Could you please supply a picture of your total pond? How many Koi are in the pond, and how many gold fish? What kind of filtration are you using? Not sure that type of injury is from hitting a rock. Looks more like a critter got in the pond and bit it. Shallow water and fish is a bad, bad, bad idea. Ideal space is ~24" sides, no flat spots for animals to sit on and wait for fish to swim by.

I went and took some pictures, but I have to warn you, it's pretty redneck chic at the moment.

It's POSSIBLE that a critter got it, but I was moving around the rocks that were on the bottom that they were hiding under, and that one in particular was FREAKING OUT. I also dislodged the rocks a few times, so it's even possible I dropped a rock straight on them. The bottom was all kinds of filthy murky because it's got a ton of very fine peat moss dust from landscaping around it dislodged into it by my dogs being curious. I'm going to need to get a wet vac or something to do a better job of straining it out eventually.

I removed the bigger rocks from the bottom and put in two fabric containers with the water lilies. The pump's prefilter is between the two containers, and it splits between the waterfall (which currently has a bag of activated charcoal in it) and the uplift filtering pea gravel which is moderately planted with hostas, lillies, cannas, lettuce, tomatoes, irises, and cattails.

The plantings were established only about two weeks before the fish arrived, so it's definitely not entirely run in yet, but test strips are running clean for me, although low in total alkalinity, so I put some baking soda in the waterfall last night prior to it raining. This morning, nitrites were showing just a hint of being non-zero, and the water still showing as super hard. I was thinking of putting in my baking soda today, and later getting some oyster shells for the waterfall.

I'd never seen them in the planting shelf before. They'd followed the goldfish up who had apparently followed the minnows. My thought was the koi and goldfish would occupy the pond for this summer and possibly next summer, and the minnows would patrol the plant shelf for mosquitoes and problem insects. There's four koi, at about 4 inches each, four large goldfish around 3 inches, so about 30 inches of larger fish, eight or nine rosy minnows and a handful of inch and a half comets. Then I got four mollies who job it is to be friendly and eat like pigs at the surface and draw the coy fish up. All total, it's right around 500 gallons of free water, and I'm really not sure how to estimate the amount of water being circulated through the gravel, but there's about ten to cubic feet of gravel as planting material/filter surface on the plant shelf, and around 40 to 50 inches of fish, if you include the small ones equally.



Pretty much every single fish can and will hide either under the lily pads or between the containers at every single feeding, until they slooooowly creep out and discover the food once I've been still for a while.

That's a lot of fish load, in a fairly small amount of water. Granted, if you spilled 500 gallons in your kitchen, it would be a 'large' amount, but for the sake of a pond it's not gigantic. Koi don't grow to the pond, they just keep growing. That being said, it's going to be somewhat difficult to regulate the pond, particularly as the fish grow and the waste increases.

Biggest concern is the shelving area, particularly if you are in a more rural setting. Raccoon's are notorious fish killers, and any area provided for sitting and waiting they will use to their advantage. I mean really...it's not like they have work to run off to! They can and will wait for hours if necessary to score an easy (and tasty) fish taco.

If you whacked the fish with a rock, it would have most likely killed it. Based on it's skittishness, and the circular mark I'm going to stick with an attack. You may call your county extension, and they usually have an aquatic expert on staff or can direct you to someone that can help with a better diagnosis and treatment.

You may add some pond salt, that helps keep parasites down, and aids in the healing. Not much of course, read the box or consult the google. You don't want to make a mini-ocean!

It may have been attacked, but it still seems unlikely to me given the timing of it. It's possible a bird dove in, missed, and has never been seen again, but I just don't see how. I work from home and the dogs patrol the pond and backyard area for most of the day. It was fine, I created a lot of chaos, by the time the murky water cleared the next day it was injured. I suppose the murky water may be why I have a wounded koi, and not just three or less healthy ones.

I realize they will eventually outgrow the space, but I'm just trying to keep my attractive fertilizer producers relatively happy and healthy. Right now, I was just seeing what I could get to work with the materials I had and as little more as possible.

It's only been out there a month or so now, and I work from home and am constantly in my garden or messing with the pond. I just don't see how I could have missed ever seeing anything contemplating a snack before or after.

He was swimming around at the surface by the waterfall this afternoon gulping air and I

managed to scoop him and put him in the new inside aquarium. I seriously doubt he's going to make it; he seems kinda disoriented and maybe even visually impaired? He's swimming around the tank kind of gulping, as if he's filter feeding food, and he gets excited when he randomly swims into something floating in the water, but doesn't seem to really be aware of his surroundings.

It almost looks like an ulcer in your last picture. I'm sorry, it's a pretty fish. Have you tried a salt bath? That can sometimes aid in the healing.

I'm sad to report he didn't make it through the night. I'm a little concerned how closely my picture resembles some of the pictures for flukes, and I wonder if I should do a precautionary treatment as a "pond opener" for flukes. I don't see excessive flashing or anything like that in the other fish.

Is it possible for this one injured poor guy to have put out enough stress hormones to keep the entire pond agitated? EVERYTHING in the pond seems more relaxed and less high alert this morning. They've been at red alert pretty much the entire time I've had them, except for when they discovered the eggs and fry in the plant shelf. Today they seem like normal fish, even jumping a catching a mosquito just above the water while I watched. If I can get a video proving the koi jump and catch mosquitoes, my significant other won't have ANY problem letting me expand the pond to luxury koi aquaponics size! They passed the first hurdle, and have been officially labeled "adorable", so I'm not in trouble for getting them in the first place :)

If your fish were bothered by flukes (gill/skin), I would think that you would have noticed some flashing. Usually if the fish is being irritated by a parasite, it will rub on the side or bottom of the pond and when the sunlight hits the scales along the side of the fishes body, you'll notice...a flash or sparkle coming off of said fish. Did you witness your koi flashing at all in the aquarium? If so, you'll want to keep an eye on your other fish to see if they show any symptoms and if they do, you should probably scrape them and look for any little critters.

But, I was thinking along the same lines as groundbeef1 and thinking it looked like an ulcer and maybe treated as such.

Sorry your little koi didn't make it though.

*Just a side note...fish also jump out of the water to try and rid themselves of parasites.

He didn't really flash in the aquarium, but he kind of darted around and bumped into stuff a lot. He really gave the impression of being blind by the time he was in the aquarium. It's so hard to tell in the pond, because my pond critters are still TERRIFIED of me. However, when I stand there long enough several of the fish give the vague impression of having fleas, for lack of a better comparison. They'll be sifting through junk on the bottom and suddenly bolt across the bottom and sides wagging back and forth against the liner, and occasionally even jump up and out of the water. I went ahead and ordered Aqua-Prazi, and I'll keep watching them to see if it's just me being paranoid.

I treated the pond yesterday with the Aqua-Prazi, at twice the recommended dosage because I didn't mix it nearly enough and it ended up floating in clumps all over the surface. I read a few places that, with all due respect to threats of creating resistant strains, it wasn't harmful to overdose with Aqua-Prazi so I went ahead and mixed up more and shook it until it was cloudy looking water instead of a white foam on top. I also ordered a salinity meter so I could safely raise the salt level a little bit to hopefully de-stress the fish without killing the plants. If they don't seem less itchy by tomorrow when the meter gets here, I'm strongly considering dunking all the big fish in a salt bath. I'm using a shotgun approach to medicating based on the itchy behavior, and food spitting, because I don't have a microscope or the experience to try scraping.

I don't see any visible parasites, but I haven't stressed the fish out by trying to catch them. They are still SOOOO scared of me (and quite tiny).

If it IS flukes, how long does relief usually take? I see reports of flukes clearing in hours but I wasn't sure if that meant the fish stopped scratching themselves immediately.

mister_guy, if you've treated for flukes, you'll want to do a second treatment 4/5 days after the first treatment to kill off any larvae that may have hatched out from eggs. If you don't and your fish do have flukes, they will become infested again.

Fluke eggs hatch out in a short period of time and this is why the second treatment is necessary. Skin flukes eat through the slime coat of the fish and feed off of them and the Gill Flukes can destroy your fishes gill tissue from feeding making it hard for them to breathe.

These little critters mature fast and produce eggs fast...you really have to get them under control or you'll have a never ending battle.

Roger, I will be sure to hit them again. I was really hoping to see some symptom relief. Should I do a partial change in 4 to 5 days before the next dose?

Yes, you'll want to do at least a 25% water change before treating again. Also, if your water temp. is 70 degrees or lower, you may want to even do a third dose...only because the eggs will be a little slower hatching out and you if you skip a treatment...guess what...the cycle starts again. Warmer water temps on the other hand speed up the hatching and most people can solve the problem with only two treatments if done on time.

Hope this helps and good luck! Kathie

I changed the water by overflowing the pond slowly with approximately 40% of the volume into the waterfall over two hours, so somewhere around a 30% total water change account for new/old mixing. Now all the fish are hanging out in the shallow areas of the bog filter, maybe the ground water was too chilly. However, at least they aren't acting itchy, and I got a photo op. This is the guy that was acting the worst the last couple of days, anyone want to play "name that koi"? I'm thinking he's a shusui?

My platinum ogon seems like it's got a sore on his lip. I have medicated topping powder for their food on the way, I'm not sure what else to do for that other than what I'm already doing for flukes. I'm strongly considering a salt bath, but I really didn't want to disturb them since they were out in the open with me puttering around the pond which is extremely rare.

Glad to see that your fish have come around and are showing themselves. Just curious, but do you have a water testing kit? You really want to have one on hand if you don't already, so you can check the parameters and make sure they are at safe levels. Also, if your numbers are off the fish will start to show symptoms and a water change is in order.

You have a very lovely little pond by the way...very lush looking. Keep up the good work.

I have 6 in 1 testing strips, which I'm gathering as I read around may be insufficient. I initially had very hard water and very low total alkalinity, but the PH and and alkalinity haven't wavered (within the degree of accuracy of 6 in 1 strips) since I put crushed coral in the water fall.

Thank you for the complements. I have been do micro water changes pretty regularly by diverting the hose to the waterfall into a watering can and watering the rest of the garden with it. Everything seems to really enjoy the arrangement, especially because the pond water supplies calcium that our red clay is sorely lacking in.

I'm somewhat dismayed: I went back to check the pond and several of the goldfish and minnows died. I really don't understand why, unless the strips I'm using are totally bad. I monitored it during the entire fill time, and none of the levels looked bad at all. The chlorine fluctuated SLIGHTLY when I measured it right next to the bottom of the waterfall, but a measurement from the other side of the pond didn't show any chlorine, and the PH, if it dropped, dropped very very slightly. I added the hose water into the waterfall at a rate of 2 gallons a minute, and the temperature stayed right at 72 on the floating thermometer.

I lost four goldfish, including two of the big ones (one of which was itchy as HELL yesterday), and most of the rest of the minnows.

All the rest of the fish seem vaguely lethargic, including the koi, but not itchy like they were. Since the koi were politely floating around the surface, I dunked each of them individually in a salt bath, and since I had it, I brought the ogon with the inflamed lip into the house aquarium, to try and observe it and feed it in better conditions.

*EDIT* My poor blue boy died! I'm SO upset. I really don't understand how I mass killed them all like this, with only an hour of the hose on trickle! I've changed the water a few times like that and it seemed like an approved method on koiphen and other forums.

I went ahead and brought the yellow ogon inside as well, because I don't understand what's going on in my pond water!

Quick question...when you test your water, do you check the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings as well and do you de-chlorinate the fresh water going in? Since this is a "new" pond testing for the above is very important and easily maintained with water changes.

You want to aim for a reading of Ammonia-0 and Nitrite-0...you'll always have a Nitrate reading (byproduct of the first two), but as long as it's in the safe range you'll be okay.

I think one of your problems is that your pond has not cycled yet and you are getting a build up of Ammonia/Nitrite...using a test like the Master Pond Liquid Test Kit will give you a more accurate reading then the strips and is really easy to use. It also saves you a lot of heartache and grief by losing your fish.

Don't know if you're interested in buying a kit, but Drs. Fosters and Smith have it on sale right now for $17.99. I'll also attach a link to it.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=5367

Kathie

I may need to buy a kit. It's possible that I'm getting a build up, but it's sure not showing. I get zeros for the ammonia and nitrate, and have occasionally gotten a slightly non-zero nitrite value. I've also taken the water to Petsmart, but they are essentially using the same strips I use and get the same result.

No, I didn't dechlorinate the water, but I did at it at a slow drip down the waterfall, counting on turbulence to degas it, and checked the strips periodically looking for chlorine.

Yeah, you are not cycled yet...if you were you would have a Nitrate reading. When your pond starts to cycle the first thing to happen will be a gradual spike (off the chart) in Ammonia when this happens the Nitrites will start to show up and consume the Ammonia and you'll start to get a Nitrite reading and the Ammonia reading will start to decrease. Then once your Nitrites spike and begin to drop, you'll see a Nitrate reading. You are looking for Ammonia-0 and Nitrites-0...You'll always have some sort of Nitrate reading.

You basically have to look at your pond as if it were a giant fish tank and treat it as such. Don't know if you've read up on "cycling" or not, but it never hurts to refresh yourself if you have.

Like I said above...you need to get a better test kit and possibly in the future maybe even get a microscope to perform scraps...both are pretty much must haves. They'll also save you lots of time and money (in the long run) trying to guess what's going on with your water and fish. Plus, it'll keep you from treating with meds that may not be needed in the first place.

Hope this helps. Kathie

Yeah I know it's going to take a while for my pond's biology to run in, but I still don't understand why I was getting clear readings and almost everything is dead! It's like poisoned water, only literally everything shows up as safe or ideal on my test strips.

I am afraid to get any replacements even if I empty it, clean it all up and muck out the little bit of accumulation there is.

Just remember that every time you empty your pond your starting all over again...and all the good stuff you need that's growing in your pond and on your liner are being removed. You'll never get your pond cycled that way.

The one rule that stands out most about having a pond is to be PATIENT! Believe it or not, everything will fall into place and then you'll be well rewarded with healthy water and fish.

**You weren't getting clear (healthy) readings, you were getting zero's across the board and that's not good/safe. Especially where fish are concerned.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Kathie

I had thought I DID understand the nitrogen cycle, but I was still patting myself on the back when I saw a small spike in nitrites last week, despite never having seen ammonia levels spike. I've heavily seeded the gravel with purchased bacteria bottles, and used gravel that's been in the run off from my garden to help seed the media mixed with fresh gravel. I thought I had managed to just sorta jump start it quickly.

In fact, reading up just now, this is almost exactly what I did:

http://www.pondkoi.com/cycle.htm

The only thing being I never got a decent spike of ammonia after the goldfish got added, and added a few very small $5 koi instead after the goldfish. I definitely see what you're saying about the difference between clear readings and zeros, but I don't really know why I wasn't reading any ammonia from the fish load I had in there.

Despite your warning, since I have all the fish out and I feel like I learned a lot from watching it in action, I'm going to go ahead and finish draining it and get all the rocks and clean up the very bottom, and try to smooth out the liner, and start back over.

SOMETHING was going on nutrientwise, the plants are extremely happy and have grown well, despite being heavily shaded.