possible parasite on koi,

[Joan ebanks]

Hello,

PH 7.5/8
Ammonia - not detected

I am new to this site, my friend Priscilla referred me.

I recently lost a large orange koi, I think she posted some pictures of this fish. I am now having another issue with a large white koi. He is laying on the bottom with his fins clamped. He is eating. Today we saw him flash for the first time.

For a few weeks we have noticed some smaller tropical fish pecking at deceased orange koi and now this white koi. I don't know if that is a sign of parasites.

I just added some new fish to the pond without QT, so I think after 8.5 years, I may have introduced this problem. Priscilla has mentioned we do not trust the pet store here. Now I have learned the hard way.

I do a small pool and spare pump that I can set up as a hospital. Or perhaps I should treat the whole pond? I did add pond salt, 5 days ago, but we do not see a difference.

I do have plans to set up a smaller pond and moving forward I will use this for QT.

Please let me know any thoughts or help that you can offer. I am desperate to save this fish. He is about 18inches long and I have had him for a while.

Thanks,

 

[Priscilla]

Welcome Joan!!! Wish I could help you. I'll be watching this thread closely for some answers and a treatment plan I hope!

 

[ashirley]

Welcome! Good luck with your fish. You have come to the right place for advice. Years of ponding experience here and everyone is so helpful.

 

[Tula]

Welcome. So sorry for the loss of your beautiful orange fish....hoping we can help you with this other fish.

 

[Mmathis]

Welcome! Have you been able to get a close look at either fish to see if you notice anything out of the ordinary?

 

[Dave 54]

Hi Joan its sounding like your fish isnt happy and sadly its taught you a lesson to boot you must always QT your fish for at least 8 weeks or more when you first buy them.
Thankfully this sounds as though you have a whitespot infection going on in the pond,.
There are many good off the shelf treatments you can buy for white spot made by many companies as long as its for white spot.
Alternately you could treat the pond with Malachite green read the instructions on the bottle for the dose rate of your pond.
If you dont know the gallonage of your pond this may prove to be problematic in that you could over or under dose your koi ask the store staff if they can work it out for you

Dave

 

[Priscilla]

Dave, can I ask why you think its white spot and not a parasite? Are they the same? As newbies, we like to learn.

I will have to google up white spot now. We haven't seen anything on the fish. Other than 'missing' scales on the large orange koi I posted. The white koi we are speaking of now does have a pinkish tint to his back where we have seen the small pecking at him.

 

[Dave 54]

The pinkish tinge to your fish is more than probably a stress response to feeling unwell and stressed out , why did I choose whitespot :?:
With Whitespot the fish will sit on the bottom of the pond with its fins clamped looking listless and sorry for itself if it was say chilodonella the fish would be hanging listless at the surface by an air outlet or waterfall .
Your friend hasnt mentioned heavy muscus production "gill and body flukes" broken skin "Trichodina" or a white haze "Costia".
Whitespot is itself a protozoan parasite that has two stages to it the adult stage where it lives on the boy of the host and the free swimming juvenile stage.
It is caused by the protozoan Parasite Ichthyophthirius Multifiliis its a temperature dependant and occurs in water temperatures of under 28c
Now if I remember correctly they attach themselves by breaking through the skin and gills of your koi where they like to feast on blood and skin tissue they have on average a 20 day life cycle where they will live and then drop off your fish to attach themselves to the pond where they develope into a cysts which is when they reproduce by division hundereds of times within the cyst which then break open and things start again.
So you have to in effect treat the two stages to knock them out

Dave