This is a picture of my Kohaku. Unfortunately, as you may notice, she is out on a snow drift instead of in my pond. The good news is all the rest of the fish are still alive. She is probably about 18-20 inches big. The pond has been slow to thaw, but Harry has been making the hole larger by recirculating the pond water over the top of the ice. Over the weekend I observed a large dead frog in the bottom and he was just covered with fungus. I don't want any more fungus growing in my pond than I can possibly help it, so I got a net and pulled him out. The pond was still about half covered with ice. I knew the fish were hiding under that ice flow. At least I hoped they were floating!! When I returned to the pond on Sunday, another 4-5 inches of ice had melted on the leading edge of the pack. But, it was just enough that I could see a tail laying on the bottom on the far side of the pond. Once again, the net revealed a dead fish. Da**, I was heart sick...is this going to be a repeat of last year's big fish kill? I truly thought we had done everything right this year. I automatically pulled water for testing. I tested the ph,(still high but normal for my pond, around 8.3) no ammonia and no nitrites. Kh was a little low though for my pond and the hard water that I have. So I dissolved 6 pounds of baking soda and added that for a boost. My CO2 test kit has always been weird. You're suppose to add 5 drops of #1 bottle then count the drops from #2 bottle till the water turns pink. But, my water turns pink immediately from the drops from bottle #1?? I don't know what that means!!! I do suppose it's getting old and I should replace it. Water temps were still at 39 degrees, so its still very cold. The dead kohaku looks pretty typical of a fish experiencing hypothermia. Slightly red around the edges. You can't tell much looking at its gills as they loose their color almost right away after being dead. Other than red and slightly bloated the fish looks pretty good. So, I'm hoping this is strictly an isolated death. Perhaps the fish was a little weak going into winter. I think he's been dead for a while, cause when I fished him out there was like this white footprint of his body left on the floor bottom. Like where all his slime coat fell off. Or perhaps it was fungus moving in on him. Regardless, I hope I got him out before he mucked up the water too much. I still have 2 foot of snow on the stream and in the yard. I'm hoping the rain we get this week will help to get rid of that. Harry plans on recirculating the water in the stream to help clear it of ice. I think helping mother nature remove some of the ice will help get some much needed fresh air into the pond. Water changes and sun will help a lot, too. So, I'm in morning today...She was one of my favorite kohakus..of course...it's a long time till Spring yet. I'm hoping the rest of my fish will be ok, and not succumb to bacterial disease in the mean time. Again, we are talking about another inside pond for wintering over. We got to do something....
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