The mouth rot is usually associated with a wound to the mouth, caused by the
fish going after something on the rocks or similar hard surface.
www.koivet.com has information on columnaris disease. You did not give any
information about the second fishes condition. It may be advisable to go to
http://www.akca.org/ and see if there is a local koi club and a contact.
Most of the koi clubs have a health hotline or koi health associate that is
willing to come and look at your fish and do the necessary microscopic
evaluation for any needed treatment. You also did not give specific
information on the ammonia level, nitrite level, KH or pH.
Your pond is pretty small for koi. Koi get large. My first pond was a two
pond setup that had about 300 gallons total with koi, gold fish, and
catfish. At the end of the first year, I had to get rid of the catfish and
most of the goldfish. The next year I added a larger pond, since the fish
could hardly turn around. The next year, I had all kinds of disease
problems, and have since learned a lot about water quality management.
The rule of thumb of a thousand gallons for the first koi and a hundred for
each additional koi, allows for the koi to grow and not overpower the pond.
I have over 4000 gallons in my larger pond with about 25 koi that will
average close to 24 inches each. The rule can be violated with enough
filtration, but the smaller the pond, the faster it changes from good water
to poor water.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html
"seed lover" wrote in message
om...
Hi all,
This is my second post here, and is connected to my "salt in pond"
post I just submitted.
Background: I've had a 400 gallon pond stocked with Koi and goldfish
for over a year, and everything has gone fantastic. Good water
quality, happy, tame fish. I guess it was beginners' luck . . .
Then, two weeks ago, one of my koi (a solid pale gold that I really
liked) died from mouth rot (as diagnosed by my local pond supply
place). A check of the water revealed that pH had climbed from 7.1 to
8.9 in a couple of months (the last time I had checked), which totally
blew me away.
Prior to the fish's death, there was a behavioral change. The fish had
all become very skittish, and no longer tame. The pond place said
there was possibly a bird-predator, and that, combined with the pH
increase, may have stressed the fish and increased susceptibility to
the disease.
The pond place told me to use this malachite green product and change
the water over the course of the 3 daily applications. I followed the
instructions to the letter, and retested the pH, which was now back
down to 7.0. I also added a tiny bit of salt (see my other post
regarding why I am worried about using salt). My friends kidded me
when I told them what I was doing . . . they said I'd end up with
Ceviche.
Anyhoo . . . My reason for posting is this: The fish seemed to respond
well to the treatment . . . they became more active and behaved
better. Then a week after the treatment, disaster struck and a second
koi died!
I am now at a loss as to what to do: Was the second death due to
merely the fact the animal was already too far gone and was doomed to
death anyways despite the treatment --- and therefore I need not worry
about the remaining fish? Or did it die because the treatment was
ineffectual at curing the problem, and are all my other fish at risk
--- and therefore I better do something . . . but what? If malachite
green didn't work, what do I do? Or am I over-reacting?
I presume that the disease was introduced with an infected fish that I
unknowingly introduced into the pond. If this is the case, how do I
treat incoming fish before putting them in the pond? Do I put a few
drops of Malachite Green product into the bag with water and fish in
it? If so, how many drops and how long do I delay introducing the fish
to the pond? I don't have any other water reservoirs to put new fish
into , so the only approach I can think of is keeping the fish in the
bag a couple of days?
I hope the experts in this forum can help!
Thanks!
D