This is the latest picture of a fish that I recently received with some serious problems. It's a catfish in a koi pond. The cat fish came out of a private pond and was added to the koi pond. Please,please don't do this without at least quarantining and treating the fish (ANY FISH)!! These are leeches and as you can see they are chewing the heck out of this poor catfsih. The pond owner says they are not on his koi, but just the catfish and he's treating with Prazi. Which may or may not work. Leeches are egg layers and are extremely hard to get rid of. Eggs lay in the bottom or in plant mud for up to months depending on the temperatures. They may not be showing up on the Koi because a scaled fish has a better defense against their blood sucking tendency's. Doitzu koi on the other hand are defenseless like the catfish. And if they attach to a gill, all are defenseless. Leeches are particularly vicious as they not only attach but they also suck out blood leaving their host anemic. Enough blood loss and fish can actually die. Not to mention the secondary infections just waiting to set in after a engorged leech finally releases to return to the bottom of the pond. The holes they leave behind are very susceptible to bacterial infections and saprolegnia a water fugus/mold. Not a pretty picture, so am hoping the Prazi does the trick for him. I'm hoping he'll leave me in the loop as to what happens, so I can learn too. If not it may require a total cleaning of the pond and we all know that's not good.
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