Shubunkin - White lumps on head & lying at bottom of pond

[kron00]

Hi,

I've got a pond with a mixture of Koi & Shubunkin. One of my shubunkin has had white lumps on his head for about a year, they have slowly got bigger but never affected other than looks. Checked pond yesterday and it was laying on its side at the bottom of them pond motionless, thinking it had died i tried to fish it out and it sprang back to life, it swims off then stops and slowly falls to the bottom again. I've now netted this fish out into a bucket and need advice on what could be causing this!!

The pond has a filter/uv box running constantly (Hozelock Ecopower 5000) I've done nothing to the pond over winter, they've also had no food since around november.

Picture of fish...

http://i41.tinypic.com/169ji9v.jpg

Thanks

 

[HARO]

The 'lumps' look like carp pox, but you may have a bigger problem. This fish is beginning to show signs of dropsy. (Note the scales starting to protrude.)
John

 

[Tula]

The dropsy was the first thing I noticed. I'm glad you've got him quarantined.

 

[Dave 54]

Kron00 a bit of reflective flash on the lumps from your camera doesnt really give us a clear view as to what it my be , if your fish has carp pox thee lumps would be a pinky white colour however the dropsy is your main worry here .
Here is all that I know about dropsy and its causes , it can make for sad reading .
Dopsy is indiction of a problem that is internal may be fluid retention but could well be bacterial or viral in origin and last but not least can be caused by a parasite that attacks the fishes kindneys so as you can see you have a fish in which one of a number of bad things is going on within it.
The pine coning of the scales i;e lifting of you can see starting is a result of the fluid build up within the fish sadly by this stage damage internally to kidneys etc may well be irreversable .
Nines out of ten the fish will die from this and those that survive in my experiance often succum to it at a later date .
Isolate the fishin a QT fasillity and salt would be your first treatment at a does rate of around 5kg per 10.000 ltres your fish should remain in the salted water from 3 to 5 days or when an improvement is noticed (do not salt your pond).
Increase the water temperature slowly at a rate of 1c per day up to and above 25c you can use an antibacterial with the salt Acriflavine would be my choice follow as per instructions and complete the couse of treatment .
If after day 5 of the treament fluid continues to build up it may be kinder to euthanize
Sorry for the bad tidings but give it a shot you never know you may very well turn it around

Dave

 

[kron00]

Thanks for all your help, after researching It definitely looks like dropsy. I've currently got him in a salt solution, but i'm not holding out, i expect him to follow the 9 out of 10! All my other fish are hiding so haven't been able to check them out but hopefully its only this one that's succumbed to dropsy. I'll try to get a better picture once i get home.

Cheers

 

[Dave 54]

Kron00
Where are you from in the UK ?
Sorry for the bad tidings but you can only try as I've said 9 out of 10 they succum sad really but thats the nature of it .

Dave