Beautiful Koi with big problems

Went out last night on a fish call. I've been out to see this fish before. The local vet was present also as we were going to give the koi an injection of antibiotics. We visited this koi several months ago regarding a open spot between its pec fins. At that time, we felt it appeared to have a thin layer of skin growing over it, so we were optimistic that it would heal itself. The koi's owner has some of the best water quality around, which has helped this koi immensely. It has been in a qt tank all summer. Just recently it has developed some sores along its back and tail and just seemed to be stressed in general. The smaller koi in its tank were continually picking at its sores which made the mater worse. The owner has since separated the koi from the pickers and they now share a split tank. Last night we again pulled the koi, put her to sleep to examined the sores, gave it an injection of antibiotics and cleaned and dressed the ulcers. About what we did months ago. Hopefully with the help of the antibiotic, she will return to her beautiful self. The pond owner has done an excellent job of keeping this koi healthy so my hopes are high that she will be just fine by spring again.

I"m sooo depressed.

It's mid September and I'm so depressed. Worked in the garden a bit last night, cutting out spent flowers and weeds. It was absolutely beautiful out. I ended the rounds through the gardens by netting out fallen leaves from the pond. It was so nice I didn't want to go inside. I wanted to savor every fleeting minute of Summer. Since Harry was wanting dinner, I relented and went inside to do the normal evening duties, cooking, cleaning up, and a little TV before bed. At 10:00 I got up to head to bed but again was drawn outside. It was still warm out and there was a reflection of a full moon dancing off the pond surface. The string lights on the new pond give off a mesmerizing blue light that reflects across the surface of the moving water. I couldn't resist and grabbed my camera to see if I could capture the beauty of it all. I walked about the gardens in the dead of night and found myself sitting in a chair in the dark all alone. The town was quiet. No traffic, no kids yelling; only the sound of crickets chirping in the background and the waterfalls singing it's calming songs. The moon was full above me and it by itself was beautiful. I see the upstairs bedroom light go on, so I know Harry has gone to bed. The light goes out again and is replaced by the soft glow of the small TV in the room. Funny, he must realize I'm not there, but didn't even come to find out where I've gone to. I can smell the tuberosa flowers. Tiny 1" white flowers that are the most fragrant flowers I have ever known. Their Jasmin like smell drifts on the night breeze and I can smell them from clear across the garden. Summer is gone, I'm thinking. The weather man is saying it will 20 degrees cooler by midweek and possibly even a light frost. The elephant ears are in their prime and now I have to be thinking about cutting their 2 and 3 foot leaves off. The whole Fall thing makes me sad. Harry said just tonight that we need to get out the leaf netting as the walnut tree is already dropping leaves into the ponds. I hate Winter. Oh there are a few nice Fall days when the leaves turn all beautiful and the season has a few high points. But, not enough to justify my preference to it over Summer. So, I sit alone in the dark and it only makes me more sad. I finally give up and make my way to bed. Harry has a fan going in the window and again as I lay there in the dark, I swear I can smell the tuberosa flowers. A last smell of Summer. A couple times a year one has a few times when something strikes them as somber or too beautiful for words. For me, last night was one of those times... I'm sad....Fall is coming...

Summer's End

August, and signs of Fall are already upon us. The walnut trees are beginning to drop both nuts and leaves. An even bigger sign of Fall in our household is the guys all begin to talk about hunting again. We're headed to southern Iowa over the Labor Day Weekend to "hang stands". For the next 4 months all conversations with the boys and Harry will be centered around the hunting seasons. Everyone is working frantically to clean up their "honey do" list so that they can be free to go hunting. In the gardens, the Summer flowers are starting to give way to the Fall bloomers and the pumpkin patch. Tomatoes are beginning to come on strong now as are the cucumbers.
Discussion on how we are going to cover the new raised pond this winter have begun. We've discussed everything from portable buildings to using roof trusses. Nothing seems to be the perfect solution. The water has finally turned perfect as far as clarity. You can see the fish well and the bottom of the pond too. Regardless of it's clarity, I am still getting ammonia and nitrite readings!!! While the pond itself has grown a nice little patina on it, the filter area remains super clean. Nothing growing on the liner or filter mats??? The pond water cleared as soon as I put some clay in it. I then added two floating bags of additional bio balls in an attempt to add more surface area. Still I get readings. I changed the fish food to less protein and more of a fall mix as well as limit the amount of feedings. I feel like I'm starving them at a time when I should be pouring on the food. Plus with all the water changes to help maintain water quality it is keeping the water cooler than normal. I'm adding microlift pl and am now going to change to Microlift nite-out. I've also added a small amount of salt to help with the nitrite uptake. Am doing everything I can think of. Also, am thinking I need to shut off the UV. I figure I have another month perhaps to get it to cycle or I'll have to consider bringing all the fish inside for the winter and not worry about keeping them in there all winter at all. If it's not cycling, I don't see how I can leave them out. I'm already spending a small fortune on Cloramx.
The lower pond is preforming great! Maybe its best year ever. No string algae this year, since we discovered Pond Balance. Water is crystal clear and parameters are all good despite the fish overload and feeding 5-6 times a day. Really happy there. It's the new pond causing me grief.
I've gotten a few fish calls this month. One today even. Pond owner said he had lost several small koi. Water parameters were not so bad as to be loosing fish. Suggested massive water changes as he had not done any all season and a little salt. If they don't' improve, I'll go out and do a scrape and scope on them. Call I got a month ago, described fish as lethargic, clamped fins, dieing fish, and some acting really wild. A scrape on these fish, found a massive fluke breakout. Prazi was suggested to get rid of the flukes and told them to pray they don't break out with ulcers. A third caller told of dieing fish. Pictures looked like the fish were dying from spawning trama. Those male fish can be so hard on the ladies.
Tomorrow is the first day of Sept. and the temps are suppose to be the hottest of the Summer. Nearly 100 degrees! Good thing it's only going to last one day. Fall is coming, which isn't so bad, but man we just got done with Winter, so am not looking forward to that at all.

Lumps on my Fish.

My fish have lumps. That's the recent phone call I received. A friend of mine was calling to say several of her really large goldfish had these huge lumps on them. What do I do? she asked. She was already buying Melifix to put in the pond and thinking about big parasite treatments. She emailed me these pictures of her dead fish and was worried that what ever they had would be catchy to the other fish in her pond. I asked her to quit throwing her money away on these sort of pond additives. While I couldn't say what caused the fish to die, the lumps were probably not the cause. Possibly a symptom of a poor immune system, but not the cause. I have seen cases like this before, usually always on goldfish. To the best of my research they are actually skin tumors. They are hard pimple like lumps that are often bumpy in texture also. Being tumors they are not life threatening and a fish may live a normal life so long as they don't get too large. Still do not know why they died. The pond owner had not a single water testing kit. (As normal) The rest of the fish in the pond seem to be doing fine. There were no other ulcers, but the fish looked grossly bloated in one picture. So the mystery of their death remains.
On another note, it will soon be August. July was brutally hot. I heard one pond club member's pond was 97 degrees! Surprised he didn't loose all his fish. At home we've been doing water changes to help keep the water cool. I brought the last of the baby fish out of the basement pond and put them outside. Basically, got tired of taking care of them. Put them in the bottom pond where they will find lots of natural algae on the pond walls to munch on. Surprisingly they have joined right in with the rest of the fish. Usually they stay alone and hide in the deep corners of the pond. The outside pond is actually warmer than the inside pond, so they have to be liking that. Bottom pond continues to do fine, actually looking a little crowded again with all the little fish bouncing around now. Upper pond still shows low signs of ammonia and nitrites. Still has a little green cast in the water. Its killing Harry to not be able to feed them several times a day, like he wants to and does the lower pond fish. Took the net off the upper pond for a recent pond meeting at our house and haven't put it back on. So far, so good. No jumpers. I'm loving the new pond and being so close to the fish. Easy to flush the filter, and well...I just like it all around.

Hot, hot, hot...Got to Love July

July 1st, and the heat index is only 105 degrees out. Both ponds have been doing ok. Still trying to cycle the new pond to get the ammonia and nitrites out. I'm still getting low readings, but with these high temps and my high pH any ammonia is almost twice as toxic. Just because your test kits read say .25 ppm it really depends on water temp and pH. With water temps in the 70's-80's and a pH of 9 or more, I'm really looking at almost twice that reading which is very stressful if not lethal. So, I'm adding Amquil and now that I'm out of that will be adding the cheaper ClorAm-X. I've been adding Microlift PL and gel to try to get the bacteria going faster and even a little salt to help with the low nitrite reading I'm getting. I have nitrites in my well water, which doesn't help. So, its very important to get my bacteria going as soon as possible. It's been a full month now since I put the fish out there and while the levels have held pretty steady, they have not begun to go away. It's hard to get a brand new, never used filter material to start growing bacteria. I keep watching the liner for signs of a growing patina. The water is taking on a slight green tinge, which I don't like, but know it is probably good for the fish. And, while Harry wants to feed about 6 times a day, they get just a small amount once a day. Not good for growing. But a dead fish won't grow at all, so water quality comes first.
The old lower pond is doing great. Maybe our best year in a long time as far as string algae. I got to give "Pond Balance" all the credit. Using it has taken all the string algae out of our pond. Filters have been half as full and pumps are a lot easier to keep clean. I've had no problems with that pond this summer so far. Knock on wood!!! Usually when we leave for the 4th of July weekend, we come home to a creek and pond full of the stuff. Not this year. Yaaa whooo!
Getting ready for the 4-H fish club's debut at the Linn Co. Fair next week. Kind of excited and getting some good press, too. A lot of work. Thank goodness for the help of Carol and Dennis Sindelar and Greg Bickal. They're the best!!!!
Gardens are doing ok, tomatoes and peppers are slow to grow though. We'll be gone for the next 4 days, fishing in southern Iowa, so I suppose I'll come home to shriveled up plants with all this heat and no rain.
Both pond clubs will be holding their pond tours on the same day, July 10th. Unfortunately, I can only work at one, and that will be EIPS. It is also during fair week, so I'll be busy, busy.

jumping fish!!!

Well, the new pond has been going good so far! I'm fighting ammonia and nitrite levels, though. I had added some aged bio balls to the filter to help seed it, but I can tell the pond has not begun to cycle at all. Harry is doing small water changes and adding Amquil to help bind the ammonia and salt to help with the nitrite up take which can cause brown blood disease. The water has a green cast, but I'm ok with that for now. I think the UV has been helping with that but have recently shut it off too in an effort to get the bacteria established. Started adding a little Microlift PL hoping that will help get the bacteria going, also. We've been keeping the pond netted, just because I'm nervous about the fish jumping out. We took it off Sunday while we were home all day and it's so much nicer viewing the fish, but put it back on Sunday night.

We've been watching one particular doitsu kohaku we recently purchased at Koi Acres. His mucus seemed to be taking on a milky cast. Possible ammonia burn??? Stress??? Salt I was adding bothering it???So, Harry was concerned and didn't want to just "watch" it any longer. We decided to net it out and put it in a QT tank for awhile to see if it would improve. So about 5:00 pm we put it in a tank in the basement, added a little anti bacterial medicine to the water, covered the whole tank with a double layer tarp to keep him in and left him to rest and adjust. Went to check on him around 8:00 that evening and you guessed it, he had jumped out of the tank and laid dead on the basement floor!!! d**m d**m dang!!!! There was no movement at all, but I still worked with it to try to revive it for at least an hour. Moving it through the water in figure 8's and holding it directly in the bubbler with it's gill plates propped open. No luck. So another favorite fish gone. Just like that. Try to do something proactive and it ends in tragedy. Just the opposite of what we were trying to do. Lesson learned...cover on tank must be weighted down all around!!!He jumped up hard enough to lift the tarp and slip under it and over the top, which was a good 12 inches above the top of the water! This is not the first time we've lost fish in QT tanks from jumping so you would think we'd know better, but I actually thought it would be enough. In other cases it was because of no cover or a particular hole at one end or something. Sad, just very sad!! So the 15 inch fish is now flower food in the garden. Just so frustrating. Harry just shook his head at me. I wanted to cry. So now we are both worried about the netted pond outside. Do we need to always keep it on? It should be no different than a pond at ground level, right? The water level on the new pond is only 4 inches from the top. An easy jump for any of them. Got my favorites in there. It would be just devastating to loose one of those.. oh, what to do.....

Finally the fish are out!

Finally the fish are outside! Harry has worked so hard to get them out. With just a little more touch up paint and some primping with flowers and all around the edges to soften things up, and the new pond will be finally done. The fish seem to enjoy the current. With the addition of the eductors which can triple the water flow coming out of a pipe, the water becomes a river of current in the pond. You can watch the fish swim to it, relax, and just get kind of thrown back from the current. The water swirls around the pond edge while the bottom drain aerator creates a upward current in the middle. I'm totally happy with that. The only problem we are having is the floating skimmer is not working. Seems we don't have enough pull through it. The single 4" bottom drain is supplying enough water for the pump so that there is no pull through the skimmer. If we taper the drain down in the filter or put a stand pipe in it, then the filter begins to go down as the 1 1/2" pipe from the skimmer is not enough to stay ahead of the pump. So, we need to play with that. But, I'm just so happy to have the fish out. I purchased a small hoola hoop to use as a feeding ring. But, it doesn't work. It either floats too high in the water, or the before mentioned current is so strong that it pushes the food right underneath the ring and out into the pond. So, one more thing I need to figure out. Any suggestions are welcomed!
I've covered the pond with a net at least for the first few days. I don't want any of my larger fish jumping out. Am hoping after a while they'll get used to their new home and not even try to escape like the 2 little fish we put in earlier did. By the way, one of those tiny guys did die, while the other chagoi one is still swimming around. I should post a picture of this chag. This is a 6" koi from my basement pond that has had a unhealing sore on it's shoulder for months. It starts to heal, then stops and then starts again. He's just been a mess since way last fall. But, he's hung on and I haven't had the heart to pitch him. Thus, he became one of the sacrificial koi. Then after he jumped out of the new pond and I picked him out of the dirt and put him back in, he kind of got this fin rot and white spots starting to grow on him, but I couldn't catch him, so he again got to stay in the new pond. Now, I see him, and can not believe how he hangs in there. Almost feel like he deserves to stay alive and grow big. Hopefully he will. He certainly is a survivor! If he had been a 100.00 beautiful fish that I bought, he'd of been dead a long time ago, I guaranty that! Funny how the fishy world works.
Am loving the window we put in the pond! I can now see every little imperfection on the fish, though. Kind of scary. Koi are definitely meant to be viewed from above. They are no where as pretty from their sides. The fish seem to like the window too. It was designed to be seen from my kitchen table. I can sit and eat and watch the fish go buy. Harry is already wishing he had put a second one in, viewable from the deck were we sit outside.
Here's a few pics of the filter set up, the fish and my view from the kitchen table. We finished it to look like the filter house in the yard that we use for the other pond. I'm just so happy it's done!!! Can't stop smiling.