How many of us have been transporting koi or goldfish in bags and at the end of your journey, or midway through, you're shocked to find that the water is the color of blood. Its very frightening to say the very least!
We remember the very first time this ever happened to us (on the way to our section show), talk about panic, we roared through the village of Ermington on a Sunday morning at break neck speed.!!!!....
We arrived at the trout farm, where it was being held, much to say that we were in a right old state, only to be told don't panic its because of stress. If it didn't bleed, it very well could have ended up as a dead koi/ goldfish..
Since the first time that we say this happen it's happened on around four occasions. We are not sure quite why, for some reason it seems to happen more to females than males
Showing koi (not sure with goldfish on this matter but if you do this may happen).
If this happens on a show day, then the benching team will give you a special dispensation and allow you to de-bag the fish without the water temperatures matching and the team will bench this koi last, to give it greater chance to recover. However we would suggest that you retire the fish in question and give it pet status for the rest of it's days.
Our main bleeder is now 26 years old and is still going, so you could very well say that in reality it's not done her much harm, if any at all.
Remember too much stress can and will kill these fish quite easily.
When transporting fish from and to they should be placed across the axle of the car or van not fore and aft. This is because if you have to break fast the plastic bags used to transport them in can cause damage. It damages the nose of your fish in the form of a burn type wound which takes a while to heel again (mostly happens to the larger fish).
Try to drive at a steady even pace and don't take any bends to fast and try to break evenly. About 99% of the time a fish will make it to its new pond or to a show completely unharmed and non. the worse for its journey. But its that 1% of the time that you have to prepare for. Always remember to double bag a koi. The larger ones have been know to put a ray from the dorsal through a single bag.
A trick you can employ is also have a black bin liner, which you can put the bagged fish into, it calms them down a little. Albagin can be added to the bag which has a mild sedative effect on the koi (do not use on goldfish) calming it down. Note however if you overdose with albagin it could kill the koi.
Dave
We remember the very first time this ever happened to us (on the way to our section show), talk about panic, we roared through the village of Ermington on a Sunday morning at break neck speed.!!!!....
We arrived at the trout farm, where it was being held, much to say that we were in a right old state, only to be told don't panic its because of stress. If it didn't bleed, it very well could have ended up as a dead koi/ goldfish..
Since the first time that we say this happen it's happened on around four occasions. We are not sure quite why, for some reason it seems to happen more to females than males
Showing koi (not sure with goldfish on this matter but if you do this may happen).
If this happens on a show day, then the benching team will give you a special dispensation and allow you to de-bag the fish without the water temperatures matching and the team will bench this koi last, to give it greater chance to recover. However we would suggest that you retire the fish in question and give it pet status for the rest of it's days.
Our main bleeder is now 26 years old and is still going, so you could very well say that in reality it's not done her much harm, if any at all.
Remember too much stress can and will kill these fish quite easily.
When transporting fish from and to they should be placed across the axle of the car or van not fore and aft. This is because if you have to break fast the plastic bags used to transport them in can cause damage. It damages the nose of your fish in the form of a burn type wound which takes a while to heel again (mostly happens to the larger fish).
Try to drive at a steady even pace and don't take any bends to fast and try to break evenly. About 99% of the time a fish will make it to its new pond or to a show completely unharmed and non. the worse for its journey. But its that 1% of the time that you have to prepare for. Always remember to double bag a koi. The larger ones have been know to put a ray from the dorsal through a single bag.
A trick you can employ is also have a black bin liner, which you can put the bagged fish into, it calms them down a little. Albagin can be added to the bag which has a mild sedative effect on the koi (do not use on goldfish) calming it down. Note however if you overdose with albagin it could kill the koi.
Dave