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  • Results 1 to 7 of 7

    Thread: Sudden distress?

    1. #1
      Dougnutz is offline Member
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      Sudden distress?

      one of my oldest koi has gone from eating in a healthy manner to suddenly in distress right in front of me. seems to be drifting and somewhat gasping and oddly swimming backwards. struggling to swim. I seems like she literally just a few minutes prior was eating just fine with the rest of the fish.https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlUPcCBTwbr_k7gEbiH7CjrHkTklww

      I tested the parameters yesterday and they're fine I'm retesting now.

      she will have moments of struggling then drifting. maybe some sort of organ failure? I scooped her up in my hands and looked in her mouth. nothing seems unusual.
      Last edited by Dougnutz; 04-20-2021 at 05:40 PM.

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    2. #2
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      It's an hour later and she's still hanging in there. Actually looking better. Swimming more and not doing the drifting she was doing. She is definitely swimming slow. If I had not witnessed the sudden change while feeding I'm not sure what I would think. This old girl has been though a lot. One of my first koi and survived several early mistakes, plus a nasty heron strike to the head a few years back.

      Oddly one of the other older Koi seems to be sticking with her and gently nudging her along. I have never seen such behavior.

      Anyway water numbers seems good to me
      PH around 7.8 very steady in this pond
      Ammonia .25 or less
      Nitrite is around .25 maybe a little over
      Nitrate looks to be 0

      The pond has warmed up recently from low 50's to 65. This seems to have kicked off some spawning earlier this week. I came out to a pungent fish smell and the water was no longer crystal clear. I see eggs in the skimmer too. I recently did a 20% water change too. Same well water as always. Plus, again, all the others seems normal and she was totally fine during the morning feed and this afternoon. The sudden downturn was right after the afternoon feed.

      I don't think I am overfeeding they seem aggressively hungry.

    3. #3
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      If it happened within minutes I would say she probably had a stroke. As of your post, she had not died, so maybe given time, she will recover, similar to humans. If she doesn't recover within a short amount of time, say a week, then I would not expect her to recover.
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    4. #4
      Dougnutz is offline Member
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      Thanks for the reply. Seems likely, I honestly didn't expect her to last long enough for me to post. One thing I also did after the initial post. I reached in and picker her up. She didn't fight at all when I picker her up. Her one eye was stuck looking straight down. Very odd, but maybe something aligning to a stroke. I manually maneuvered her in the water a while to make sure water passed through the gills. Fish cpr? .

      The apparent gasping and swimming backwards was truly bizarre. She seems to have sorted out forward swimming again though. I'll keep an eye on her and fingers crossed maybe she isn't done yet. Like I said she's been through a lot in the 8 years I've had her.

    5. #5
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      When I looked at the linked video it reminded me of a chagoi I had that was much the same. The
      night before she had been fine and eating with the others. In the morning I thought the fish had spawned
      as I heard a bunch of splashing... but I went out and she was frantically circling the entire edge of the pond
      and would leap out of the water. She was about 35" so I had never seen anything like it. But when she
      stopped the frantic swimming she moved just like yours does. The coincidence was that my well had
      malfunctioned and I had no running water. It turned out the pump had shorted out on the metal pipe that
      was the well and as best as I could guess, for whatever reason, she took the majority of the electrical
      shock as none of the other fish were effected. But honestly it could have been a stroke like Rich said and
      the pump mishap had nothing to do with it.

      I've got my fingers crossed that yours pulls through! Mine lasted a year in the QT but never got better
      and sadly I had to euthanize her. Always is your favorites.

      Your comment about the buddy trying to help her move reminded me of this one too... I had a little friend to
      keep her company in the QT and that fish was so attached to her that near the end I was giving her injections
      to fight off sores forming on her and that little fish would lay in my hands when I had the chagoi in the water
      trying to revive her after sedating. That little fish fish went everywhere with her. It was sad when eventually
      I put her down and the little one couldn't find her buddy.

      --Steve



      Koiphen 2021 Koi Person of the Year!

    6. #6
      Dougnutz is offline Member
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      Icu2, yes the movement is definitely similar. Sort of a whole body contortion followed by some fin movement. I took several short videos, It all seems sad. I may post them later right now I'm debating setting up the QT tank. If she lasts the night and still looks like this in the morning I'll be transferring her and a buddy to the QT tank

      I did verify the arc fault breakers are fine so I don't think there is a shock involved.

      Ya it's always the favorite.

    7. #7
      Dougnutz is offline Member
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      Day 2, there isn't much change. She's hanging out under the waterfall, which is normal. She isn't eating or coming to the surface (not normal). I have adopted a habit of turning off aeration when feeding. It's sort of my "trick" to tell them to come eat . The other older Koi will go nudge her when the aeration stops and take turns feeding and coaxing her away from the waterfall. It's as if there is empathy for her. Do fish have empathy? It's not behavior I have ever seen in my Koi.

      In the end though it's no use. She will swim a bit and stop. Never surfacing to eat. Sometimes briefly clamping all fins down (bad sign I know) then just when you think she is in trouble she starts swimming slowly again. If I had not seen the sudden change and dramatic episode I would assume some sort of ailment as it is, a stroke seems most likely.

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