Oregonic Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Owner of the shop I manage told me today that he has a koi in his pond that has skin peeling off and wondered if I knew what to do. Knowing that he has many other large expensive koi in the same pond I told him the first thing we need to do was remove him from the pond in case it is contagious, especially since he told me he had lost one a few months ago that had a similar issue. We have small pond here at the shop that has 2 small cheap koi and 3-4 goldfish in it so I rushed up to his house to remove the fish and bring it to the more manageable pond here. I acclimated the fish and added a little salt to the cooler we transported him in and gave him a 10 min salt bath. I have been doing a little research online and it appears it could be related to PH or a bacterial issue. I told the owner he needs to test the water tonight or tomorrow and let me know the parameters, but was hoping in the meantime someone on here would have some experience with koi and could possibly point me in the right direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidK Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 I am not an koi expert by any means but I have experienced something that looked like this on mine a few years ago. Is the effected area raised up? If so it may be ulcers caused by a bacterial infection. I was able to quarantine the guy in a kiddie pool in my garage and treat the area with off the shelf peroxide. I also got this stuff called Koi RX off amazon but it doesn't appear to be available anymore. You might try melafix in the short term since its readily available. COTS Koi in ridgefield might be able to help you identify exactly what it is. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caolewis Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 KOI ulcer, bacteria infected. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted December 5, 2017 Author Share Posted December 5, 2017 Cool will treat with antibiotics and cross fingers. Already looks a little better today, no more white fuzzy stuff on the top salt bath must have helped. Will treating the pond hurt the beneficial bacteria in the filter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badxgillen Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 I believe all the previous statements to be true, and most treatments will end up hindering or harming the beneficial bacteria as well, salt will negatively effect the plants too but only for a short time. If the infection is isolated to the single fish and the organics load in the pond is not too high I might not worry about the other koi this season unless you see symptoms on other fish. The infection is probably isolated to the koi you have with the massive abrasion. I used to get koi that ended up like this from getting caught underneath slate or cinder blocks, or even a botched raccoon attack. Get those parameters checked and make sure there isn't too much sediment in the filter or on the pond bottom. If things are off you can do a partial water change while extracting some debris to alleviate the high bacteria counts. Then take your course of action. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caolewis Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 3 hours ago, Oregonic said: Cool will treat with antibiotics and cross fingers. Already looks a little better today, no more white fuzzy stuff on the top salt bath must have helped. Will treating the pond hurt the beneficial bacteria in the filter? I assume this is outdoor one? Try not to treat a pond when it's this cold, stress and cold will probably kill fishes. Normally, baterial/parasites are explosive during spring and warmer weather, that's when you treat whole pond with prazi. I don't think treating whole pond will damage good bacteria. I used to treat my 10K water pond every spring in the past (before heavy feeding), but last 3 years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted December 6, 2017 Author Share Posted December 6, 2017 1 hour ago, caolewis said: I assume this is outdoor one? Try not to treat a pond when it's this cold, stress and cold will probably kill fishes. Normally, baterial/parasites are explosive during spring and warmer weather, that's when you treat whole pond with prazi. I don't think treating whole pond will damage good bacteria. I used to treat my 10K water pond every spring in the past (before heavy feeding), but last 3 years. Yes outdoor pond. The owner tested the ph today and it was about 8 ppm so a little high in his pond at his house, ph at the smaller pond at my work is 7.6 so definitely better. He only has a ph test so i will bring my api tests to work with me tomorrow and test kh, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates here. I did run to rising sun koi today to pick up antibiotics but the owner of the store said that antibiotics will not work this time of year in the cold water. He recommended a salt bath once a day for 3-4 days so I picked up some pond salt while there. Thank you everyone who has chimed in and I will keep the status of the fish updated here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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