emergency with koi fry

[Jenny]

I'm having an emergency. I have a ton of koi fry in a kiddie pool and a few bigger koi babies in a resin pool. Their water is different. I'm pretty sure the kiddie pool is leaking chemicals into the water because I noticed a few koi swimming on their side and some are dying. I need to get them out of there, but how can I transfer so many babies? And how do I do it safely without throwing them in shock? And won't the bigger babies eat them? What the heck do I do.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Do you have bio-filtration on both pools?
The young Koi will not eat the fry.

 

[Dave 54]

I'm having an emergency. I have a ton of koi fry in a kiddie pool and a few bigger koi babies in a resin pool. Their water is different. I'm pretty sure the kiddie pool is leaking chemicals into the water because I noticed a few koi swimming on their side and some are dying. I need to get them out of there, but how can I transfer so many babies? And how do I do it safely without throwing them in shock? And won't the bigger babies eat them? What the heck do I do.

Do you have bio-filtration on both pools?
The young Koi will not eat the fry.

Jenny if you put them back in the pond then they will have to take their collective risk as to whether they are eaten or not , however they become very apt a hiding at a rapid rate .

Thats not exactly true Meyer if a fry is small enought to go in the mouth of a koi then they are canibalized by their elders as well as other faster growing koi fry so to start with life is a bit of a lottery then they get to 1" and are safe from other older koi.

Dave

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Thats not exactly true Meyer if a fry is small enought to go in the mouth of a koi then they are canibalized by their elders as well as other faster growing koi

I will have to check my references on that.

 

[Mmathis]

@Jenny, you said the water is different in the 2 containers and you think that something in the kiddie pool is harming the fish. I may be way off here, but let me ask a few more questions....

• how big are the resin pool and the kiddie pool / and how deep are
• are the pools exposed to sunlight? they? (I don't know if you're monitoring the water temp, but shallow water doesn't hold a consistent temp as well as a deeper tank -- IOW, a shallow pool can get hotter)
• when you say the water is different in the pools, what do you mean by that?
• what is your water source and are you treating it?
• are you testing the water?
• are you doing water changes?
• and how are you filtering the water for both pools?
• do you have any aeration going?
• what size are the koi fry and how many are there? do you know how old they are?
• are you feeding them? what and how often?

And one thing to keep in mind is that not all fry are going to survive anyway, due to physical defects, so some loss is expected. But it doesn't sound like that's what the problem is here.

I hope things are better since your OP. I tried raising goldfish fry last year and it was NOT easy and was a LOT of work -- it was a learning experience and constantly changing gears. My heart sank every time I lost a baby, and even more so when I thought the death was due to my incompetence. Hang in there!