Killed a KOI with Cupramine. Please help to understand and identify the disease

[Lisak1]

And sorry for being so abrupt at the end there - my dinner was calling!

But I can tell you from experience that it is the worst feeling in the world to find your beautiful fish all dead and now you have to drag them out of the pond one by one. Mine was a "too small pond" problem that only became too small when our plumbing failed one winter. We had to shut the pump down and our 4000 gallon pond became a 2400 gallon pond overnight - we were no longer circulating from the bog and rain exchange. All but one of our big koi were dead within a matter of a few days. And even though there was nothing we could have humanly done to prevent the result once we were in the midst of it - it was below zero and impossible to work on pond plumbing - I knew that we would never put koi in our pond again because the possibility that it could happen again was always right there. Power failure or plumbing failure - either one would mean disaster for big fish. We had several dozen goldfish that came through the exact same situation unscathed. That's why I say they are much more forgiving - much smaller, produce less waste, and require less oxygen.

 

[moldovan]

Lisak1, your story is heartbreaking. It is my nightmare – what happens if my pump/plumbing would fail in the winter. I have no plan. In retrospect – how would you prepare for this scenario? Should I just purchase and keep an extra pump( I use ShinMaywa 1/3 HP )?

I have a water heater that I keep in winter at the bottom of the pond. My thought is to run it to prevent freezing over the pond. I also keep a small aerator pump for such a scenario. I have a whole house generator to address power outages. What else?

 

[mrsclem]

Always good to have a backup pump on hand unless you have someplace close by where you can pick one up same day. I closed one of my ponds last fall and sold all the koi as it was an above ground pond and in danger of structural failure. It was tough but at least the fish are safe.

 

[brokensword]

Lisak1, your story is heartbreaking. It is my nightmare – what happens if my pump/plumbing would fail in the winter. I have no plan. In retrospect – how would you prepare for this scenario? Should I just purchase and keep an extra pump( I use ShinMaywa 1/3 HP )?

I have a water heater that I keep in winter at the bottom of the pond. My thought is to run it to prevent freezing over the pond. I also keep a small aerator pump for such a scenario. I have a whole house generator to address power outages. What else?

I have a backup gasoline generator and a loooooooong extension cord; that's MY backup plan for power outages. But yes, an extra pump on standby is invaluable, imo.

 

[Lisak1]

In our case an extra pump would not have helped. Our main line separated just above the pump - the PVC glue failed, which everyone says will never happen. Well... it did. The pump was still working, but the water was spraying everywhere. I've just resolved myself to the fact that we have a goldfish pond. I'm comfortable knowing that if we had to - or wanted to - shut the pump off for any length of time, these fish would be fine. We have a nice mix of comets and shubunkin with a couple of fantails in the mix.

I think you just have to know your pond. If you could easily throw a backup pump into action if something went wrong, then having an extra pump on hand makes lots of sense. The way our pond is set up, getting the pump in and out isn't an easy proposition. It's honestly the one thing that I can't do by myself. Either one of my boys helps me or we hire a local pond company to come and pull it for us when we need it out for any reason... which is rare, thankfully!

We did get a generator last spring that will run the pump - in addition to, oh you know, the furnace, refrigerator, lights... that nonsense! - so I would definitely do that in the case of a protracted power outage.

 

[brokensword]

In our case an extra pump would not have helped. Our main line separated just above the pump - the PVC glue failed, which everyone says will never happen. Well... it did. The pump was still working, but the water was spraying everywhere. I've just resolved myself to the fact that we have a goldfish pond. I'm comfortable knowing that if we had to - or wanted to - shut the pump off for any length of time, these fish would be fine. We have a nice mix of comets and shubunkin with a couple of fantails in the mix.

I think you just have to know your pond. If you could easily throw a backup pump into action if something went wrong, then having an extra pump on hand makes lots of sense. The way our pond is set up, getting the pump in and out isn't an easy proposition. It's honestly the one thing that I can't do by myself. Either one of my boys helps me or we hire a local pond company to come and pull it for us when we need it out for any reason... which is rare, thankfully!

We did get a generator last spring that will run the pump - in addition to, oh you know, the furnace, refrigerator, lights... that nonsense! - so I would definitely do that in the case of a protracted power outage.

@Lisak1 ; were it my pond and something you could do is--have a way to run a flex pvc tube from the pump to the pond. And of course, you'd need two of the same size going back toward your pump (it's in your water collection portion, right?) The flex pvc can just be there already in place, ready to go should you have an issue again. Sort of a redundant system. I'd even put valves on each so you can simply twist the correct valve should winter hit you hard again.

Just thinking out loud!

(and of course, you could always replace all the glued pipe with flex pvc; no glue, just screw on fittings that are easy to get to. Don't know how much work this would be, but I've never liked depending on buried pvc pipe that was rigid. I've seen what winter/ice can do to the ground and it surprises me that we don't get more 'my pvc lines broke/froze'.)

 

[Tula]

@Lisak1 , I remember when this heartbreaking event happened. I was shocked as your pond is large and you have so much experience. I even wrote a koi club in a near by city to see if there was any interest in taking my koi, but there wasn't.

I just keep doing the best I can, lots of filtration, water turn over and aeration. Don't get me wrong, love my koi......just worry they may outlive me !