Phoenix Koi Rescue - Koi Diseases and Parastites
PhoenixKoiRescue.com


Koi Health Expertise
First off I want to say that I am not a koi health expert. I have been to a couple of seminars, have read a few books, and have treated numerous fish and cured them of common problems, mostly with "shotgun" aproaches using multiple medicines at the same time. The real experts scrape fish & take clipping samples, examine those under a microscope to detect parasites so they can do specific treatments. Also a professional can take blood and fecal samples to have analyzed by a lab to determine exact baterial problems. There are numerous websites which can help you diagnose problems you may have, here are a couple of really good ones:
KoiVet.com
KoiCrisis.com

If you have serious problems with your fish, and need to hire professional help, you can contact:
Megan Yee, AKCA Certified Koi Health Advisor
davidyee85259@hotmail.com

How Parasites & Diseases Get Into Your Pond
They are carrying dormant diseases & parasites - You know how humans carry certain diseases all their lives like strep throat, and only seem to get it when we are stressed from work, or the weather gets really bad? Well, fish are the same way, they carry dormant diseases and if the water quality gets bad, and / or they become stressed from temperature change, they exhibit the disease symptoms. Ich is the most common parasite to emerge like this. This is why many times if you buy a fish over the internet, when they get to your place, they catch a disease and die. They were fine when shipped, but the extreme stress of shipping is what lowers their immune system, and presto they get sick.
Birds - They stand in the water, dip their beaks, splash around etc. Parasites often stick to the birds, then when they go to the next pond, the parasites get dropped off. Other animals such as raccoons do the same.
New Fish & Plants - When adding in new fish or plants, they may bring stuff with them.

Don't Freak Out
Koi have natural immunities and in good quality water, can heal themselves without our help. We simply would not have the koi today if they were not able to do this. The thing is that in our backyard ponds, the water quality can get pretty bad, really quickly if we don't

Optimum Temperature for Koi's Natural Immunity System
A koi's optimum temperature for their immunity system is between 65 and 87 degrees. In that temperature range, they can fight off diseases & parasites much better. But here is the snag, common parasites stay active down to a temperature of 60 degrees, and the pond temperatures here in Phoenix can stay around there most of the winter. Plus at lower temperatures, the koi's circulation isn't as good because they slow their metabolism down, and so the medicines you use might not get into their systems as much as they would need. So if you have a really sick koi in the winter, and really fear for it's life, you might want to setup a QT system with aquarium heaters for treatment. You can get 300 watt titanium heaters at local petshops, a pair of those will keep an insulated 300 gallon tank warm all winter long.

Shorty's Basic Salt Treatment
When I receive sick fish, the first thing I do is a heavy salt treament. Salt is supposed to cure 7 of the 10 most common parasites and the sudden increase in salinity in the water kills most bacteria. It also kills a lot of the "good bacteria" in your biofilter, so after a salt treatment you will need to do more water changes till your filter builds itself back up again. DO NOT USE TABLE SALT, that has iodine in it and will kill the fish. The salt I use is called "Solar Salt", is available at local hardware stores for use in swimming pools and water softners. Costs about $5.00 for a 40 pound bag. The rate of salt I use is 5 pounds of salt per 100 gallons, which makes a dose rate of about .6% This is about double the dose that is commonly suggested on the internet, if you have a weak fish, this heavy dose might be too much for them. Your fish also might stop eating during this heavy treatment. The salt will also kill your plants, so you should remove any plants you care about. The salt also is not compatible with some medicines, so check for conflicts in other treatments you may be using.

Day 1
    stop feeding
    change 30% of the water
    make sure to use dechlorinator when doing all water changes
Day 2
    continue no feeding
    change 30% of the water
    calculate how much salt you will need, the rate is 5 pounds per 100 gallons
    add 1/3 of the salt you will use for the treatment
Day 3
    continue no feeding
    add another 1/3 of the salt
Day 4
    add final 1/3 of the salt
    can start feeding again, but only feed half or less of what normally would
Day 5-14
    feed at half what normally would, and don't change the water, let the salt kill the parasites
Day 15
    do a 20% water change
    go back to normal feeding
Day 20
    do another 20% water change

Then resume normal pond maintenance. The salt will get worked out of your system with normal weekly water changes. It is important to only do salt treatments when you are sure you have a problem, or if you are adding in new fish. If you do too many salt treatments, then it is like giving kids too many antibiotics, you will develop parasites that are resistant to salt.

Common Symptoms when your fish are sick
Here are some common symptoms, if you see any of these, you should investigate if something is wrong.

Ulcers or wounds on the fish
Have you ever scraped your knee and ended up with a round red wound? That is what an ulcer looks like. Some ulcers start out as small as one scale, and can get to be the size of a quarter. They are usually a secondary symptom, either the fish was wounded from handling, or spawning, or it became stressed and sick from a disease, and then the parasites has a better chance at eating away at their sides. Salt treatments and water changes usually fix ulcers.

All fish clumped together, on the bottom, possible PH crash
After you have had koi for a while, you can tell if something is wrong. They won't swim around properly, and sometimes clump up on the bottom together, often near the waterfall or other water current. This could be caused by numerous things. First thing to check is the PH of the water. With all plastic liner ponds, the carbonate hardness of the water drops, which is it's ability to hold the PH level, and then your water starts to have a "PH crash". To fix this, you should test your water, if it has a PH that is lower than normal, like less than 7.2 for the Phoenix area, and a KH reading of less than 140, then you should add some baking soda. Start with 1/2 cup of baking soda per 1000 gallons, wait an hour, and see what happens to the PH level, see if you can get it up to 7.4 or 7.6. DO NOT adjust the PH level too much at once, the fish can't take it. If you don't take action and your pond is crashing, the ph level can drop down to 5 or below, which will kill all of your fish. A complete crash can happen in as little as 6 hours. You may need to add a little baking soda every time you do water changes.

Flashing
Flashing is where the koi turns sideways, then quickly rubs against something on the bottom. Basically they are scratching themselves. Koi will flash once or twice a day normally, kind of like how humans scratch their head a couple times a day, doesn't mean we have fleas, just that we itch. If you notice a koi flashing ever few minutes, then you have a problem.
1 - might be a PH related problem, see possible PH crash above
2 - if not, then could be crummy water quality, do a 20% water change
3 - if still flashing, it could be parasite problem, look closely at your fish to see if they have ulcers
4 - if still flashing, do a salt treatment


White spots, or foriegn substance on their skin
A common aquarium disease is Ich, it creates little white spots on the fish's body. There are other diseases that make them produce a white mucous on their body, or puffy cotton looking substance. Salt treatment often works on these. If not, examine closely and research to discover what it is.

White Spots on Gill Plates
Looks like little white grains of sand on their gill plates. They form on the males in breeding season, and are natural. Helps the males when they spawn.

Isolating themselves and/or clamped fins
If one fish is continually hiding somewhere, or it stays near the waterfall, and won't swim around with the rest of the fish, this could mean it has a problem. It could be a parasite, or bacterial infection. If you can, isolate it into a seperate quarantine system and treat it with salt, then with Praziquantel (prazi).

Swimming Head Down, Tail at Surface
Probably a bacterial problem, or something wrong with their gills, or high levels of ammonia. First, test the water to make sure you don't have high levels of ammonia. (you should have zero if your filter is working properly). Next, treat with antibiotics. If they are eating, I have had success using a product called "ultra cure BX" mixed into their food. If they aren't eating, you need to find one that you can treat the water with. Since antibiotics are expensive, you will want to seperate the fish into a QT system. Salt treatments can help because sudden increases in the salinity of the water often kills bacteria. Or it could be Koi Herpese Virus (KHV), see below.

Odd Growths / Lumps / Blisters on Fins
This is fairly common, and is either carp pox or Lymphocystis. They are viruses and neither is fatal. You don't treat them, the lumps will go away on their own in about a month. Sort of like strep throat, I think most all koi carry the virus, and only exhbit the lumps on occasion.

Growth on head or body
The two most major causes of these are on fish that I see are from very poor water quality, or in hybrids that have bad genetics and they are cancerous growths. You can isolate the fish in a QT system and try salt, antibiotics etc, but if it is cancer, there is not much you can do. I have seen prestine clean ponds, and there is one poor little fellow that has cancer all over his body, but has been around for a long time with those lumps.

Bulging Eyes "pop-eye"
One bulging eye - this often happens in the spring in cooler water when their immune system isn't up and operating yet. It is a baterial problem, possibly caused by banging into something. Often cures itself, or a salt treatment can fix it. Both eyes Bulging - this is a precursor to Dropsy. You should isolate this fish and start treatments and antibiotics in their food. See Dropsy below.

Bloated bodies "Dropsy"
There are a couple of terms for this: "pine cone disease", "bloat", "dropsy" and others. It is an internal bacterial problem, their digestive tract gets clogged up and other problems happen, their bodies expand and they finally die. It is supposed to be 100% fatal once their bodies start to bloat up, but I have cured 3 fish with dropsy so far. I isolate them in a QT system, stop feeding, treat with salt, malachite green, then after a week or two I feed sparringly with food that has been soaked in antiobiotics. Also I use melafix, but I don't think that does much. Lots of water changes too. Figure if the fish has an incurable disease, might as well try everything.

Small hair like parasite
Anchor worm. It is visible to the naked eye, it looks like a single whisker attached in an odd place on the body or mouth of your fish. Easily treated with a product called dimilin, just add in the right dose to your pond.

Tiny black spots "shimi spots"
A few tiny black spots apear on their bodies. The black spots are about 1/8" in diameter. These are caused by poor water quality, and are sort of like a skin rash in humans. The spots are not contageous or a symptom of disease. Sometimes the spots go away, sometimes they stay. In show koi, the spots can ruin a fish's ability to compete. Some fish doctors can surgically remove the spots to improve their apearance, but for a pet fish it is not nescessary, just a cosmetic issue.

Koi Herpes Virus - KHV
KHV is a horific disease and can wipe out an entire pond. A number of famous, large koi farms in Japan have been forced out of business because their water systems became infected with KHV and thus the fish could not be sold for fear of infecting other ponds, and the fish were destroyed, and facilities abandoned. There are numerous symptoms and sudden mass death described when a pond is infected with KHV. The only cure seems to be to move the fish into a QT system, and raise the temperature to 87 degrees - after which if the koi survives, they build up an immunity to KHV. Here is the good news, we are lucky here in Phoenix, almost all of our koi ponds reach 90 degrees or greater in the summer. I think this is why we have not been pounded by KHV, figure if the koi go thru a hot cycle like our summers, they build up immunities. Just a guess though.


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