Fish nearly died, now abnormal behaviour

[avz10]

It is summer in South Africa and my fish are(were) very healthy. I was away for the week, and on Thursday my daughter phoned, saying that three of the fish are dying, gasping for air, having "convulsions", sinking to the bottom, balance gonee, and turned upside down.

I told her to backwash the water and add new water. While doing so, she realised that the Venturi was not working and that their could have been an oxygen deficit. (The water level in the sump was too low).That was rectified.

A massive water change was done, etc, etc. One fish recovered totally. Two others are acting very strange/sick, but have been surviving up to now. This is Saturday afternoon. Testing the water is of no use now, have changed a lot of the water. All the other fish are fine.

I spoke to my koi guy, but he had no other explanations, except for a big pH drop or swimming bladder.

Will try and post a video

[Lee B]

I'm sorry ... you can just about guarantee that if something is going to go wrong with the pond, it will be late at night, you will be out of town, or it will be a long, holiday weekend. At least your daughter was able to help.

Three fish were in distress; one recovered - two did not, and the rest of the collection appears to be OK. I don't know what to tell you

I have had fish that were laid over (on their side) recouperate. Fish that float on their backs on the surface do not have a very good prognosis. I'm not saying that a fish or two hasn't recovered, but most do not. It's a common disease in fancy goldies, and I've never had one recover for more than a week or so before flipping back over.

Make sure the water is DEAD on, with all parameters as good as you can get them. For some reason or other, goldies seem to flip if nitrAtes get a little high; maybe koi do, too. Check it. Keep the O2 levels up, try for saturation (you didn't mention water temp, so I can't make a suggestion on what "saturation" would be for you right now, but you can easily find that info on the 'net). Watch those two fish: if the one on the surface does not show improvement soon, you may wish to consider putting it down. Meanwhile, it will need to be protected from birds and sun exposure (a sunburned belly!). The fish is under enormous stress: having its belly exposed on the surface is not too good , so, even if it recovers it may be subject to other stress-related opportunistic factors.

Good luck to you AND your fish.

[avz10]

For those interested, I have put two video clips on youtube- don't know how to do it on this site!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5Cv_Y8EYVI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNBe0HbpeQU

[Joey S]

Indeed, very strange behavior.... and not affecting all the fish.

[sundan]

Have you had any large rainfall? Do you have any treated wood nearby? Could be a toxic runoff into pond. Treated wood has arsenic in it.

[avz10]

I uploaded 2 more videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0hFBMqg-lE
(just look how he recoveres)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0ZZcRclEsg
(this is how the one will lie on the bottom, recover, move to the surface, etc).

My daughter actually says they look better!


The current water temperature is 21 degrees Celsius, I think that's about 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The water temperature on Thursday would have been approximately the same

[avz10]

I was thinking of some sort of poison as well, and although we have had heavy rain, I dont think it could have been poison.

I attach a photo of my pond, it's dusk now in south Africa

[avz10]

Forgot to say, it has been raining continuously for the past week. And there is no sun to burn the belly!

[maxinegrundy]

Hello
i am sorry to hear you are having problems with your koi ...it can be a nightmare when things like this happen.
I am presuming you have checked your water parameters ..if all is ok ..
I would advise putting the affected koi into a quarentine pool away for the others and dose with salt ..0.3% or at least give them a salt bath.
I have a freind that has had a similar problem and hides epsom salt inside peas and feeds it to her ill koi ...and they have come on a treat.
I would also do a scrape to see if there are any parasite problems.
regards
Maxine

[Midorigoi]

I noticed in all the videos the koi look...partially paralyzed? I had a similar episode a few days ago when the pump stopped working! Three of my fish were floating and swimming awkwardly. Two died but the other lived after I transfered him to my other tank that had a working pump. My guess is lack of oxygen.