12 replies to this topic

[rdk]

I have also read about the terror of parasites in and on our fish. There are a whole page of medicines to take care of this. Even more scary I am reading about putting many cups of salt in our clear ponds to help the fish heal. I just don.t understand this. Is it a true belief to think that if I do weekly water changes these problems may not happen in the first place? Thank you.

[koikeepr]

Your weekly water changes are going to help tremendously in hopefully keeping parasites at bay. As dirty water and poor housekeeping with your pond will certainly invite them in. Ponds are naturally filled with bacterias and such, and when your fish are healthy, they are not affected by them. It's when your fish are ill that these critters take advangtage of a weak fish and cause havoc. Parasites, of course, will target a healthy or sick fish. They don't care.

That being said, you can have a perfectly clean pond and can have a parasite hitch a ride on a new fish you may have introduced or even a plant. You'd be surprised the way in which parasites can come into a pond. Heck, even a bird pooping as it flies by and it happens to land in your pond can be a problem if the thing is carrying a parasite or bacteria.

Using salt is a catch-22. There are folks that continually have a certain level of salinity in their ponds. I prefer to use it only when I have a need, because bacterias and parasites are said to become immune to salt if it is used continuously. They essentially develop a resistant to it. Kinda like using overusing antibiotics in a human, so to speak.

There are parasitic and bacteria foods that are made by several companies, Jungle is one of them. I feed them to my fish in the early spring as they come out of hibernation and then again in the thick of summer as a preventative. They are definitely not cheap foods, but I don't consider a dead fish cheap either.

Don't go crazy worrying about parasites, rdk. Keep a solid cleaning regimen and you will be doing a lot of good.

[rdk]

Do you feed both these foods together or one at a time in the pond?

[DoDad]

There are many parasites that can be in a pond and some can kill a fish very quickly.
If the fish are flashing, jumping or rubbing themselves on objects in the pond this is usually caused by gill flukes which is about the most common parasite in the pond. To treat this I use praziquantel.
I don't like to use the shotgun method of treating koi for parasites that is just a guessing game. For external parasites I scope my finish and then treat then accordingly.

[nc0gnet0]

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To treat this I use praziquantel.

What brand if I might ask?

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For external parasites I scope my finish and then treat then accordingly.

Would love to learn how to do this, care to share any pointers? I have to scope end more then covered, but would love to know about slide preperation, methods used to scrape the fish, etc. Also is there a good online source with pics to identify the bugs?

[DoDad]

Here's a site to help id them.
http://www.koicarp.o...i_parasites.htm
Here's a video and another link;
http://www.koiphen.c...ght=scope+video
http://www.koiphen.c...ead.php?t=57011

[DoDad]

I use the real stuff no Brand name I buy it by the kilo

[rdk]

When my ammonia level was 8.0 I saw one fish do this jumping you are talking about. Now my ammonia is 0 for the past 2 months and I never see anything like this again.They seem healthy now

[DoDad]

As a general rule for a water temperature of 70F, most Koi would be expected to tolerate an ammonia level of 1 ppm for a day or so if the pH was 7.0, or even as high as 10.0 if the pH was 6.0. At a pH of 8.0, just 0.1 ppm can be dangerous.

[nc0gnet0]

Thanks for the links, I have them bookmarked for study. Where do you get your prazi in bulk? (if I might ask) Sounds like a must have for the medicine kit. I like the fact it won't hammer your boi like PP will.

[DoDad]

Prazi is pretty spendy stuff if you check the Internet it's about a dollar a gram or more sold in 50 & 100 gram jars. I buy it and repack it for the koi clubs and friends in the area. I believe a kilo would last you 2 or 3 lifetimes. I've used it in my pond once and in the Q-tank every time a fish goes in.

[rdk]

Dodad would high ammonia cause this strange behavior or just parasites?

[DoDad]

Symptoms of high ammonia may include lethargy and red
streaking.