Please help! Dying Koi Fish

[KoiKid]

Hi, I'm new to Aquarium Advice and I made an account just for my sick koi fish. I think its dying. I'm deciding to help it because no one in my family (including me) but my dad knows much about kois and he thinks it's too late to rescue it.

I did research on the symptoms my fish has and it might have a bacterial infection and fin rotting. My fish is really skinny and it won't eat at all. It was floating around near the surface earlier, but now it's laying on its side at the bottom of the fish pond.

Also, I watched my dad clean out the filter by putting in this new fluffy white sheet? I looked closer through the debris and saw a few snails and these tiny worm like animals. They were about the length (err from nail tip to cuticle?) of a pinky nail. Are they maybe what making my fish sick? I think they're black fly larvae (which is supposedly harmless)...

Please, if anyone is out there help me. What should I do? Is it too late?

 

[SMOOOZZZ]

I'm sorry to hear your fish is sick. My Albino Oscar died of fin rot and once it is spreads throughly the body it's too late the bacteria has taken over. I learned the hard way how to spot fin rot at the early stage. Unfortunately it's too late for your Koi. However please check your other fish, if you see small speckle crystal dots on their fins that's when you need to take action. Do a 50% water change then put in medication, best medication is Mardel it's an anti bacteria, follow instructions make sure you take out the filter before you put in the medication. The carbon will dissolve the medication. After a week of treatment do another water change. At that time you can out back your filter in. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[KoiKid]

I'm sorry to hear your fish is sick. My Albino Oscar died of fin rot and once it is spreads throughly the body it's too late the bacteria has taken over. I learned the hard way how to spot fin rot at the early stage. Unfortunately it's too late for your Koi. However please check your other fish, if you see small speckle crystal dots on their fins that's when you need to take action. Do a 50% water change then put in medication, best medication is Mardel it's an anti bacteria, follow instructions make sure you take out the filter before you put in the medication. The carbon will dissolve the medication. After a week of treatment do another water change. At that time you can out back your filter in. Good luck and keep us posted.

Sigh... I was hoping I wouldn't hear that. Thank you for your prevention advice! c: It sounds hard to spot these crystal dots, but I will try in the future. Sorry for being such a newbie, but how do I (safely) do a water change in an outdoor fish pond?

You don't have to answer this, but do you have any other tips/advice/resources to prevent other things?

 

[jlk]

Hi! Welcome to AA!!!

I would not give up quite yet but we will need some more information in order to make any suggestions. What size is the pond (gallons)? Stocking? Do you have a liquid test kit to measure ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph? What do these read? Is there any maintenance performed on the pond (such as water changes)? Do you have the means to quarantine this sick fish adequately? Can you post pics of him? The more info you can provide, the better we can help!

 

[KoiKid]

Hi! Welcome to AA!!!

I would not give up quite yet but we will need some more information in order to make any suggestions. What size is the pond (gallons)? Stocking? Do you have a liquid test kit to measure ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph? What do these read? Is there any maintenance performed on the pond (such as water changes)? Do you have the means to quarantine this sick fish adequately? Can you post pics of him? The more info you can provide, the better we can help!

Thank you! c:

Surprisingly, I woke up today (About 7:40ish AM) to see a small tank to isolate the sick fish. My dad cleaned its deteriorating fins with alcohol and overnight, it formed a little ulcer? In the quarantine tank, a broad spectrum was added. I don't know how many gallons, but the length of the pond is longer than an average truck, the width...maybe half the length of a truck and the height is perhaps 3 - 4 feet. There's probably about 20 or so koi fishes in the pond. Maybe less. No I do not have a liquid test kit but I went to PetSmart earlier today and they told me they do free testing! I will definitely bring in a sample of the pond water for them to test tomorrow. Oh you can post photos here? O _ o *noob* I will definitely do that.

I just went to check on it and tried feeding just one fish pellet to it. I was surprised the food disappeared haha. I think he ate it! I tried feeding him one more, but he wouldn't eat it so I stopped because I didn't want to force it and stress him out even more. I guess that's good, right? He wouldn't eat yesterday.

 

[jlk]

Ok, no alcohol on a fish in the future. He likely has ulceration from burns from it. If you need to clean a wound, hydrogen peroxide or methylene blue are much gentler options. Don't clean the area any further as it needs to heal.

Is ordering things online an option for you? I would suggest getting him either some Medi-koi or Medi-gold (medicated foods) as getting antibiotics internally will be much more helpful in this situation.

 

[KoiKid]

Ok, no alcohol on a fish in the future. He likely has ulceration from burns from it. If you need to clean a wound, hydrogen peroxide or methylene blue are much gentler options. Don't clean the area any further as it needs to heal.

Is ordering things online an option for you? I would suggest getting him either some Medi-koi or Medi-gold (medicated foods) as getting antibiotics internally will be much more helpful in this situation.

Okay. I'll remember that for future references. Yes, ordering things online is an option for me. c: I'll look into that. My fish died yesterday before I woke up sadly, but I will try to prevent any of my fishes to suffer like this one (I actually had a dream that some of my fishes were dying). Thank you so much for the your help and advice!