Koi "bully" ?

[Marshall]

Just wanted to see what you guys could recommend because one of my oldest koi a orange/black/white butterfly has became a real problem with all his pond mates lately. Frankly he is a total ass to all the others literally all the time. He chases, charges, hits & "bites" at them non-stop and I don't want to isolate him for good but for now I have moved him into the turtle rescue in a quarantine tank (420 gallon) by himself and he seems totally normal and I have tested the water etc and can not find any sign of illness so... Any ideas ?

 

[Tula]

Are you sure this isn't spawning behavior? Males will bump the female and it can get rough.

 

[Marshall]

Are you sure this isn't spawning behavior? Males will bump the female and it can get rough.

There are no females in that pond so I don't think they are spawning. I only keep males in that pond because there are also turtles in that one and so any offspring would be very likely to get killed by the turtles so thats why male only in the koi-turtle mix. My koi only pond is co-ed and they do spawn but nothing this violent.

 

[Dave 54]

Just wanted to see what you guys could recommend because one of my oldest koi a orange/black/white butterfly has became a real problem with all his pond mates lately. Frankly he is a total ass to all the others literally all the time. He chases, charges, hits & "bites" at them non-stop and I don't want to isolate him for good but for now I have moved him into the turtle rescue in a quarantine tank (420 gallon) by himself and he seems totally normal and I have tested the water etc and can not find any sign of illness so... Any ideas ?

Even I cant help you here mate as koi normally live peacably with each other and I've not see that sort of behavour in any of our own koi is it all the time or some of the time ?
A number of thoughts though mate what are your water perameters at the moment my though being that your koi are perhaps producing too much mucus for some reason if so it would be a idea to get your microscope out and tak a scrape to find out the reason why ?
My next thought and dont take this personally would be are you feeding them enough ?
How have you sexed your koi mate sexing koi is somewhat different than with their cousin the humble goldfish take a look at your koi's vent area the female koi have a line running from head to tail which also has another line running across it at the tail end.
Male koi do not have this cross peice instead they have a simple line running from head to tail
Otherwise I'm a tad stumped

Dave

 

[Marshall]

Even I cant help you here mate as koi normally live peacably with each other and I've not see that sort of behavour in any of our own koi is it all the time or some of the time ?
A number of thoughts though mate what are your water perameters at the moment my though being that your koi are perhaps producing too much mucus for some reason if so it would be a idea to get your microscope out and tak a scrape to find out the reason why ?
My next thought and dont take this personally would be are you feeding them enough ?
How have you sexed your koi mate sexing koi is somewhat different than with their cousin the humble goldfish take a look at your koi's vent area the female koi have a line running from head to tail which also has another line running across it at the tail end.
Male koi do not have this cross peice instead they have a simple line running from head to tail
Otherwise I'm a tad stumped

Dave

It is all the time but thankfully I moved him into the other pond and even though the water parameters are near identical as they both share the same in-flow water supply and are only separated by a 4 foot distance he has been acting normal now and docile like all my other koi. I guess he maybe hated one fish in the other one and just took out his anger on them all. I am happy though now that he is happy so thanks for the advice my friend

 

[Dave 54]

It is all the time but thankfully I moved him into the other pond and even though the water parameters are near identical as they both share the same in-flow water supply and are only separated by a 4 foot distance he has been acting normal now and docile like all my other koi. I guess he maybe hated one fish in the other one and just took out his anger on them all. I am happy though now that he is happy so thanks for the advice my friend

I've a feeling this fish was an over stressed female that was in a pond of threatening males my friend .....now that she's acting mormally again perhaps its time to take time to sex him//her just to test my hunch , then sex the koi in the other pond
Are you up for that Marshal ?


Dave

 

[Marshall]

I've a feeling this fish was an over stressed female that was in a pond of threatening males my friend .....now that she's acting mormally again perhaps its time to take time to sex him//her just to test my hunch , then sex the koi in the other pond
Are you up for that Marshal ?


Dave

My Ichthyologist who comes in every 60 days to volunteer with the rescue has sexed all but the very young koi and this one was a male. The pond he went into houses both sexes but mostly females and juveniles. Note that she could be wrong given nobody is 100% accurate but I trust her judgment much more than my own as fish are clearly not my specialty.