Big Red has been out and about and grazing with the others the last couple of days - I am so relieved. May not have to quarantine after all - whew. He was definitely stressed about something though, not sure what. Mine are goldies - not koi - who are indoors over the winter. I moved them out early this year - mid March - and they all seemed OK until the new fish showed up a week and 1/2 ago. I guess what Im curious about is if in the wild they would travel in packs or schools and be "bonded" to each other.... do they relate to each other as indviduals or is one fish pretty much interchangeable with another fish to them. When I first put the new ones in it seemed the 2 groups mingled a little but for a couple of days tended to stick together, old fish together and new fish together. It's just interesting to speculate what if anything goes on in the fish mind. They are much more aware than I thought they would be.... they can distinguish between me who feeds them vs. my cat who wants to eat them.

Quibloid. the first thing you have to do is remove the koi from the pond into a 'hospital tank' where you can attend to the cuts. You will have to use an antibiotic treatment to stop infection in the wounds. Your local pond specialist store or veterinarian can advise you on that treatment. Since you live in the UK I'm not sure what did the damage to your fish? Here in North America, that kind of wound can be caused by a raccoon, but you do not have them over there. Maybe a fox, heron or even a cat got at your fish. There is a UK pond forum [still with Garden Web] where you can obtain information that could be more relevent to your situation. Click the link below to see the UK pond forum. Good luck with your fish and please let us know how you make out with it. I have posted your question over onto the UK forum. Maybe some one over there will give you some more information about treatment. Use the link below to go there. "Horton" Here is a link that might be useful: UK Pond Forum.

Curiously, I may have discovered an ideal BSF habitat but accident. Previously I had an open compost pile. The local home owners association banned it (even though the county distributed free bins). I still wanted to compost but didn't want to pay $60 for a new one so I built an enclosed on. Weeks later is was filled with BSF. Here is what I did. Supplies: -Medium size black trash can and a top -hardware cloth -nut and bolt (about 16) that will fit through the slots in the hardware cloth -one bungie cord Building it: I turned over the trash can and using a bowie knife I slowly cut out a hole in the bottom or the trash can (about half the diameter of the bottom of the can. Using wire cutters I then cut a circular hardware cloth piece out slightly larger. I drilled holes in the bottom slightly smaller then the bolts around the hole I had just cut. I then placed the hardware cloth over the hole and bolted it in place. I used the bungie cord to secure the top in place so no critters could get in. The ideas was that water could drain out of the bottom, no large critters could get in the top or bottom and earth worms could get in. What has happened is the enough air (it's on the mulch) has entered the bottom and escaped through the gas in the tops to aerate it a bit. Kitchen scraps have kept it most enough. And about a billion BSF larve live there and come and go as they please through the hardware cloth. I plan to add the materials to the garden at Thanksgiving. After that most scraps I add freeze for the winter and they will have a no batch in the spring. It's essentially an out door disposal. No smell and not much space needed. Everything was purchased at home depot and the total was less than $30 and fit in the back of my subaru forester.

Hope someone can help! Our 5yr old carp, Colin has had a white spot on his head (actually between his head & his mouth) for the last coupe of weeks. Doesn't seem to cause him any problems, but it is slightly larger & today he didn't feed (MOST UNLIKE HIM!) & seems lethargic. We had a problem with our pond in spring - the UV wasn't working properly & we lost a few shubunkins (ulcers & one had what looked like a rotting mouth - the flesh was being eaten away - poor thing) Water now seems fine (although haven't got a test - must do that tomorrow. All the other smaller fish seem healthy - but please help, cos Colin is so special, he's lovely! We did replace the water some time ago & used malachite green, which seemed to help conditions, but perhaps we need to use it again or is it something else? I'm a bit confused as to how to treat whatever it is. Help!! Thanks