vertigo72 said:
A few days is fine. 24 hours is fine also.
Diagnosing a dead fish and other q's
- Thread starter vertigo72
- Start date
A few days is fine. 24 hours is fine also.
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
I would say bringing them up that much two or three days if possible. They need to get on up there pretty quick but they are already stressed too. I've seen my pond climb 5C in a day naturally with no problems, Probably even a little more.
fishin4cars said:
Good thing Im testing the water. At 30C now, with 4 small koi in, and wow, I have to do almost 50% water changes daily to keep my ammonia test from going bright green (which is lots of ammonia). 0.3 ppm before the last water change. And that is with 2 cups of activated carbon and one cup of zeolite (which admitedly I may have to recharge) and almost no feeding. They werent kidding when they said koi are ammonia factories! At least now I know my test kit works lol.
Anyway, all 4 that I caught, all of them seemed close to death when I caught them, are doing rather well otherwise. Pretty spooked, and they run for cover everytime I come near, but they are no longer showing any symptoms. No clamped fins, not floating, no excessive slime coat. Gonna slowly turn down the heat in a few days.
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
Vertigo, that sure makes me wonder what your missing in your big pond. I have to believe something is going on in the big pond that is triggering this, since as soon as you take them out and start treating they all appear fine. I understand that salt and heat could be helping but going from one extreme to the other from the holding tank to the pond sure has me wondering what is going on. Is it something that can't be tested,(bacteria?) is it something that isn't being tested for? (Phosphates, lime, or some other chemical that has gotten into the pond unknowingly). I know some trees and plants can release toxins, any possibility of a new plant losing leaves that could be causing a problem. (anything that may have been added recently close by that wasn't there when the pond was originally running before the drainage? I know I'm grasping at tidbits but I still feel like something is in the water in the pond that is causing the problem, finding out what is the big question.
Ans I know your trying every internet option you can think of! LOL
Ans I know your trying every internet option you can think of! LOL
I started with pond water and salt in the container and when Im changing water, Im now doing one bucket of pond water and one bucket of tap water, but the first ~2 days I only used pond water and salt (temp difference is too big now, and Im not gonna heat pond water in the kitchen lol). That pretty much rules out an issue with my pond water.
Anyway, I was told if indeed they had koi sleeping disease virus, they would be fixed in a day or at most a few days with heat and salt. Thats exactly what Im seeing. The only thing Im not seeing is the supposed ~80% mortality rate among untreated fish. Im at 20%, but then I did give them all a mild salt treatment and the small ones in my main pond are clearly not out of the woods yet. I still have a week to make that statistic too.
Anyway, I was told if indeed they had koi sleeping disease virus, they would be fixed in a day or at most a few days with heat and salt. Thats exactly what Im seeing. The only thing Im not seeing is the supposed ~80% mortality rate among untreated fish. Im at 20%, but then I did give them all a mild salt treatment and the small ones in my main pond are clearly not out of the woods yet. I still have a week to make that statistic too.
Small update. One more small uncaught/untreated koi died a few days ago (those where fish I bought for 3 euro that where raised in a natural pond, and that I strongly suspect suffered from KSD, koi sleepy disease virus infection).
The others seem mostly okay now, even the untreated ones, though some of those are still sleeping now and then.
I put the ones that I caught and have been in a hot salt bath for a week, back in to the main pond a few days ago, as they seemed completely okay again - and they still do. They dont sleep, dont clamp fins, dont float. I didnt want to keep them in the 20 gallon tub any longer, as I simply couldnt get ammonia and nitrite levels down to comfortable levels despite daily or bidaily water changes and added zeolite.
lessons learned:
1) I need a quarantine tank with a filter. If I cant keep 4 or 5 tiny fish in there, Id hate to think what would happen to a big koi.
2) KSD is real, and (apparently) easily treatable. If ever you buy or import young koi that where raised in a pond with earth bottom, give them 0.5% salt bath for 3 or 4 weeks before putting them in your pond. Either that, or risk losing 3/4th of them.
The others seem mostly okay now, even the untreated ones, though some of those are still sleeping now and then.
I put the ones that I caught and have been in a hot salt bath for a week, back in to the main pond a few days ago, as they seemed completely okay again - and they still do. They dont sleep, dont clamp fins, dont float. I didnt want to keep them in the 20 gallon tub any longer, as I simply couldnt get ammonia and nitrite levels down to comfortable levels despite daily or bidaily water changes and added zeolite.
lessons learned:
1) I need a quarantine tank with a filter. If I cant keep 4 or 5 tiny fish in there, Id hate to think what would happen to a big koi.
2) KSD is real, and (apparently) easily treatable. If ever you buy or import young koi that where raised in a pond with earth bottom, give them 0.5% salt bath for 3 or 4 weeks before putting them in your pond. Either that, or risk losing 3/4th of them.