OK, lost an additional outside koi this week. That's 2 for the winter. This 3 year old 15" Sanke came out of the winter looking pretty good. He's been a little sluggish, but seemed to be doing OK. Saturday the pond's temps were 45 degrees and fluctuating every day with the changing temps. I happened to walk out to look at the fish and there he was all pine coned! Not good! I was on my way to town, but put everything down to go get a net and tub. He was still pretty active but I got him netted when he thought he was hiding in a mass of string algae. I took him to the basement and put him in a tub of cold tap water. I figured it had to be around the same temp as the outside pond, only cleaner. Put an air stone on him and added a little salt and Elbagin (an antibacterial water treatment), covered the tank and shut down the lights to help make him comfortable with his new surroundings. Everyday for 4 days I did partial water changes on him twice a day (as there was no filtration) Each day the water naturally warmed to just over 60 degrees. I replaced the salt and Elbagin daily also. He didn't get worse, but he didn't get better either. All the while he acted pretty good actually. He seemed pretty calm without being too lethargic or anything. Almost like he knew I was trying to help. Well, last night we had the grand kids over to color Easter eggs, so the checkup was prolong from the normal 5:30 to about 9:30 in the evening. And, when I went to the basement...there he was laying on the basement floor!!! Da** Da** Da***!! I left about a 6" hole open on one end of the tub so he could get a little light and dang if he didn't jump out it. He appeared dead, but was still kind of wet, so I returned him to the aerated tub and messaged him a little to try to make him breath. After several minutes, I just let him float in the aeration, said a little prayer, and called it a night. But, upon returning this morning, it was obvious that he was indeed dead. I had planned to get some antibiotics for him today. But, guess I don't have to bother with that, do I? Always upsets me to loose a fish, but when its something I've done, it makes me so mad. I just never thought he had enough space to get the speed to jump out the hole! But he obviously did a tail stand or something.
So above is a couple pictures of what he looked like. He's flower fertilizer now. Dang, dang, dang!!!!
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