Water Gardening: Help for my new koi…injured or sick?, 1 by sunnyg

sunnyg wrote:
I am a newbie with a 300 gallon pond, with three small shubunkin goldfish and one small koi. The shubunkins spawned on August 4th, and on the 5th I noticed that there was a small patch of what looked like a loose scale on the top side of the koi’s head. It looked like he possibly got roughed up a bit. The next day it looked better, and now there is just a tiny white patch in that spot. However, on the 6th I noticed a problem with the side of the koi, on the same side as the head issue. I might have overlooked it when I noticed the issue with the spot on the head.

I took pics, and brought them to the pond shop where I bought the fish. The owner didn’t know what was wrong with the fish, and said the fish didn’t show classic signs of disease such as cottony growth, red areas or ulcers. However, he gave me Interpet Anti Fungus and Bacteria treatment and said to treat the entire pond with it. He wouldn’t really answer whether the koi had been injured or had a fungus or bacteria, which didn’t make me comfortable with the situation or his knowledge about what was going on. He also tested a water sample from my pond, and said all looked good, except the ph was a little on the high side, but not at dangerous levels. He told me to put one tablespoon of white vinegar diluted in pond water into the pond each evening and that should lower the ph. We added the vinegar, and decided to watch the situation for one day, and if things weren’t getting better than I would treat. I will post pics of when I initially noticed the problem on the 6th , and how it looks now, and would greatly appreciate any insights anyone can give me. Should I treat the whole pond with the medication? I do not have a quarantine tank, and am totally new to all of this. Thanks in advance for your help.

Here is a pic of the area on August 6th. I’m sorry about the quality, it was late afternoon and I caught a bunch of reflections.


This message was edited Aug 8, 2008 11:35 AM