Sick Koi

[brandonsfish]

Hey I have my koi inside too so I might be able to help. The aquaclear 110 is not enough filtration for koi. What are the measurements for the tub? Could you make a DIY filter out of a bucket?

 

[Delapool]

Interesting thought but the liquid test for ammonia said 0...

Dang. Ok, did anything change in or around the 70gal on feb 5th?

It doesn't seem a tap water issue as other tanks are fine? Are you using different water conditioners or filter carbon or anything for each tank? Just to close off.

Also the 70gal was going for a month in January and was fine? Did the problem start suddenly or build up?

So then I'm wondering if something got sprayed near the tank in early feb. Stress the fish and kill off some bacteria (thus ammonia spike)?

 

[captainmoss]

There is a fresh carbon in the 70 Gallon tank - and after we took the fish out (due to them being stressed) I purchased a new carbon thinking that was the problem. However, nothing really has changed since then.

I just checked my water this morning before coming to work and the 70 gallon is still perfect, but the tub downstairs is reaching high levels of ammonia and I notice that the fish are stressed (two fish aren't moving and the other is doing occasional dives and sometimes jumping up out of the water). I am changing water as often as I can in the tub but I can't seem to keep up with the ammonia rising.

I think we are going to try to put the fish back in the 70 tonight - but I am not too optimistic about what is going to happen.

I used to have a heater in the 70 - but I have taken it out - as I understand that Koi/Goldfish don't need it. So - the water temperature should be identical in both tanks now.

 

[captainmoss]

I think the problem was gradual - but I wasn't testing the water - we just noticed that the fish were acting more and more unusual - starting around the end of January.

We are on a well, so there are no chlorine issues.

The 70 gallon tank has a biological filter, but the tub just has one of the replaceable cartridge filter systems.

 

[brandonsfish]

Its your filtration I have a 50 gallon filter on a 220 gallon tank and I do daily 50% water changes

 

[captainmoss]

can you send a picture of your tank - I am curious to see how other people manage their koi indoors.

 

[Delapool]

Didn't replace carbon insert around end of jan? Or any other filter cleans.

 

[captainmoss]

I may have rinsed the sponge filter, but didn't do anything to the the carbon or biological

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Something I'd like to note is that if your pond doesn't freeze solid, you don't NEED to bring them inside for the winter. Koi and common goldfish can hibernate and winter over just fine add long as the water remains in a liquid form. They just kind of sit at the bottom and wait for the water to warm up. I have 8 goldfish between 6 and 3 inches that are hibernating without a filter right now, just aeration.

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[captainmoss]

I actually used to leave them outside - for about 4 consecutive winters (without losing a fish). However, one year, the pond froze solid right to the bottom and everything died. We have very cold winters here (Canada) and it would be prohibitively expensive to try to keep an air hole open in the pond for our long (5 months) winters - thus the reason we bring them in now.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Ah gotcha. Did you have a circulator pump? My tub outside got 8 inches of ice on it but my pump kept the water from freezing.

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[brandonsfish]

Yep I'm in Canada too and it sucks even more when a mink is digging under 3 feet of snow. Yeah my pond is 4 feet deep and I get 3 feet of ice. I'll upload a pic tomorrow or tonight. I've had koi for at least 10 years and I have 6 ponds the smallest is 300 gallons.

 

[brandonsfish]

Not the best pictures but here ya go

 

[captainmoss]

Wow - I can see how you would need to change half your water every day - thanks for the photos


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[brandonsfish]

Your welcome. yeah there's a lot of fish in there.

 

[SpaceFish42]

I wonder if putting a greenhouse over a pond would keep it unfrozen in the winter?

 

[brandonsfish]

Well it gets to -22°F here so I don't think so

 

[Delapool]

Cripes, that's worse in Celsius!

 

[doctordamen]

I also live in Canada, my family has kept koi for years in our large outdoor pond.. It's roughly 40' wide with large waterfall on one side and a stream coming in from the other. We keep the large pump for the waterfall running all winter and add an aerator and a heater to the middle of the pond.. We have had temps of -40 Celsius and the pond has never frozen over.
Each fall we add a minnow trap with a small piece of bread.. This will collect all the koi fry to be taken inside to our 55gallon and watch them grow over the winter..
This is a good way to decide what colours you would like to keep and sell the rest.
We started our pond with only 20-30 koi.. The first winter we caught 70+ in the minnow trap to bring inside.


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[libertybelle]

I also live in Canada, my family has kept koi for years in our large outdoor pond.. It's roughly 40' wide with large waterfall on one side and a stream coming in from the other. We keep the large pump for the waterfall running all winter and add an aerator and a heater to the middle of the pond.. We have had temps of -40 Celsius and the pond has never frozen over.
Each fall we add a minnow trap with a small piece of bread.. This will collect all the koi fry to be taken inside to our 55gallon and watch them grow over the winter..
This is a good way to decide what colours you would like to keep and sell the rest.
We started our pond with only 20-30 koi.. The first winter we caught 70+ in the minnow trap to bring inside.


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Unrelated to the OP but...that's a really cool system! Maybe when I'm 'grown up' I'll get to have a koi pond. (How old is too old to use the phrase when I grow up.....)

How are yours doing captainmoss?