Lethargic, isolated koi

[FinPond]

Hello all!
I have been waiting to create an account for my new pond to show my fish and also have to opportunity to ask any questions. And unfortunately my first question is an emergency and urgent and hope someone can help me. After battling with pea soup water we finally got out water looking clear! And were able to see all our beautiful 8 fish. 3 Goldfish and 5 Koi. All have been eating well, and behaving normally up until yesterday when the goldfish began to show some spawning behavior. The large male was chasing the two females around the last two days. So this morning I noticed my favorite koi was hiding, not schooling with the others and resting near the bottom. I had possible reasons behind why but thought I would get some advice so try and treat the poor guy before I lose it. I considered it had possibly spawned and was resting? Eggbound? or even sick... I wanted to check the fish for any signs of disease or infection. I was able to catch the fish and saw its abdomen was very swollen and anus was inflammed as if eggs were going to pop out. As far as is being dropsy, I didn't see the pine cone raised scales but there was some redness around the lateral line and near gills. All other fish are fine by the way. I can try and upload some pics once I get the fish in the quarantine tank. So again the fish is isolated from group, not schooling, not coming to eat, inflamed anus and swollen abdomen.
Thank you

 

[Dave 54]

Some times a red and swollen anus can mean an internal problem going in a fishare both inflamed ?
Prior to saying anything else what are your readings Ammonia, Ph, Nitrite, Nitrate nd KH as these can be thrown into higher than normal readings during spawning.?
Have you tried stripping the eggs from the female yet ?
What was the result if you did ?
If nothing has happened you can call in someone who you think knows how to treat your koi from the AKCA or the dealer where you bought it from.
I would suggest a course of treatment antibiotic wise but as to not knowing the length weight etc of this koi I) cannot give you which antibiotic to use on this koi's treatment .
2) Nor the dosage of any injection that would need to be given and it would be wrong of me to do so as I am not a qualified koi Health person I'm only a person with 27 years experiance.
I would however if you have a QT unit take the koi and a companion fish into quarentine as a safe messure just in case its contagious, then treat the koi as suggested by your Vet/Dealer/AKCA koi health official (do not attempt the treatment on your own).
Best of luck with this koi but remember it can be healed with a bit of help from the expert .

rgrds

Dave

 

[FinPond]

Thank you for the response Dave. However it seemed my fish illness might of been a false alarm and maybe I'm just having "new baby syndrome" thinking there is always something wrong. We did stir up a lot of particles when we were messing with the lilies so maybe that upset the one koi for a few days. I did manage to get a quarantine tank set up though for future use if needed. Or maybe it was in fact egg-bound which leads me to the question if there is a "sexual maturity" of koi. My koi are around 5 inches, are they considered juveniles still?

 

[fishin4cars]

Female koi usually don't breed until their second year, and should be well over a foot long if not larger by that point, male koi can breed after about a year old but again should be well over 5" long. That much swelling on a fish that small sound like an internal issue to me. I figured Dave was going to bring this up and he did early in his post, The very first thing I would do is get as much information about the water as possible and post results. Once water quality has been cleared as possibly causing any issues I would then move to a QT tank/ hospital tank and start trying a medicated food. Internal problems are some of the hardest to diagnose and treat due to it's hard to find exactly what the problem is on a live fish. I agree 100% with Dave, getting someone that can do a thorough examination and recommend a real treatment is a better choice of treating than just throwing something in you think MIGHT work.

 

[Litzi1964]

How big is your pond? What sort of filtration do you have? How many inches of fish do you have? How long have you had them and were they acquired from the same source? If he's a new acquisition or if he came from a different source than other fish, it's possible that he has something infectious or parasitic. I think quarantine is a good idea.

Koi and goldfish are also voracious eaters and if overfed they can get constipated. Rectal inflammation and hemorrhoids are common results of frequent or chronic constipation in humans, so I imagine something similar could happen in fish. I've seen other posters suggest feeding constipated fish mashed peas.

I agree with Dave regarding contacting the seller of the fish or someone with fish medicine expertise before beginning any medical treatment.