You have that many Koi and you cant tell a girl from a boy ? The girls have bigger bellies because they are full of eggs . One of my large females died because it was egg bound and never was able to lay eggs . Yours might have the same problem but mine never laid on the bottom , except in winter when they hibernate .

Andrea:

Did you quarantine the new koi? I just found out from Lisa (Goodkarma) that small koi carry ich. I purchased 4-5 inch koi a few weeks ago. They are in a 100 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank in my basement. I gave them 1 week to adjust to the new environment while treating the water for ich, and am now testing them for KHV. I do this by raising the temperature in the tank to between 75 & 80 degrees for three weeks. Then I will lower the temperature to between 60-65 degrees. Once they acclimate to the cooler water I will raise the temperature again to between 75-80 degrees again for three more weeks. Any fish that has KHV will show symptoms when the water temperature is warm. Most of them will die immediately once the temperature is warm enough. My fish have been in the warm water for three weeks this Saturday. I know it's hard not to put them in the pond immediately, but I don't want to endanger my larger koi. They will be quarantined for almost 2 months in my basement before I release them into the pond.

Jenny

ugh...I had a koi w/ what i thought was tail rot (one of the new ones)...so I had it in the quarantine tank and didn't want to stick the others in there if they didn't need the triple sulfa drug and i couldn't run aggressive filtration w/ the medicine. the quarantined fish ended up just having tail damage...no rot. i ended up just putting the others in the pond since the tank was occupied and i didn't have another one. these are my first new additions since having the pond.

yes, birdman, i have that many and i can't tell boys from girls. i have never bothered to sex them or look up what the difference is. guess i win the idiot of the forum award for the day. I'll ck her belly compared to others and see if possibly she is eggbound. it is spawning time so it's possible.

thx

Andrea, how did the water test go? Is your Koi doing better? Hope everything is well.

Lisa

Water tested perfectly. I can't see him/her this morning at all and she didn't come up to eat. :( That's not a good sign...

ok...i see her. she will swim and then all of a sudden stop swimming and just "free fall" to the bottom. she will lay there...list to the side just a little bit and then maybe swim again.

a couple of the other fish were laying on the bottom a little too but seem fine now.

ammonia is in the clear...so is ph, nitrates, nitrites...

i have called 2 fish stores (clueless), the state fish biologist, 2 fish hatcheries that raise koi, 4 pond stores (ditto on clueless) and searched the internet.

Don't know what is wrong. :(

??????????????????

Andrea,

I think if it was water flucuations then you could see the fish on the bottom, but not the free fall you describe.
If it was parasites I think you would see flashing- so not that. If it was KHV - more fish affected, and the water is probally not ideal for that to show up.

So unless the fish is swollen, or one side bigger then the other, I think it most likely bacterial. The right time of the year, and the right temps.

Regards,
Lisa