Koi sitting alone on bottom with closed fins -- help

[kmarcel]

Hello, I posted previously about koi flashing and received a lot of help from this forum. To give a little background of what's been going on, fish were flashing around May and early June. At the time I thought it was due to ammonia and my filter not being cycled yet. After a couple weeks of trying to get the ammonia issue resolved my friend did a scrape and scope to find there were flukes. I did 2 Prazi Pond treatments, which helped. A couple weeks later I had a fish with white fluffy stuff and then did a Interpet treatment for ulcers and fungus. Ended up loosing the fish.

A week ago I have another fish that was treated for ulcers. Now last night my largest (favorite) fish came to eat as usual acting fine. Within a few minutes after eating I noticed it's gills were moving rapidly, may have not been anything. Only lasted for a few seconds. After that it seemed to just sit and not move. This morning it's just sitting by itself, with closed fins. Not gasping just sitting. Ammonia is zero from what I can tell by the color chart. PH is 7.5, same as always. Nitrites are zero. Nothing visible on this fish. We pulled him out when treating the other fish for ulcers and looked at him and he was fine. This fish has been doing an occasional flash all along and I have been debating about a 3rd Prazi treatment. But haven't done it yet because the flashings are just occasional.

Would the issue be due to the original problem of parasites that somehow has infected him, even though no ulcers are on him? Sorry for such a long post, just wanted to tell about the last 2 months and what kind of treatments have been done so far.

I would appreciate any help as I think I might loose him soon, which will be my saddest lost of any fish yet.

 

[sissy]

what are the temps of the pond water itself .I know here 90 plus degree weather for over a month I had to shade my pond .Koi like the ph above 8 and do you have an aerator because plants use up air at night .Anything was into the pond or any one spraying weed killers or insect killers .

 

[kmarcel]

Sissy, the temp right now is 69 Deg. There is sun and shade on this pond. There are 2 air stones, two waterfalls. The pond is a figure 8 design, as one side is an addition done last year. , There are 2 skimmers, one in each section with a small channel about 2 feet wide where they swim from one side to the other. The one skimmer goes to a small upper pond/waterfall and then down a short stream. The other skimmer goes down some rocks, more of a trickling kind of waterfalls instead of splash type.

 

[sissy]

can you isolate the fish to see if it is just do to all the treatments to the pond .A non sick fish can have problems from the treatments .After treatments also I know you are supposed to do a water change in the pond with most of those treatments .I just bought u.v.'s for sick fish from a pond and it really helped those fish who did there pond wrong .I am now using the u.v.'s on my pond since it is new .It not only kills algae I found they can help with parasites and stuff in your pond .I bought mine off ebay from topdog sellers

 

[kmarcel]

Sissy, I went to our local pond store and they advised that I do a Prazi treatment for the whole pond. I am now doing a water change and then will do the treatment. He is now swimming around and eating some Medikoi. But I noticed that he has reddish fins, which indicate stress or something? The guys at the pond place think the issue may be gill flukes.

 

[Dave 54]

We agree with then on that from what you've discribed symptom wise and yes the red fins are indicating that he's stressed to the nine's at the moment .
May we suggest that you get this treatment up and running as soon as you can as speed is of the essence with this .
If it isnt gill flukes then it's skin flukes both hang out next to the gills you do however have to act with this treatment as said ASAP....

Dave

 

[kmarcel]

Dave, I started the treatment yesterday afternoon. The fish seems much better today. The fins are still reddish but it has come up to eat and is swimming around more. I guess now all I can do is observe and hope for the best.

 

[kmarcel]

I felt really optimistic with morning with the koi swimming around. Now since then it's just sitting by itself again. I fed it some Medikoi which sinks to the bottom. He took a little and spit it out. Never saw that before. I read that fluke infestation will cause fish to spit out food.

I have a few questions, I hope someone might have answers for;
Does anyone know how long before the Prazi takes to rid fish of flukes?
Has anyone had a koi that had flukes to the point where it's isolating itself and spitting out food? If so did it survive?
The other koi that has the ulcers flashed this morning, which I haven't seen that fish flash in a long time. Would that indicate that maybe the Prazi Pond is working?

 

[kmarcel]

Any suggestions that could be given to me would be helpful. I added 2 cups of salt to this am because the pond people said my salt level was low. My fish is still sitting by himself with closed fins. I'm really concerned and not sure what to do next. I did the Prazi Pond Sat early afternoon. Today is Monday am and I was hopeful he would be doing better. Last night a few more fish were flashing than usual. Maybe just a flash or two but there were more than what has been. Could it be a sign the Prazi Pond is killing off the flukes?

Really would like some help, please???