Young koi sluggish, gasping for air or trying to escape?

[WaterGardener]

Test your water. You can't tell if there is anything wrong with it if you don't test. And just because other fish are okay and the water is clear, it doesn't mean the water is good or healthy.

The new fish were stressed by being added to a new environment, so they were suceptible to anything that was not quite right.

 

[dinm]

Test your water. You can't tell if there is anything wrong with it if you don't test. And just because other fish are okay and the water is clear, it doesn't mean the water is good or healthy.

The new fish were stressed by being added to a new environment, so they were suceptible to anything that was not quite right.

Ordered it, waiting for it to arrive. Looks like one of them had an ulcer, what I saw was a red dot on one of them, so all the other ones must have had it too.

In case the water quality is bad, what is then the course of action? I only expanded it a month ago, so I don't know how it could be bad, and the water's been crystal clear all that time.

 

[WaterGardener]

Ulcers are often caused by poor water quality. The course of action would depend on what the problem is.

Did you get a KH testing kit? I consider that to be a very important thing to have.

 

[dinm]

Ulcers are often caused by poor water quality. The course of action would depend on what the problem is.

Did you get a KH testing kit? I consider that to be a very important thing to have.

Tested PH today, turned the water dark blue, PH over 9.

 

[WaterGardener]

Did you test for anything else? We need results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and KH as well.

Did you use mortar on rocks in the pond when you redid it? That can raise the pH. It may also be bouncing around, going up and down sporadically, if your KH is low. As has been stated several times, please test your water.

 

[GBBUDD]

Tested PH today, turned the water dark blue, PH over 9.

what is your water source? test in the am then again mid day you should get varying results

 

[dinm]

Did you test for anything else? We need results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and KH as well.

Did you use mortar on rocks in the pond when you redid it? That can raise the pH. It may also be bouncing around, going up and down sporadically, if your KH is low. As has been stated several times, please test your water.

I did several water changes to top up as there was a low edge, the water source is tap water, going to apply dechlorinator later today. Probably why it's so high I think.

 

[WaterGardener]

Dechlorinator doesn't affect pH.

 

[Fan_of_Fish]

It was probably ph shock that got them. Most sellers have it at about 7.5. So they had a jump of 1-1.5. Ideally the pH change per day is a max of 0.2.

I am still new to pond keeping, but am having high ph values too. Along with a barely noticeable color variation on the ammonia test by water exchange day.

My pond is too clean. My fish are too small to sustain the biological filter. So it's not able to grow fast enough when spawning or algae dies off. My plants are taking too much CO2 in the day. They don't produce enough at night to counter day use. Algae does the same.

I am going to add some cracked corn and a spring start up amount of fresh bacteria again. The cracked corn decomposes rapidly and starts to produce CO2. I have my kh at 22 drops. It's naturally high from my tap already. So it won't act quickly, but slowly bring ph back to stable at the early am ph with the goal that it produces more than plants are taking and then the kh can buffer the night.

I'm sorry for your bad experience with the koi. I hope you have better luck and control in the future with testing parameters!

Here is my source for trying this:

Managing high pH in freshwater ponds

This factsheet by the Southern Regional Aquaculture Center (SRAC) gives information on managing high pH in freshwater ponds.

thefishsite.com