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Ponds & Aquatic Plants

Sick Koi

14 years ago

My poor 12" koi..about 6 years old..is so sick. He lays on his side under the plants, then he swims around. He seems to get tired then goes to his side again. He has no obvious infections and I don't think it's air platter; no extensions. We've had 23 days of rain in NH so I dumped 200 gals. (1000 gal pond) and disconnected the waterfall to use the pump to aerate more. I also have another filter that shoots water. I treated with melafix by pondcare. We just sit outside watching our poor fish. All the others seem fine. Does anyone have any ideas?

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Comments (5)

mike_il
14 years ago
Have you tested the water? I would probably want to do a larger water change and then add 15 lbs of solar salt.
Mike
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bwaze
Original Author
14 years ago
Mike...Thank you! I dumped another 200 gals and added the salt. No one had any in stock by me so I used Pond Salt by Pondcare. I tested the water before doing partial and everything was perfect but the 2nd Nitrate reading was at 3 out of six. My koi layed on it's side at the bottom all day. I just checked it again, and it's still on the bottom but on it's stomach! Yeah! I'm very hopeful. I appreciate your advice...Thanks again.
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One thing I'm wondering about is did you have a hole in the ice for most of the winter? Or at least through this last bit. I know that fish kill can happen if there isn't anyway for the gas to exchange, and this happens even on natural ponds and lakes. As the gunk rots in the bottom, the gases float up, if they can't escape, then the toxic gasses are stuck in the pond. Of course it this happened, you'd have 100% kill most likely, but I will say that I lost two of my older fish last year when I didn't get the pond cleaned out and I didn't have enough filtration for what was there. Only the older ones died, the 6 younger ones made it through. As far as life expectancies, goldfish can live to 25 years. I had one in the house which was given to me by a young woman who had saved him from a college dance decoration (a fountain, they were going to flush the feeders afterwards and she got permission to take this one home). This fish, Harold was his name, later jumped out of his goldfish bowl out of an open window and fell 4 stories. She retrieved him, and he lived....when he died, he was at least 19 years old...covered with tumors, but 19. I don't know anything about muscles on goldfish, nor vitamin c...I'm wondering if I should go and force feed mine little miniature vitamin c tablets. :)
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Sounds like you may have brought home something on that fish. Anytime you get new fish, you need to always quarantine it in a separate facility for a while to insure it is healthy before adding it to your pond. A good QT can be built from a kiddy pool or stock tank. QT is more important now than it ever was because Koi Herpes Virus is a fatal disease that can kill every fish you own. It is contagious. Anyway....that's not helping the current situation. You need to contact your local koi club and see if they have a koi health advisor that can come over and help you diagnose your fish and suggest treatment options. Don't salt the pond at this point. Salt can't be used along with some treatments and that may cause problems. To locate a koi club in your area, go to the AKCA (Associated koi clubs of american) web site. They have all of them listed. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: AKCA
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Comments (6)
Hi David, When it gets hot my big uns stay to the bottom and have for years. They don't exhibit the opening and closing of the mouth that yours does however.So I think your Koi is stressed. The bubbler was a good idea. If you can add another pump then that would be even better. I would test the water as you are planning to do and add some shade if you don't have enough. A shade sail is a good idea. I use floating planters. You could anchor some styrofoam temporary. As buyorsell noted the big guys take poor pond conditions the worse. Also,Pump GPH can be significantly lower then rated when you factor in the resistance caused by pipe diameter,fittings,height to filters, ect. So I would work on increasing aeration number one and go from there. Regards, Lisa
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scaley_tailey
14 years ago
After a dealing with a Heron situation and a over-feeding situation that led to fish dying ( possible fin rot and stress from being poke at.)--The addition of a $5 bag of solar salt from Menards really did the trick for my fish. Since adding the salt, I haven't lost a fish. Is this something I should be doing each spring?
Also Mike , I am in North Aurora-I watch this raggedy a$$ Heron, who look like he had a fish hook was in his beak-stalk my pond--he ducked under a table, squeezed between chairs,do everything like a cat. When we came outside he slowly moved from us--Either this guy is starving or he is a real psycho! The pond has a net and a plastic fence so Psycho left empty beaked. Have you seen this fellow?
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bwaze
Original Author
14 years ago
Mike...you're awesome! Yesterday all the fish were in a clump on the bottom, sitting, facing west. (Except the sick one still laying on it's side!) I dumped another 300 gals. then instead of using cold, cold well water I ran a hose from the kitchen sink to keep temperature more regulated. (Took an hour and a half to fill!) This morning everyone is happy. My sick koi is fine, he's even jumping out of the water again! Thanks again for the good advice!

Scaley...weird heron. We built a pergola to keep it out of ours. I can take the sides off and on so the pond still has that open feel when we're outside. Glad the salt worked for you...I think it really helped my pond!
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ademink
14 years ago
If your koi is jumping out of the water, you may want to consider that it could have parasites. I thought mine were "jumping for joy"...but they had anchor worm!
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