Is there anything else I should be doing?

I'm so sorry about Flip, Kristen. I'm sure it was a hard thing to have to do. I hope you can find comfort knowing that you did all you could do for him. Silly fish, wanted to live up to his name by flipping out of the pond.

I think you're doing all you can for the other fish right now. Since they don't show any signs of sickness, the salt should be fine.
Since Flip was already stressed and probably had a low immunity from this, he was more susceptible to the ich. I just read today that fish can have ich and you can't even see it. It's when it pushes through the scales that you finally see the "crystals". I think Daryl said it in Ralph's thread - but I'm not sure.
Parasites probably would prey on the weaker fish before showing up on the healthier ones.

You poor thing. I'm so sorry that you're having one problem after another - after another.

Rest In Peace, Dear Flip You will be missed.

Debbie