Koi Pond Problems

I am currently treating a koi I got a couple of months ago for a type of Ick it looks like cotton hanging on its side I'm sure I'll lose this one but if anyone has experience I would appreciate any help I can get. I've had goldfish in this pond for 3 years and never any problems. Testing of my water shows everything is perfect water conditions. My pond is approximately 8,000-10,000 Gallons I'm really worried the rest of my fish will get this and most of my very large goldfish hand feed and the kids just love them it would break my heart to lose them all. Thank you for any help you can give.
Kim

Bluektodd they may have a type of worm. Try http://www.koivet.com/ I bet you'll find the information you need. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that they get well.

Thank you Dat I will check it out. I lost the one last night I can't see signs on any of the others but this is driving me crazy I've never had problems before until I got the Koi. Guess I should have stuck to the goldfish.
Kim

It is probably Saprolegnia. Very treatable, but get started ASAP. With a pond that size I can't offer an inexpensive way. Microbelift makes a very good pond fungus eliminator. There are others as well. Some people like Melafix. It is a natural product but I don't think it is as effective. If possible try a quarantine tank for the affected fish. If you treat soon you won't lose anymore.

Thanks Snapply
I am now a very broke Koi owner I have medication coming overnight should be here in the morning. I also just purchased a filtration system which I couldn't believe how expensive they were but just couldn't bear to watch another one die. I lost my white one which I quaranteed in a cow tank and put ick medication in but I think he was too far gone by the time I did it. I am prepared now cowtank has been rinsed and should be able to treat entire pond but oh what a way to learn. Thank you again I really appreciate your time.
Kim

Sounds like a good plan of action. Anything you do to improve water quality reduces stress on koi and improves their ability to resist infections, parasites and fungus. All ponds have some not so good stuff. The trick is to keep them low enough and the koi healthy enough to fend them off. Good water quality is job 1. Salt at .01 is a very good stress reducer for sick fish. Anything higher is not good for plants. Some ponders keep their water at .01 at all times. I salt up in the fall, winter and through the spring, then let the level drop naturally (from overflow rains and a partial water change) over the summer as the fishes' immune system comes up to speed. Always test your water before and after you add salt. Evaporation does not reduce salt. You can get too much of good thing. Happy ponding!

Mary

blue, just checking if your efforts worked to save some of your fish. I think I am in the same boat. I have had koi for a couple of years, this is the first time I have seen a disease like this. Did you treat your whole pond, or just the sick ones? What outcome did you have? My pond is 15,000 galloons I would have to get a 4th job to pay for the week's worth of chemicals the Melafix costs would be for the whole pond. What it looks like it is an opportunistic disease, so maybe the others are safe from getting it? I already have the filtration system.
Snapple, I think I will have to look into adding some salt. Is there a formula somewhere that I would know how much to add?

Oh My Goodness, 15,000 gal.! WOW! Ah hem, I can well understand your hesitation to treat the whole pond. Invest instead in a stock tank, small pump, filter and aerator that you can set up quickly as a hospital tank to treat an individual fish. It is cheaper, faster and easier, if you can catch the fish. The formula for water with no salt at all is 1 -1/4 cups for each 100 gals. Be sure to test the water after you salt up to make sure what level you have achieved. Salt level test kits are cheap, accurate and easy to use. The test kits include charts for proper dosing and instructions on how best to add the salt. I put mine in a few small plastic containers, tipped at an angle, in the pond around the perimiter and let it dissolve as the water moves over the salt. Or you can dissolve it prior to addition. Anything works as long as you add it slowly and fairly evenly around the pond. You are going to need 120 lbs of salt.

I have also given my koi Baytril injections for septecemia. It worked in two days time. But what a hassle. Guestimate the fishes weight and length. Determine the dose. Call the vet and get the baytril. Load the syringe. Catch the fish. Inject the fish. Release the fish. Repeat for 5 days. Of eight koi I had two with this dreaded infection. I saved both. BUT, I vowed to take a fanatical approach to water quality ever thereafter. Septecemia is also an opportunistic, and fatal, disease if not treated. It showed up on a new arrival and a resident fish simultaneously. I suspect the new arrival because I didn't quarantine it first. Another mistake. This folks is how ya learn.

blue, I hope you have conquerd the fungus by now.
epazota, I hope you can manage a quarantine tank and/or 120 lbs of pond salt. Not for the faint hearted.

DH and I tried to follow the advice we saw. We built the pond as big as we could. It has been great in many ways, but when we have a problem, it is a big problem. That's pretty good to catch your koi and to give them injections over multiple days. Once my fish are sick enough to not eat I would have a hard time catching them.

Wow, that will be quite the salt load! I will have to work on that one. I ordered 50 pounds with more of the pimafix I ordered online. I found a couple large bottles locally hopefully to get me started until my order comes in the mail. You talked about another chemical, but found only this one locally.

I had a hospital tank all ready to go. I caught the sicker fish and put him in the hospital tank. He acted like he was going to die within minutes. I took him out and put him back in the pond and looked better, but not great. I saw him briefly this morning, but not tonight. I looked closer and saw lesions on a couple more fish, but not as large. So, I think I have to treat the whole pond as I don't have room to put 10 fish that are at least a foot long in my hospital tank. Plus the 100 or so babies that are in the pond.

It sounds like you have a vet that treats koi. I do not know of any local resources in my area for this. It feels odd diagnosing my fish's ailment over the internetby looking at pictures and guessing which exspensive treatment is going to work.

Blue, I hope your fungal issues are over with it. It would be interesting to hear how your battle with this is going.

Thanks for the advice

epazota - my vet had never treated a fish in his practice before. I took him an article from an excellent koi book "Koi Health and Diseases" by Dr. Erik L. Johnson D.V.M and a print out from this web site

www.raleighlandscape.com/koi bacterial infections.htm
I don't live any where near this Raleigh Landscape place but I wish I did. It is a great web site to visit.

I highly reccommend this book. It takes out any guesswork. It is my Bible for koi care.

We have 4 dogs that our vet takes care of so at least I had some credibility with him. If he wouldn't have done it I would have called around until I found someone who would. It is actually pretty easy to inject once the fish is caught and laid on a wet towel and covered with another wet towel. I like to go just behind and under the pectoral fin aiming in the direction of the mouth. Fewer internal organs to puncture accidentally, although they say that rarely happens. My DH applies firm but gentle pressure to hold the fish still while I shoot. The effect is quite amazing, tremendous improvement within 24 hours. I also put the fish in the bottom of a big rubbermaid tub while doing this so I don't have any major flopping around problems. Then I lower the tub in the water and slide em' out.

The best solution is to try not to get into that position in the first place; a trick I havn't mastered yet but I am improving.

Frankly I am in total awe of a pond the size of yours. I have a 2000 gal and it is all I can manage. However do you do it?

Happy ponding

Mary

I will have to look at that book. Thanks for the reccamendation. I don't have any pets anymore that I would bring to a vet, so have lost that relationship. Hopefully I am right about this being fungal and I won't need a vet.
Injecting your fish sounds like it was lots of work, but it was effective! That is great. Each of my fish are my "babies." So, I can see why you did it.
I thought I had done quite well with my fish, but was put back in place this week. I thought the pond was pretty healthy. The frogs and toads made so much noise this spring for many weeks that I couldn't talk on the phone with the windows open let alone sitting outside. I have all these baby fish which I have never had before and some more eggs now from someone in some of the string algae. With the babies and the eggs I am not as aggressive with trying to keep the algae levels down. This means I need to clean out the skimmer and that filter daily. Otherwise the pond is so easy to take care, other than this week. Typically I do small water changes and feed my fish and enjoy.
Where we live the pond freezes over, so I do have to get in the pond when it is quite chilly and move some plants to bottom of the pond and set up the sump pump that we use as an aerator to keep the water open. But, it is a good way to get alittle hypothermia.
2,000 gallon pond is a nice size. It would be managable and if you had troubles make it easier to work with. We have a large yard, so we decided to go big. Though here at DG there are many with larger and prettier ponds. I am happy with what we have
Thanks again for advice,
Enjoy you pond,
Karen

This message was edited Jul 4, 2006 6:04 AM