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    Thread: Before You Post in the ER Forum

    1. #1
      Marilyn's Avatar
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      Before You Post in the ER Forum

      If you have a sick fish, but you don't think the fish is in imminent danger of dying, please read the Health Care Sticky in the ER Forum.

      https://www.koiphen.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42809

      If you're presenting your problem in the ER Forum it is unlikely that you have the ability to bring your fish to a veterinarian and spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to have your fish treated. Obviously, doing so would be ideal for the health of the koi, but not necessarily a practical thing to do.

      Before You Post

      1. When you present your problem to the forum, you must give as much information as possible, and also pictures whenever possible. In order for people to help you they need to know:

        the size and stocking density of your pond,

        the type of filtration you have,

        your maintenance routine, and

        the last time you performed maintenance.

        They also need to know your water parameters, including the temperature.

        The last time you added a new fish.

        If you are having strange water parameter readings you should also provide the water parameters of your source water so it can be determined if water changes are making the problems worse.

        If you are giving advice in the ER forum, please pause to get this information unless you believe the owner of the fish needs to take immediate action and cannot wait for proper consideration of the problem.

        Too often it seems that we are in a rush to guess the correct problem and forget about also trying to correct the issues that caused the problem.

      2. Water Change

        Once the basic information is provided, it is almost always wise to do a water change and filter cleaning. Problems are often caused by water quality issues and/or parasites and/or bacteria problems. If you do a water change and filter cleaning you will almost always make things easier on your fish and lessen the level of harmful bacteria and parasites in your water which will make it easier for your fish to resist them.

        However, please make sure your source water is not the problem before you do a water change. If it is, you may worsen the problems.

      3. Purge Your Filters

        There is also the possibility that harmful elements have collected in your filters and need to be purged. Purge them just in case.

      Assess the Hobbyist

      1. If you are trying to help people in the ER Forum, you need to assess the hobbyists as well as the fish. Remind them that they will be better off taking their fish to veterinarian or at least doing a Scrape and Scope. If they are not capable or willing to do those things, your advice needs to be tailored to their abilities.

      2. If you are not willing to help someone who cannot Scrape and Scope, withdraw from the thread. If you disagree with the treatment that someone else is advising, give a clear explanation of why but do not attack anybody who is giving advice. Most intelligent people are persuaded by reasoned arguments, not personal attacks.

      Do not Bicker

      1. People who are asking for help do not need to see people bickering with each other. Anyone that persists in doing that in ER may have account restrictions imposed. It's not fair to those in need of help.

      2. If you are reading a thread in ER and think that someone is getting bad information or not enough response, pm a moderator or administrator. However, disagreements about treatment are going to occur. That is only natural. People are going to have to decide for themselves who is "right."

      3. What is not acceptable in ER is bickering. Joking around is not really appropriate until the emergency is over. Even then, the posters may know you are joking, but what if someone with a similar problem reads that thread later on and doesn't realize you were joking?

      4. If you're not willing to focus on helping the individual, please do not post there. It's not fair to the person or the fish, or people who will read that thread for help in the future.

      I am very proud of the kind of help that is given in our ER Forum. It's one of the best places on the Internet to receive help for your fish. I just thought I'd take a moment to remind people what that forum is all about.

      Edit - This post has been excerpted from a March 2009 thread.
      Last edited by icu2; 08-27-2021 at 07:25 AM. Reason: formatted and replaced kha with administrator

      Still learning as I go but y'all can call me Marilyn

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