Struggling koi

[fantail76]

Hi, I have a garden pond with about 15 fish and all are fine bar 1 koi. She is just staying at the top of the pond I wouldn't say gasping for air but constantly opening her mouth just below the surface.

I have checked the nitrate and amonia levels and both are fine. I have increased the air flow in there so plenty of bubbles and air. I have even put some medivet drops in for fish but she's still the same whilst all the other fish have no problems.

She's also upright and not on her side or anything just very lethargic and just let's me touch her when before they would always just dart down the pond.

I don't know what else could be the issue, any help would be appreciated

 

[Mmathis]

Hello!

Please give us more information about your pond. How big is it? What were the number results of your testing? Are all of your fish koi, and how big are they? Have you made any recent changes to your pond or your routines? Have you added any fish recently? What kind of filtration do you have? I don know what Medivet drops are.

 

[fantail76]

Hello!

Please give us more information about your pond. How big is it? What were the number results of your testing? Are all of your fish koi, and how big are they? Have you made any recent changes to your pond or your routines? Have you added any fish recently? What kind of filtration do you have? I don know what Medivet drops are.

So the pond is about 3000 litres, not all are koi a mix of goldfish and other koi but all get on fine. Test results were are fine and on the yellow part of the table which said perfectly fine. No fish added this year. I have a filto clear 5000 system installed and it's running fine as far as I can see. It's all a bit of a mystery

 

[Tula]

Hi fantail76, sorry for the trouble with your koi. How is your weather, is it hot? In warm weather the water holds less O2. Are you able to look at it closely...is it possible it's trying to clear something from its gill, or something stuck in its mouth ?

 

[fantail76]

Hi fantail76, sorry for the trouble with your koi. How is your weather, is it hot? In warm weather the water holds less O2. Are you able to look at it closely...is it possible it's trying to clear something from its gill, or something stuck in its mouth ?

Thanks, I pulled her out this morning and found she has been hurt at the top of her fin. She seems in a real bad way now and is just floating on her side. It doesn't look good and I don't know what to do

 

[Jhn]

Sorry that you have to deal with a sick fish. At 3000 liters(roughly 800 gallons) your pond is too small for koi. Even though your water quality seems fine that koi is showing obvious signs of being stressed, which lowers their immune system and the ability to fight off infections or parasites. Redness in fins could be a myriad of things, ammonia poisoning, bacteria infection, parasites, causing this to manifest.

Could try treating with prazipro or melafix, if you can identify exactly what the issue is, otherwise just prophylactically treating is all you can do. I would treat it in a separate qt/hospital tank, adding water from the pond a filter of some sort and some filter material from the pond filter or something containing bacteria to keep the qt tank from going through a cycle. Could us an ammonia badge to keep track Of ammonia.

Going forward I would look into relocating the koi. As they get larger it will only exascerbate water quality issues and end in the loss of more fish.

 

[fantail76]

Sorry that you have to deal with a sick fish. At 3000 liters(roughly 800 gallons) your pond is too small for koi. Even though your water quality seems fine that koi is showing obvious signs of being stressed, which lowers their immune system and the ability to fight off infections or parasites. Redness in fins could be a myriad of things, ammonia poisoning, bacteria infection, parasites, causing this to manifest.

Could try treating with prazipro or melafix, if you can identify exactly what the issue is, otherwise just prophylactically treating is all you can do. I would treat it in a separate qt/hospital tank, adding water from the pond a filter of some sort and some filter material from the pond filter or something containing bacteria to keep the qt tank from going through a cycle. Could us an ammonia badge to keep track Of ammonia.

Going forward I would look into relocating the koi. As they get larger it will only exascerbate water quality issues and end in the loss of more fish.

Thanks for the advice, I have been informed it's 5,000 liters not 3,000. She's been in there with the others for nearly a decade now and not had any issues. I have taken her out now and put her in a big bucket and put some Fungus and bacteria treatment in their as I went to the local fish shop today. I have a spare air bubble machine I can put in there but no filter. They said change 30pc of the water everyday.

 

[Tula]

If that is the bucket you're referring to, those plants will be a big help in water filtration, along with small water changes and aeration. Hoping for the best for your koi, keep us posted.

 

[fantail76]

If that is the bucket you're referring to, those plants will be a big help in water filtration, along with small water changes and aeration. Hoping for the best for your koi, keep us posted.

She's died overnight I am afraid. I didn't think she was going to make it. The redness seemed to have spread as well down the back. It's a shame as I have had her for nearly 10 years and she was my favourite. Thanks for the advice everyone it's useful to know for the future.

 

[KDubU]

I am sorry to read she passed.

 

[Tula]

Very sorry. We sure do develop a bond, especially over 10 years.

 

[LarryM]

That redness on the body looked a lot like sunburn. Every year my koi with a lot of white on their bodies would all get the same thing when exposed to the long hot summer sun. The darker colored fish were not affected. I put up a sunshade over the deepest water depth. They retreated to the shade every afternoon during the bright sun hours and the redness went away.
Sorry your koi has died. I'm posting my experience with sunburn in case someone else has the same problem.

 

[fantail76]

That redness on the body looked a lot like sunburn. Every year my koi with a lot of white on their bodies would all get the same thing when exposed to the long hot summer sun. The darker colored fish were not affected. I put up a sunshade over the deepest water depth. They retreated to the shade every afternoon during the bright sun hours and the redness went away.
Sorry your koi has died. I'm posting my experience with sunburn in case someone else has the same problem.

Thanks for the advice, could well be sunburn.....i have had her about 10 years though and never seen it before on her and the weather was not really that hot been much hotter before.
The strangest thing i found was she was very lethargic staying at the top of the water but upright, so i fished her out to check her mouth and gills to make sure nothing was stuck there......then when i put her back in she was always on her side and could never get upright again.

 

[LarryM]

Thanks for the advice, could well be sunburn.....i have had her about 10 years though and never seen it before on her and the weather was not really that hot been much hotter before.
The strangest thing i found was she was very lethargic staying at the top of the water but upright, so i fished her out to check her mouth and gills to make sure nothing was stuck there......then when i put her back in she was always on her side and could never get upright again.

It's hard to impossible to tell exactly what's going on sometimes when they are not acting normal. A very experienced koi dealer once told me, "It's not like you can take them to the vet when something's wrong. All you can really do is provide them the best habitat you can, learn all you can, and when you do almost inevitably lose a fish, buy another fish. It's really all you can do".

 

[fantail76]

yep, if animals could talk i am sure the world would be a much better place