There, you see? That’s what happens when you get something into your stubborn little head and refuse to even consider what I’m telling you. A whole pond full of sturdy goldfish don’t all get sick with a bacterial infection at the same time just because of some temperature fluctuation and a mini-cycle, but when you don’t quarantine new stock long enough, you absolutely can (and usually do) end up introducing some unwanted nasties along with the new fish. I told you a week ago that I suspected parasites, and went into some detail as to why. You knew you had introduced two new commons two weeks before, you said yourself that you should have quarantined longer (I’d bet you didn’t quarantine at all), and you know as well as I do that common goldfish are usually at least on the same filtration system as the disease-ridden feeders, if not actually in the same tank. You even said it was probably a pre-existing condition of one of those fish. You could have borrowed a microscope or even bought a cheap one and done a scrape–I even offered to give you step by step directions–but you wouldn’t. I gave you a video link to see Costia in action so you’d understand how small they are and that it would be impossible to see them without microscopic inspection. Did you pay attention? No, you did not. Instead, you believed someone who told you that it was likely columnaris, in spite of the fact that goldies practically never get that disease, and in spite of the fact that your moors were not black, but slimy grey. Instead, you lost five out of your seven fish.

I am not a fish vet. I’m not a vet at all. I’m not a human doctor, and I don’t even have a degree in pharmacology. I stayed out of your thread at first because I don’t keep goldfish and I don’t know much about them, but when you were getting what I thought was very bad advice, I posted in the moderator forum in hopes of turning your “mentor” in what I believed was the right direction. It didn’t work–all she’d give me was a single line in the thread and no explanation at all–so I had to go to the public forum and tell you myself. No, I’m not a vet, but unlike the person whose advice you chose to heed, I don’t talk out my arse and just make shit up when I don’t know. If I don’t know, I’ll say so. If I think I do, I’ll say that, I will explain why, and you can bet it’s backed with everything I’ve read and learned, not with a two minute, three line post of “shit I heard somewhere and cobbled together with a healthy dose of conclusion-jumping”. I earned the “Administrator” under my goddamned name because I care enough to do my homework and yours, too. You backed the wrong fucking horse, and I hope you’re proud of yourself because I’m not proud of you at all. I may have been going on Mama’s intuition, but Mama’s intuition is backed with logic, science and the very best educated guess that I can possibly give, so goddammit, pay attention when I’m talking to you!

P.S. Just so you know, tetracycline is not “harsh” unless it’s exposed to sunlight, which can render it toxic. It’s overused and there are strains of bacteria with resistance to it, but I guess no one ever told your “mentor” that the oft-recommended Maracyn Two is mino-fucking-cycline, in the same family as THE REST OF THE GODDAMNED TETRACYCLINE DRUGS! If tetracycline were harsh, minocycline would be as well, but it’s not. She got “harsh” from the fact that it is UV-sensitive. When someone tells you something that incorrect, question that person’s crediblity, for Christ’s sake, and stop taking her advice because she’s just talking out her arse.