Goldfish attacked

[rufuspimpin]

Hello All. Our house has a 12Length X 8Width X 2.5 feet deep fish pond. In it were (5) 5-year-old koi, (2) 1.5-year old koi, (20) 7-month old koi and (3) 6.5-month old goldfish.

The goldfish are for a 7-month raising contest sponsored by our community koi/goldfish club. They started off in an aquarium, but as they got larger and fatter, I tossed them into the large pond so that they could swim the 1700 or so gallons of water.

I arrogantly felt this contest was in-the-bag because of this earthworm diet that made them huge and fat. But as the baby koi got larger and larger, they managed to eat all the earthworms before the goldfish could get any.

So yesterday I did the DUMBEST thing of removing (19) of the (20) baby koi and placed them in this large black tub... thinking the goldfish would have a good chance of getting their fill of earthworms.

Within this (24) hour period, two of the three goldfish looked as though they had white portions on their otherwise black body. I thought it was missing scales or something. So I jumped in and netted the goldfish for a closer inspection. To my horror, one looked like part of the nose area was missing. The other one had sections where the scales were missing.

My dreams of winning this contest is now ebbing down the crapper. I can't imagine if there is anything at all I can do to make at least ONE of the wounded two presentable.

Do youse guys have any suggestions for a particular medicine that could promote a speedy recovery?
Do big koi have that aggressive nature to attack goldfish or was it simply due to the goldfish's inferior size?

Some good intentions bring the WORST consequences.

Can't post the pics because file size is too big.

 

[becrac16]

Melafix is always good for open wounds. I had a koi that ripped open his gill and survived via melafix.

Other than that though, I don't have much advice for you. Good luck

 

[rufuspimpin]

These are the somewhat blurry pics of my poor damaged goldfish.

 

[jsoong]

Big kois consider any small fish food ... so they are prob looking for a snack ....

Generally, you can't mix the fancies (that is a baby moor in the pic?) with kois or even commons as they are too slow moving to escape from any attacks, and not fast enough to get the food before the other fish. <That is esp. true for the "fancy eyed" varieties like the moors ... they don't see well enough to compete for food.>

For now, perfectly clean water, a bit of salt, and a lot of time is all you can do. Surface antiseptics like Malafix may be used to prevent secondary infections, but not absolutely necessary if you keep pristine water conditions. Unfortunately, it will take months for a fish that injured to recover ... so your chances of winning the contest is not looking too good.

 

[rufuspimpin]

Hey thanks a lot becrac16 & jsoong.

The two wounded fish are recovering. I can tell because they're eating some decent sized earthworms and their bellies look nice and huge. That wound on the poor guy's head looks like it is getting better.

I am sort of getting over the fact that these two won't be contest material by Nov 21. With any luck, the third guy who managed to avoid the koi attacks might stand a chance against the competition. Maybe the size of the (2) wounded guys will astound the fellow hobbyists... I dunno. The silver lining in this whole thing is the fact that they didn't die... I guess.

RECAP: For the last (4) months the goldfish swam amongst the (20) lil' koi without being attacked. When I removed 19/20 of them was when the attacks happened by the older fishes. Again, this was within a (24) hour period, so I'm guessing the goldfish were safe amongst the other lil' guys because they swam around in groups.

FOLLOW-UP Question: Is it a gooder idea to keep the goldfish apart from the community koi pond forever... or is it safe to put them back? Also, as the (20) little guys get larger, will they too, pick on the goldfish? I am curious because currently, they're temporarily separated in a black tub that is filled to 70 gallons of a 110 gallon capacity. I am wondering if I should keep them or give them to a club member who might appreciate/care for them better than what they've been subjected to. If I keep them, I need to give them gooder accommodations than that black tub. If I give them to someone, I seriously doubt ANYONE in our local contest gives their fish the bountiful earthworm diet they've had here. I just want thems fishes to have good treatment and a good life.

One last thing... I'm curious whether or not a moor is the same thing as a shukin? Yesterday I got an email with the header: "Shukin (and bubble eye too!) Grow Out Contest." Thanks again guys!

 

[jsoong]

A shukin is a Ranchu x Oranda ... basically looks like a ranchu (lionhead) with a "wen" and long tails. And no, it is not a moor.

Personally, I would not keep fancies (double tailed goldfish) with kois. Single tails like comets are OK as they are bigger & much faster.

You won't be able to keep all the kois in your pond as they grow big. A big koi (something like 2-3') need some 25 square foot of pond surface area. So your pond can support maybe 5 really big kois. Although it is OK to have 20 some babies in there right now, you will have to give away some of them as they grow bigger.

 

[becrac16]

I agree with jsoong. Personally, I would give away the goldfish to clear some space for your growing koi. Like jsoong said, you're going to have to deal with the immense number of koi in your pond sooner or later.

 

[rufuspimpin]

Right on guys. thank you very plenty for your advices.
Well, Sunday came and went.
There were about (24) different entries. Some where phatter than mine.
I was surprised at how wicked huge some of them were.

I was even more surprised that some of thems fishes were ORANGE.
Others were orange and black. There were some that didn't even look like
they grew much since the 7 months, but they had nice black/orange color
to them.

And then there were my fish. They seemed to heal VERY nicely, and if I did
not mention the fish being attacked, you might not even notice their
battle scars and ghetto wounds. BUT... they did not change colors.
I just don't understand how their fish turnt orange/black, be it big or lil'.
And then you got mine that didn't change color since we got them. I
believe as far as size goes, they were pretty huge and fat like the others.
But there were about (2) that were fatter/larger... and orange.
The guy claims it was the koi food.

I am unclear as to why my fish didn't color out like their siblings. After all,
they got to eat live, organic food. Whereas I KNOW those guys didn't
do the earthworm digging and feeding that I've done.

But I appreciate them nonetheless. They had bountiful worm meals these
past too weeks. They're so piggy when it comes to them. There are
instances where the worms get dropped into the water, and the fish suck
them up 3-4 at a time. They look like a starved fat man eating spaghetti...
Funny yet impressive.

Methinks I might gives them to my cousin. She didn't win either, but I am
sure she'd appreciate the fish.

Again, thanks guys for your support and advice.