ADDING NEW FISH W/O QUARANTINE

[DOUBBLE TAP]

Hi all,
I an going to be picking up some Koi this weekend fomr a aquantance that is moving and must remove his koi from the pond prior to moving. They are larger fish and he has had them for about 4-5 years in his pond. I dont have a QT tank that will fit them mine is a 55 gal DIY rubermade because I have only QT smaller fish as I like to get small higher quality fish and watch them grow. Less $$$ and more fun to me atleast. Any way I am woundering if there is a way that I can preemptavly treat the fish for any parrisites with salt or medicine in the small QT tank and then have them go directly into the pond. He has had the fish for many years and they seem to be healthy but I know that every pond has its own set of germs and bugs. I have to take the fish as I already told him that I would and he is counting on me because the house is being sold and that is one of the stipulations of the deal. I just want to insured the well being of my curent collection and dont want to screw myself for doing somone a favor. any and all help is appreciated.

Thank you,
DT

 

[Dave 54]

Hi DT I've been keeping koi 27 years now and believe me when I say it just isnt worth it , dont QT and you may end up with no koi at all.
You can only treat what you see wrong not to quickly shift them into your pond.
Koi can be very long lived if looked after properly 80 years or more, two of ours are 27 years old
You'll need to QT them for 4 weeks before they can go in the pond they'll need to be filtered and your looking for anything out of the ordinary such as clamped fins.the koi looking listless etc after 4 weeks if nothing has show up then you can then release them into your pond.
May I ask what size is your pond please and what filtration have on it, UV-C airpump etc.

rgrds

Dave

 

[DOUBBLE TAP]

Thanks Dave thats what I thought but that puts me in kind of a jam, as he needs this to be done and is counting on me to do it as I already gave my word so I have to keep my word. Now just to figuer out how to do it lol. I have a friend with a pond that he only uses seasonally, he keeps tropical fish that dont last the winter so he removes them around this time of year so that might be a possibility, but 4 weeks is going to put me in some cold weather and his pond is only 1000 gal so wintering them in his pond is prob not going to work out to well. I dont know what I am going to do I might just have to roll the dice. as they say no good deed goes unpunished. To answer your question my pod is about 4000 gal I have a waterfall box filter and a filter box and a submerged filter and I use quilt batting in the stream which is about 12' and a 36 wat uv filter aswell. I know that I can handle the bio load but I am just concerned about my curent stock and desise. His fish do look good though and he has had them for a fiew years so I might be ok but I am going to try to see I my friend is willing to let me QT them in his pond as it will be empty on sat and I am not going to pick up the fish until sunday. I dont know what I am going to do but I know I will keep my word. I was just hoping that theyre was some process that would alow for the fish to bypass the QT process.

 

[Dave 54]

Thanks Dave thats what I thought but that puts me in kind of a jam, as he needs this to be done and is counting on me to do it as I already gave my word so I have to keep my word. Now just to figuer out how to do it lol. I have a friend with a pond that he only uses seasonally, he keeps tropical fish that dont last the winter so he removes them around this time of year so that might be a possibility, but 4 weeks is going to put me in some cold weather and his pond is only 1000 gal so wintering them in his pond is prob not going to work out to well. I dont know what I am going to do I might just have to roll the dice. as they say no good deed goes unpunished. To answer your question my pod is about 4000 gal I have a waterfall box filter and a filter box and a submerged filter and I use quilt batting in the stream which is about 12' and a 36 wat uv filter aswell. I know that I can handle the bio load but I am just concerned about my curent stock and desise. His fish do look good though and he has had them for a fiew years so I might be ok but I am going to try to see I my friend is willing to let me QT them in his pond as it will be empty on sat and I am not going to pick up the fish until sunday. I dont know what I am going to do but I know I will keep my word. I was just hoping that theyre was some process that would alow for the fish to bypass the QT process.

I know his koi look good and that you are biting at the bit to have them , winter isnt on yourside however have you thought about overwintering them indoors i;e in a heated garage or something like that surely you can get a 100 gallon stock tank keep the temperature up at about 11.c.
For 22 years of our koi keeping we kept ours in a large 200 imperial gallon Aquarium so it is possible to keep them in 100 gallons just make sure that you do water changes on a regular basis and make sure your filter is maintained I have a Canadian friend who moves her koi indoors for the winter .
They do very well at 11c and she feeds once a day throughout winter

rgrds

Dave

 

[DOUBBLE TAP]

I talked to my friend and he is willing to keep them in his pond so disaster averted hopefully. It was either that or give them to a fish store after your advise and thinking about it i am not willing to risk my guys as a favor to somone else, i have put too much time in. My friends Pond is about 1000 gal 3 ft and established he had oscars and an arrowana and a plecco all summer so his sistem is primed and ready to drop in the koi. Now question would you over winter 5 11-16" koi in that pond or transfer them after 4 weeks assuming that the temp is in the 60f . Thanks for your reply and advice you've been in the game a lot longer and i appreciate it.

 

[shakaho]

I don't see how you can "quarantine" new fish in someone else's pond that has had fish in it. After that you would have a fish that could be bringing in pathogens/parasites from two different ponds. To me a quarantine means you keep the fish in isolation for close observation for a month in your water. Typically, I would add water from my pond to the quarantine tank during the last week to give the new fish an opportunity to gradually adapt to any of my fish's pet bugs.

I would agree with Dave that you should get a larger stock tank with good filtration and lots of water changes and do a real quarantine.

 

[DOUBBLE TAP]

My main concern is KIV or koi pox so as long as I don't see a dead fish and they are active and eating with no clamped fins I thought I was good to go. But you have a point about residually picking up something left behind by the other fish. I am kind if thinking on the fly. I had told this guy that I would help him out this summer so I figured I would have some time to QT one or two at a time but he didn't ask me to take them until last week. The fish are healthy and active from what I have seen. They are only pond quality koi and I originally just wanted to prevent them going from a nice pond to a pet store(kind of regreting it now). I guess this is what you get from making promises at a BBQ after throwing back a fiew to manyl lol. For now my friends pond will have to do as I don't have the room to winter anything it's bad enough when I have to QT the fish that I have purchased. That's part of the reason that I buy small when I buy fish my QT tank is just a 50gal rubber made with a small submersabal pump with a DIY filter. There's no way that they would survive in there for 4 weeks .

 

[koiguy1969]

for under $50.00 you can get an 8' round 650 gal "Intex" pool, if youve got the room. theyre fish safe PVC construction. would be a real nice quarentine pond.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Intex-5...874?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53fc407b52
6' round
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Intex-5...874?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53fc407b52

 

[DOUBBLE TAP]

Unfortunately I don't have the room my garage is converted into living space carpet, couches, big screan "man cave" so there is not much realistate available and the cave gets used most in the winter, more by the kids than me but that's a whole diff conversation lol

 

[Fishylove]

Hmm I believe I remember somebody on here that set up a over wintering "pond", in there family room, in the basement. I think it worked out well for them.

 

[koiguy1969]

Hmm I believe I remember somebody on here that set up a over wintering "pond", in there family room, in the basement. I think it worked out well for them.

your likely talking about me fishylove.... i have an 800 gal wintering pond in my basement. been using mine for years.

 

[DOUBBLE TAP]

I would love to have a wintering pond but dont have a basement and as long as I want to stay married the fish stay outside.

 

[shakaho]

I sounds like your best bet is to use your friend's pond for the winter, then do an outdoor quarantine in the spring.

 

[Dave 54]

For one koi pox isnt anything to worry it has a low level of infection and is mainly active at low temperatures.
The koi rid themselves of it when the temperature starts to rise again and as the koi grow older they tend to grow out of it .
KHV would be your main worry as it is for everyone else and is one of the reasons we QT but during the winter it will confound you because KHV isnt active at temperatures bellow that of 7c and will become active again as the water warms up at around 27c .
So you see you wont know until the late spring early summer if you have KHV.
If you put them in a friends pond then as shakaho says your only going to end up with double the problem of two ponds and any parasites and pathogens from both. ponds doubling your prolems.
So unless you find another way of over wintering them via a QT pond your going to shoot yourself in the foot .
Personally I'd find a way to QT them that involves the use of your home/basement or garage but keeping them there through the winter because it will be too cold to introduce them .after you have QT'd them .

rgrds

Dave

 

[Mucky_Waters]

If the fish in DT''s friends pond appear healthy, and he has had the opportunity to observe them for a while why would they pose any more risk then the fish already in DT's own pond? What's to say that DT's fish aren't the ones carrying some sort of pathogen or disease that will infect the fish from his friend's pond?