HELP I have an ill kio

[FB3333]

Hi,

I'm new to fish and ponds.

I moved into my new home a year ago, and inhereted a pond full of fish. some koi, and some goldfish.. I think....


anyway, the pond seemed too small as the largest fish was too big for parts of the pond. so I built a larger one.

I built a pond 8'x5'x4' deep.. to begin with all the fish were very happy, the large koi (20" long) would come to the side to be stroked and everything.

but the important point about this it that I put a paving slab on bricks in the middle so the pumps were raised off the floor of the pond. I didnt know any better and was told to take it out, I did this instantly.

the large koi was getting a red nose, to begin with, I didn't really take much notice, and presumed that it had always been red. then what seemed like over night, his (boy or girl?? who knows) nose was a raw open wound. and getting worse by the day.

I was advised to add salt to the water, and was also given some fish medicine, (I cant remember what it was called, but it was yellow, and when it hit the water, it went flourescent green.)

his nose seemed to heal, but again now is starting to look worse again.

He has become very unsociable with the other fish, never seems to surface to eat, and is always at an angle of about 45 degrees pointing down when stationary..

please help, we can't stand to see him suffering like this..

Cheers,
Paul.

 

[bribones]

ryans prob the man to answer your question but it sounds like there may be some secondary infection

as an angler as well as a fish keeper i use a product called nash medicarp

it is an antiseptic for viral and bacterial infection and promotes rapid tissue repair

 

[ryan]

Sounds like the fish has injured itself, if it is going off food and not as socail it is deteriorating, when wounds like this occur the fishes slime coating is damaged and the fish becomes vunerable to bacterial and parasite infections. You either try a salt bath or net the fish and apply iodine to the wound twice a day the later method however, can be stressful for the fish and you. Melafix can also help although sometimes it can be abit weak but that is normally my first point of call to aid healing. Also check the water is clean and good by testing the parameters.

 

[FB3333]

cheers guys,
these treatments, can I add them too the water with the other fish still in the pond, or will i need to quarantine the ill one?

 

[ryan]

If you can quarantine the fish that is best.

 

[FB3333]

ive just bought some melafix from ebay...

i shall try and find somthing big enough to quarantine the fish in. if I cant will this be a problem?

 

[SarahBravo]

Oi FB.....I've got a big empty tank...... you can put fishy in there temporarily (it's 45G UK, will that be big enough?) Jeez my cats'll go bananananas...

Sarah

Or you can borrow the tank, then your cat can go banananas!

 

[ryan]

ive just bought some melafix from ebay...

i shall try and find somthing big enough to quarantine the fish in. if I cant will this be a problem?

It won't harm the other fish but dosing such a large body of water is going to cost some money seeing as the dosage will be pretty big for an 8x5x4 pond.

 

[FB3333]

right...
this morning ive dug out the origional smaller pond, filled it and used a little of the chlorene stuff that sarah has loaned me.

this afternoon i will swap big fish into small pond and start the melafix treatment...

fingers crossed, this will do the trick..

one thing ive noticed is that he seems to have levelled out a little, but is now jumping out of the water. is this another symptom?

 

[Paul_MTS]

jumping out the water can be signs of a stressed fish

 

[ryan]

Can you test the Oxygen Levels in your pond? How is it filtered any pumps, waterfalls etc providing oxygen? Jumping fish is a sign of stress, Orfe will often do it in low oxygen levels and Grass Carp when they are housed in a pond that is to small, so the Koi is doing it from stress most likely because of its injury.

 

[FB3333]

I went overkill to be safe as i wasn't sure about all this..

I have a fishmate 9000 pump that is too powerful as i have a 6000 litre pond
A fishmate 15000 pressureised uv bio filter, again, even more powerful.

a koi air pump, (cant remember the name - bio something 25) that is set on a timer and comes on for 20 mins every 4 hours, ive set it like this so the neighbours dont complin about the hum it emmits.

also i have a variety of oxygenating plants

I have checked all the water properties, again thanks to sarah, and everything is spot on perfect.


3 new points today.

1, the new qurantene pond seems fine and holding water. a frog has already moved in, so i will swap him over today, and start the melafix treatment.

2, I have a missing ghost carp..... its either a cat, or a heron, a few have been seen about, and weve seen one at the canal on the other side of town.. were gutted.

3, i was down the garden centre yesterday, and the fish bloke there, who i dont really trust... recommended ... umm.. is it interpet? ulcer treatment, and suggested i do the whole big pond to fight bacteria.. is he just trying to make money out of me or does he have a point?

 

[ryan]

Ok your pond set-up sounds good. Sorry to hear about the Ghost Carp, I tie fishing wire at about 20-40cm intervals taught across the pond to deter them seems to work for me. Basically when they wade in which they do to catch prey they hit the wires they can't see which spooks them.

Interpet #9 is an Anti Bacterial treatment that is useful and could help, if your Koi is just injured and the injury simply needs to heal then I would leave it but if it is infected that means bacteria has got into the wound which is what he is refering to so by treating the whole pond you would get rid of that and aid the fishes healing process.

 

[Paul_MTS]

just a warning with the bacteria treatment, it's sends your poond balance out of control.

we had to use it early this year and it turned out pond green, we had never had problems with green water before but this set it off. we now have a UV fitted which sorted it out though. You should be ok already having UV.

 

[FB3333]

right, the poor chap is in the quarentine pond,

i feel awful, he's not looking good... but saying that, it might look worse than it is.

i think i made his nose bleed or rip a bit when i netted him.

still, he's on his own and the melafix is in there, it says in the instructions to treat for a week, lets see what happens..

my camera is absolute crap, but i'll try and get a pic of him in the morning.