hey guys im back

Hola! Sorry guys that I have not been able to answer any questions but I have been super busy. With my koi farm in full swing in summer I have had no time!! But now i am back so if anyone has any questions let me know! Thanks and sorry for being away!
Regards,
Rick

Hi Rick, Glad you had a breather to check in. Things have been pretty quite here everybody is busy too.

Jeri

I think I had a question back on the old thread. Will have to find it and post it here.

Lana

Here's my question from the last thread.

"Rick, if you get new fish and want to give them preventative treatments along with the salt, what and how many treatments could you do at once safely? I'm talking about not knowing of a specific problem but wanting to cover as many as you can before adding them to your pond in a couple weeks. My pond is 3000 gallons and once a fish goes in there it's near impossible to catch and treating that size is a nightmare not to mention very expensive. I have a 50 gal rubber/plastic livestock tank that can be used for this."

Thanks,
Lana

Hey, salt is fine with all treatments. 2-3 treatments at a time.
Regards,
Rick

Thanks!

Rick, FYI my black koi is back in the pond and looking great! Thanks for all your help.

:) thats great! can you snap a pic!!

I will try to do so :)

Please don't laugh. I have a water feature rather than a pond. Just put this together in the last 10 days. Have 5 baby koi from wallyworld (I know, first mistake). One little guy keeps coming to the fountain and just staying with it beating him up. BTW the tank hold 360 gallons. Has a filter/fountain and a little waterfall with two water lillies and a star grass. The water is very clear. They are still more than a little shy.
Went to some other websites and they scared me to death that they may all have disease and/or parasite, etc.,etc,.etc. From following the water threads I already know you are the koi expert. Help. I'm totally out of my league but had to start somewhere.

Hi, That is a wonderful pond! Did you do it yourself? The reason the 1 koi is buy the fountain is because it has some sort of bacteria/ infection. Its fins are like glued to his body right? Btw you are not out of your league. That is an awesome pond!! Now her is some ways to make your koi less shy.
1~ Buy some bigger koi 5-6"+
2~ feed your koi in the same place everyday...
3~ do not feed your koi for 3-4 days and then they will get hurgary.
4~ at first when you start feeding you koi just put the food in and walk away because they koi might be scared.
Is there anything else I can do to help?
Rick

thank you for your encouragement. What do I do help my little baby that is sick? Will it infect the other babies?

I did do it myself. go to water gardens forum, 2x4x6 thread and you will see a lot
of pictures. There are so many wonderful ponds in the water garden threads that mine just doesn't quite measure up. It fit my space and pocket book just fine. We are recently retired and don't have the funds to throw around the way we used to.

The best bey with your sick koi is to kill it :( Yes I no it is hard but it would cost to much to treat that 1 little koi and if you get the koi out fast enough it will not hurt the other 1s
Is there anything else iI can do to help?
Rick

Oooohhhh, he is my favorite. first one I picked out. He is all white with an orange circle around his left eye....very feisty. Never, did I ever think I would be attached to a fish. Will have DH do it. I didn't even want to thread a worm with a hook when we used to crappie fish. boohoo, boohoo

Have been watching him carefully. He hasn't been in the fountain for the last 24 hours. Just checked and his gills and fins are working the same as the other babies. You can see I am grasping at straws not to kill him. Just took some pictures. Will have download them.

His name is Spot, the all white is Betty Grable and the calico is Cat. Nothing clever for the solid gold yet.

Here is Spot. That is Cat just above him and I think the little nose is one of the goldies. He is acting just like all the rest of them today. No bungee jumping or going over Niagra Falls. Could that fountain thing have just been a fluke?

And here we have.....drumroll....Beeeettttyyy Graaabbllle.

And here we have Ms. Grable once again. She is always available for the cameras.

If look really hard you will see Goldie Hawn (just came to me) Cat and Spot.

They are all just kind of kickin' back and chillin' today. Please tell me we aren't going to have a funeral.

You are the expert and all kidding aside will do whatever you say...just don't want to. No need to make everybody sick but Spot's symptoms seem to have subsided. Any way to take his temperature?

O!! There doesnt seem to be a big pronlam like I thought. I wouild just watch him and let me know how he is doing daily.

thank you, thank you, thank you. I will watch him closely...and the others as well.

LouC

Here is Ursula, all better and swimming in the pond!

Glad I could help :)

Me too! It's really a nice feeling to know that I was able to get this koi back to health. I always thought this koi was just a little more shy than the others. She was always the last one to feed, and just didn't seem as lively. Now I know it was because she was sick. Next time, I will know much faster.

btw how big is the koi?

She is about 10 inches long, give or take an inch. I have had her for two years and bought her as a small fish.

what color is the belly?

It is orange. I should have named her 'flash'. When she lifts her head to get food, you see a flash of brilliant orange. She's a lovely fish. What are you thinking of that causes you to ask?

Here is a photo of the 'gang' from last year. The black koi is at the top. The white spot you see is apiece of food, not something on the fish. I have all of these fish still except for the white shubunkin, Lily. Sadly, she was taken by what was probably a kingfisher. I went out one day and she was simply gone from the pond. We were all very sad. She is the mother of many lovely shubunkin babies. I have some from last year that are still small. I'm hoping one will look like she did.

I asked b/c some koi r worth more money.

fl,
some things aren't worth enough money to me. i love little spot and i am glad that he seems to be ok. i registered on your website but am presently working a lot so will have to check it later. totallly understand that many things represent income so no ugly intended. still will depend on you for advice in case the babies get sick. btw, how do i know what is a koi and what is a shubkin?

OK
I'll bite
what color belly should the black have to be worth a fortune?

Shubunkins are like calico goldfish. Koi have little whiskers kinda like a catfish but not near as long and they are under the lip.

Jeri

so if they have whiskers they're Koi?
I have one I thought was a shubunkin but it does have whiskers

Koi have just a nub of a whisker.

Jeri

Yes, I'll bite, too. What color should her belly be?

The belly is suppost to be black but orange is great! cool :) along with white. some of the black koi i sell [butterfly] are black and gold!

OOh! I"ll bet that is pretty.
Here's a question: how can you tell what color a fish will be? When they are small, they don't always have all their colors or patterns.

Pixydish, It takes time to tell whet a koi will look like. You really cant tell. Like baby kohaku are yellow and white instead of red. A ki utsure is black on top with a yellow body. Its really confusing.

So I've noticed! LOL!! When we bought this fish, she was completely black. But since I don't have expensive koi, it's fun to watch the colors develope.