the heavy mucous coating is their slime coat gone very bad. this is due to toxins in
the water and or parasites. you need to catch one and do a physical.
http://users.megapathdsl.net/~solo/p...ue.html#Jo_Ann's_Fish_Physical
paying close attention to gill color and level of "gloppiness". that you have
nitrites suggests something has happened to kill your biofilter, perhaps spraying
insecticides, or something washed into the pond. you dont have dropsy. those are
normal scales for doitsu koi.
your temp is not too high, that is not what is eating up your oxygen. if there is
thick mulm or organics on the bottom OR you have pea soup right now, perhaps that
could use it up, but toxins in the pond can also suck the oxygen right out. stressed
fish will then get monster infestations with parasites.
1. drain the pond down to get the fish out, and if the pond bottom is thick with
crud, move the fish out to a kiddie swimming pool with aeration put it in the shade
and cover to keep em from jumping.
2. salt dip the fish ONLY IF their gills are bright cherry red as you take them out
of the pond and put them into the kiddie pool.
http://users.megapathdsl.net/~solo/p...se/disease.htm
3. refill the pond with temp matched water, you dont want to cold shock them.
4. add salt 0.9 lbs per 100 gallons. as you put them back into the pond do a 10
SECOND peroxide dip before returning them.
5. 24 hours later use a formalin type treatment if the fish arent acting
significantly better.
Ingrid
"John" wrote:
Over the last weekend I have lost 7 koi and am at a loss as to why. A few
days ago the koi in my pond generally stopped eating, having previously been
ravenous feeders. I tested the water and all tests proved "normal" (ph 8.0,
nitrites 0.1, chlorine 0, ammonia 0) except for oxygen which had dropped to
less than 1ppm. I run with 2 filters dropping approximately 1500 gallons
per hour, two spitters and a fountain running at 250 gallons per hour and
can not understand the low reading. I immediately added an air pump with 4
air stones and continue to run that as well, although the oxygen reading has
only gone up to 2ppm today.
The fish that have died have all isolated themselves from the others, and
been very slow moving, although do evade my attempts to net them, right
until they are nearly dead. I have noticed that all the dead fish had a
heavy mucus coating on their skin making them extremely slimy, and that some
of their scales had become very prominent (I have posted some pictures of my
latest loss on www. ???).
My pond is approximately 2250 gallons with koi, goldfish and orfe. This
only seems to be affecting the koi though. I am in the UK and temperatures
have been very high recently, with the water temp in the pond reaching about
24 C.
Any help as to how to help my remaining fish, as well as how to improve the
oxygen level in the pond would be greatly appreciated.
TIA
John
North East England.
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