Poorley Koi

[fragglesrule]

Hello there.
I have a new pond aquired from my brother and put my one small fish in it from my natural pond. Im more of a gardener that loves natural ponds with frogs and newts.Then after a few weeks my brother decided to fill in his other pond and gave me two koi,a ghost and a golden and a small goldfish as all his others died over the bad winter. Went outside to check later that evening to find the two koi laying on the ground almost dead. I put them back in and covered the pond with netting (I was not aware fish jumped out of ponds so apologise for my ignorance at this) They both amazingly survived,this happened about three weeks ago,I checked on them today while cleaning the pump and they both have an awful almost furry apearance on the side in which they were laying,plus the golden one has no tail now to speak of. I feel terrible as I have no idea what to do to help them.
Can anyone give me any advice how to help the fish?

 

[RSFish1]

You need to act soon to try and save them. Sounds like when they jumped out they lost their slime coat and got infected. The infection is showing as the "Fur" and tail rot. But there are a couple of different types it could be. Any way you can post pictures? Do you have a pond supply store nearby to get medications? The group here is real good at looking at pictures and suggesting treatments. Also are you testing your water or can you take the water to have it tested? The water condition is very important on the diagnosis.

 

[fragglesrule]

Thankyou so much for your reply,I appreciate It must be annoying when people dont learn about fish before they have them but its all happened a bit suddenly and I have them now and its happened so all I can do is help them out. I do have a garden centre about 30 minutes away that do pond supplies too that I can go to.
They both look incredibly bad,Im surprised they are still swimming at all. Sadly getting to the garden centre in the next few days is going to be tricky,my son is severly disabled and I do not drive so I cannot get there until someone can take me next week and that makes me feel even more rotten. In the meantime do I leave them in my pond or could I transfer them into a tank in the house to care for them til I get the medication?

 

[fragglesrule]

Found a web site with a 24 hour delivery service for pond fish,I can ring them up and explain whats what and they will be able to advice what I need. Many thanks again,Im going to do my best but to be honest Ive failed miserably at pond fish so it looks like I should still to frogs :twisted

 

[RSFish1]

Quit being so harsh on yourself. We all have problems when we start out. It's part of it. Here's a couple of things you can do. If you are using well water or water that does not have chlorine do a 20% water change to make sure your water is fresh. Do this daily for the next couple of days. Until you have a diagnosis I would also suggest the following. Can you net the fish? Do you have peroxide around the house? If you can do both of those, wipe down the fish with the peroxide. Do not get any in their eyes or gills. This will probably not cure the situation but it could slow it down. If you have a cell phone, take some pictures. You might be able to send them to the people you are calling about supplies.

And last but not least, do not beat yourself up. Koi jump when they get in to a new environment many times. And most people never know they do that it until it happens to them. Who would think that a fish would jump out of the water? You don't see fish jumping out of lakes on to shore.

 

[marla]

The peroxide is a good thing to do have done it in the past...make sure when doing it you have a very good hold on the fish (it should be lying on a good wet towel) they tend to thrash around. Another thing you could do depending on the fishes size is place it in a large container and also use salt water, it is a great bactireal killer...normaly I would say start with a .1% salt in the water and work up, but seeing as it sounds pretty advanced I would after the peroxide, use a salt paste (salt and a little dab of water) dabbbed on the wound say with a cotton swab...again DO NOT get it in the gills. The fish will not like this so hold on tight. then put .3% salt in the water...that will be 3 teaspoons salt per gallon of water...this is a very safe level for the fish. It is best to use pure salt with NO YPS...I use kosher canning salt. Make sure you have plenty of airation in the water while using the salt. Hopefully the tissue under the scales are not redended and begining to ulcerate. You could salt the whole pond, but if you have plants they don't really like large amounts.

 

[fragglesrule]

Thankyou so much,your brilliant. Im going to put them into a large trug(with net over lol) and put the salt in till I can get the medication. Is it wrong to ask how bad is too bad when deciding how much to try before admitting defeat?

 

[addy1]

If you can post a picture the koi experts here can help you evaluate where your fish are at in health, ie savable or not.

 

[fragglesrule]

http://s854.photobucket.com/albums/ab110/fraggle2002/fish/

Hope this works guys x

 

[fragglesrule]

Looks like it worked,fingers crossed you will tell me its easy peasy to treat and they will heal in no time,but I fear not.

 

[RSFish1]

They are in pretty bad shape. But I think they definitely have a chance to survive. I would do water changes every couple of days to make sure the water is nice and clean. Watch the fish and do a peroxide clean every couple of days also. Hopefully someone will come along and suggest which treatments to buy. I fortunately have not used any meds on my fish. So I am not the best for making those suggestions. Good start in your end though. Keep up the good work!

 

[marla]

Thankyou so much,your brilliant. Im going to put them into a large trug(with net over lol) and put the salt in till I can get the medication. Is it wrong to ask how bad is too bad when deciding how much to try before admitting defeat?

Make sure you have LOTS of air in there and good clean water...you may have to change out some water daily then remember to add salt to the new water and mix before adding.
the one with the missing tail also has a bad spot down on the belly but the tissue does not look as if it has reddened which would be signs of a heavier bactirial infection ...so peroxide and salt paste all areas count to 10 and put them back in the water. I have used Maracyn and Maracyn-Two before they are good products.

 

[fragglesrule]

Thankyou very much good peeps,I shall do my best and let you know how it goes one way or another.

 

[sissy]

they told me here when I had my neighbors injured fish to use tetracycalin and it worked great he is back home in his pond swimming with the other fishes and looks good as new .He had an injury also and fuzzies growing on his side