Koi color faded overnight - cause?

[CountryEscape]

I have 9 Koi, they are all doing just fine. One of the smaller ones, about 5", is a Sanke, with all three colors. Mainly white, with red on head and red and black spots all over. I noticed 2 days ago that the red color is VERY faded, and the black is as well. All the other Koi have vibrant colors. This Koi does not seem to be sick, swims vigorously with the other koi when I feed. I have not seen any predator signs around my pond, all fish are accounted for. Have frogs and now a painted turtle baby in the pond. Have put ludwigia (water primrose) from my farm pond into this pond about 3 weeks ago or more. PH is 7.8 (originally was 8.4, moved down slowly until it established at 7.8 and has remained there for last month or so). Nitrate is 0 ppm but the Nitrite seems to be between the 2 and 5 ppm. I have not backwashed the DIY Skippy filter laterly, wanting to let the bacteria have a good chance to get established, but will be draining the container today (hopefully) to move it into it's permanent spot as I work to complete the waterfall this weekend. Could that be the reason for the high nitrites? Previously when I tested, nitrites were 0. Could this be the problem with the vanishing red on the Sanke if it's more sensitive to water quality than the others possibly?
Any help will be much appreciated, as always.

 

[sissy]

I give my koi tetra koi vibrance to inhance there color .i find that if they don't get the right amount of vitamins in there food my fish colors fade and also if I don't keep some salt in the pond it happens

 

[sissy]

I have had 3 of my koi change colors also 1 that was all black is now a very deep gold and black and 1 that was gold and white is now all white and 1 that was orange black and white is now all white with only an orange dot on his head

 

[CountryEscape]

Thanks, Sissy. Maybe that's what is happening. But, the thing that worried me was not the loss of color, but that it seemed to happen overnight. Maybe it was happening and I didn't notice, but when I looked for the Sanke, and didn't find it, then realized it had lost the color, I feel like it happened quickly, not slowly. So we will see if it comes back. I know they can get scared and lose their colors, too. Maybe something happened in that regard.

 

[fishin4cars]

Country, I see where your concerned. Over night is drastic, But I have seen one change over night from black with a copper head to a greenish hugh one night two nights later it changed to a silver blueish look and then stopeed changing all together. It does surprise me that a Sanke would change that fast, Most Sanke and showa changes I have seen took place rather slowly. Some of the biggest factors of color changes in Koi are their exposure to UV light from the sun, Temp. changes, and diet. Krill is suppose to be one of the contributors to making the orange more red, Black is directly effected by UV light, but water warm temps seem to effect the upper layer of white which will cause the black to fade and appear to be hiding under the white color. I would keep a close eye on it but I doubt it's problem if it's still very active and feeding well. Get ready because when the temps. start dropping this fall you will probably see more changes in color on several koi, I find that black gets most intense as the water cools in the fall and the UV light does change quite a bit as the the winter approaches.

 

[CountryEscape]

I never cease to learn things on this Forum! Thanks Fishin. It has been VERY warm here for several weeks, and I'm sure my water temps are in the 90's or close. Will try to remember to get a thermometer, as I know I will need one to know when to pull that pleco (50-60 degrees) and when to start moving plants that need to "go under" when the water gets cold . It sounds exactly as you describe, the colors "hiding under the white", so I will not be concerned, but will watch as the days go by.

 

[addy1]

County get one of these, you can set the alarm to let you know when the temp hits a certain point. Mine works great, receiver in house probe in pond down the hill.

http://www.google.com/products/cata...a=X&ei=SkA0TrSNIaT20gHhyqDlCw&ved=0CFYQ8wIwAA

An easy glance and you know the temp

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, neat idea and cheap, too!
BTW, I cleaned my skimmer filter, sprayed it off into buckets to use to water plants .... just noticed only one of the 5 buckets of water had a huge number of red squiggly things!!! What in the world are they? Mosquito larva? And, if so, why in just one bucket, although the bucket they were in was the first bucket I sprayed filter off into ... I sure hope it is nothing dangerous for the fish. I guess the fish would eat mosquito larva, but I thought they were brown, not red. Probably another type of bug but want to be sure.

 

[koiguy1969]

bloodworms...no theyre not misquitoe larvae, they midge fly larvae ..feed them to your fish! miquitoe larvae look similar to new fry!

 

[j.w]

Yummy Country, my fish love those bloodworms to pieces

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, free food and it's good for them? Awesome! But, they are tinier than mosquito larva, so are they bloodworm larva? I've seen bloodworms before, when they are in the "worm" form, or at least I think I've seen them! Can't you buy them for fishing? I think friend buys them for trantulas. But these were maybe 1/4" long. I'm excited if they are good food for the fish, just want to make sure I described them properly.
Oh, and I moved my skimmer to the corner, put it IN the wall, rather that IN the pond! Much better now, blends into the wall and doesn't look out of place. Then realized I didn't get a connector for it, although I got all new connectors for the new 1 1/4" pipe I'm going to replace everything with. DARN IT!!! So, worked on waterfall, think I have a new idea ... again! LOL If I don't get this waterfall completed soon, it's no telling what it will look like and where it will go. My newest idea is to come about 3/4 of the way down the small hill and then make a small pool, put pea gravel in, and plants, of course, and then flow from the pool into the pond, over the edge with hopefully at least an 8" drop, maybe more! Found some really neat plants today, too. But I have coupon that isn't good until Monday, so they are holding them for me. Will have to bring them inside garage in winter, but that's ok. I'll have them all lined up in my garage.
Oh, and I got some tiny floating plants at pet store, lots of roots, he says they multiply rapidly. I figure I can put a supply in my extra aquarium for winter, and have them ready to go when the temps warm up! Going to buy a plant light for over them, as they are on sale something like 50 or 75% off, the really bright lights for starting seeds. I'm on a roll!!!

 

[j.w]

Maybe you were thinking of meal worms for the tarantula. You are really loading up on plants and that's super. Going gung ho on your pond, stream and waterfall too. You go girl :highfive:

 

[addy1]

mosquito larvae pop up and down in the water country, lil things that wiggle a lot. With water movement you won't have any. Right before we got our stream running I found a bunch in the small ponds, turned the hose on washed the water down to the pond, fed the fish with the larvae! With it running now, no larvae.

 

[DrDave]

If you have a hospital tank, you might want to isolate him in it so you can observe him better. Since it is only one of nine, I would be concerned.

 

[CountryEscape]

I have another fish this morning I was trying to identify and turns out he/she has lost red coloring now, too. Again, both this one and the Sanke continue to be aggressive eaters, nothing seems to be out of place other than their color. Still have not gotten a pond thermometer .... need to order one like Addy posted, that would sure make it easy to glance and not have to go outside to look. For now, I'm going to assume that the high water temps are causing the loss of color, and keep a close eye on them. I did add water from my house few days ago, which is softenened, on accident. Probably added 1" of water (my pond is 19.5x9x5 surface area) before I realized what I was doing! Yesterday, after getting the waterfall going, and so much water being used to run that (it also has a small pool in the middle of the stream), I had to add water again, but this time used the well. I used well water when I initially filled the pond, so that should not have been any problem either, but you never know here in the country where the chemicals from the fields COULD leech into the well. As I said, I'll just watch them closely, and if anyone looks stressed, set up a hospital tank.