Hi All,
Here in the UK just had a big freeze; and thaw. Found my young koi carp seemingly dead. I went to take it out of the pond and realised it was still breathing but not moving.
I brought it inside, with some pond water in a bag, brought the temperature up to around 20'C by slowly adding warm water around the bag. Applied oxygen with a stone at regular intervals but not so much to keep the water agitated continuously.
Its breathing appeared to become more powerful and started using pectoral fins. but no tail/body movement whatsoever, as if paralysed from the waist down.
I transferred to clean bottled water in a glass tank, temp the same as bag, and started an epsom salt bath at around 18h00 yesterday. 7g of epsom salt to 1.5L of water.
By the time I went to bed at 22h00 there was a tiny pink protrusion from the anus, I was worried this may be prolapse, but thought to see in the morning not much else I could do at that time. Applied more oxygen for a few mins.
This morning, at 04h00 I found fishy dead.
On the bottom of the tank was a normal looking poop, and a giant pink thing. I am not certain what this could be? Impacted food maybe? I use reddish sinking pellets but haven't fed since before the first smaller freeze which the fish survived fine.
I have 4 other fish in the pond (2 comets, 2 shubunkin) who have survived 3 winters no problem, the koi carp managed one smaller freeze but not this bigger one.
Any idea what went wrong? Anything I could have done better? Worried about anything transferring to the other fish, although they seem fine.
1) The epsom bath article I read just mentioned adding it to the aquarium, leading me to believe this was used like an additive, rather than a temporary measure. Is it possible that I helped the fish initially but then it died of overexposure to the epsom salt?
2) Any idea what this pink mass might be?
3) One suspicion is there was maybe unconsumed food at the bottom of pond, koi carp ingested too much of this and was unable to digest over winter leading to severe constipation?

One can see the mass and then to the right the "normal" looking poop. The mass is nearly 2cm whereas fishy was 8-10cm.
Here in the UK just had a big freeze; and thaw. Found my young koi carp seemingly dead. I went to take it out of the pond and realised it was still breathing but not moving.
I brought it inside, with some pond water in a bag, brought the temperature up to around 20'C by slowly adding warm water around the bag. Applied oxygen with a stone at regular intervals but not so much to keep the water agitated continuously.
Its breathing appeared to become more powerful and started using pectoral fins. but no tail/body movement whatsoever, as if paralysed from the waist down.
I transferred to clean bottled water in a glass tank, temp the same as bag, and started an epsom salt bath at around 18h00 yesterday. 7g of epsom salt to 1.5L of water.
By the time I went to bed at 22h00 there was a tiny pink protrusion from the anus, I was worried this may be prolapse, but thought to see in the morning not much else I could do at that time. Applied more oxygen for a few mins.
This morning, at 04h00 I found fishy dead.
On the bottom of the tank was a normal looking poop, and a giant pink thing. I am not certain what this could be? Impacted food maybe? I use reddish sinking pellets but haven't fed since before the first smaller freeze which the fish survived fine.
I have 4 other fish in the pond (2 comets, 2 shubunkin) who have survived 3 winters no problem, the koi carp managed one smaller freeze but not this bigger one.
Any idea what went wrong? Anything I could have done better? Worried about anything transferring to the other fish, although they seem fine.
1) The epsom bath article I read just mentioned adding it to the aquarium, leading me to believe this was used like an additive, rather than a temporary measure. Is it possible that I helped the fish initially but then it died of overexposure to the epsom salt?
2) Any idea what this pink mass might be?
3) One suspicion is there was maybe unconsumed food at the bottom of pond, koi carp ingested too much of this and was unable to digest over winter leading to severe constipation?

One can see the mass and then to the right the "normal" looking poop. The mass is nearly 2cm whereas fishy was 8-10cm.