Enlarged body on 7 year old koi

[jasonnstephjung]

Hello everyone,

I am looking for some advice and information as to what may be happening with one of my Koi. The koi is usually always up in front and always hunger however lately he has been distant and not eating. Additionally, we noticed that his abdomen is swollen and enlarged, see attachments. We did try and see if he or she was egg bound but nothing happened when we tried to release the eggs. We do have therapeutic levels of salt in the pond right now and the parameters are below. Do you have any suggestions as to what this may be or how we can treat the koi? There is no pine coneing of the scales.

PH 8.1 - no fluctuation
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
Gallons 4000

[Orlando]

It's definitely a female and seems to be right on par with your information posted, what are your water temperatures? The koi seems healthy and clean from blemishes for now I recommend back off on feedings to atleast every other day.

[fly4koi]

Can you get some picture of its vent to confirm the sex? I am guessing egg bound, is it possible to setup an environment where she can spawn? I've read about hormone injection to help with the release but personally I didn't have any luck.

[jasonnstephjung]

The temperature is 75 degrees.

What would be an environment to promote spawning in a safe manner? I know they have increased risk of injury during spawning times. Where would you get hormone injections is there any commercial product or would a vet have to prescribe?

[fly4koi]

Ovaprim is the injectable. My plan was to get those spawning plastic brushes that looks like aquatic plant but I really don't have experience in this.

[jasonnstephjung]

We don't really have the ability to set up a spawning environment. What are some signs that we should watch for before taking her to the vet?

[*Ci*]

A spawning environment can be something simple such as hanging or floating spawning mops (can be homemade like frayed rope, cotton mop heads, xmas pine garland or even cut cedar boughs) in the pond. The fact that they are there will sometimes induce the females to spawn.

[fly4koi]

A spawning environment can be something simple such as hanging or floating spawning mops (can be homemade like frayed rope, cotton mop heads, xmas pine garland or even cut cedar boughs) in the pond. The fact that they are there will sometimes induce the females to spawn.

Say each bunch is about 2ft / 60cm long, how many bunches do I need to hang in the water to trick them into spawning? Thanks. My water don't really get warm enough, maybe just high 60F right now...

[coolwon]

Say each bunch is about 2ft / 60cm long, how many bunches do I need to hang in the water to trick them into spawning? Thanks. My water don't really get warm enough, maybe just high 60F right now...

No trickery involved,the invited males make it happen,if anything is going to happen.

Remember it takes two or three to tango.

The brushes are there for her to anchor the laid eggs on.

[Matt24]

A spawning environment can be something simple such as hanging or floating spawning mops (can be homemade like frayed rope ...

I like to set up koi spawns as a significant part of the hobby. I use four 8'-10' nylon spawning ropes, 3 around the sides and one wrapped around a plastic pipe weighted to the bottom. This is more than what is needed to get them to spawn, but giving them more to put the eggs on increases the number of fry that will make it.



A word of caution for anyone thinking about setting up a spawn in their main pond ... If you have lots of large males and/or the female is small, it can be very stressful and sometimes dangerous for the female, as spawning can get rough and last for several hours. The males usually continue pushing the female around for quite a while even after she is empty. Personally, I put them in a separate tub with one female and one to three males, considering the relative sizes of the koi. This also allows raising the fry separately without the adults eating the eggs or fry.

There is a lot more good information on strategies and experiences of koi breeding in the Amateur Breeders Forum.
https://www.koiphen.com/forums/forum...Breeders-Forum

[Matt24]

... My water don't really get warm enough, maybe just high 60F right now...

I've had my koi spawn in water that was in the lower 60's F, and even once had an unintended spawn in the lower 50's. But upper 60's to mid 70's seems to be the prime range.

[jasonnstephjung]

Thanks for the information. We did put in 4 100% cotton mop heads floating near the top to try and induce spawning. We did pull her again to view and it has got larger but there is no sign of color blemishes. Our temperature is around 75 degrees right now. We are not necessarily trying to breed just don't want her to get egg bound. Does salinity levels or any other tactics help? We have not fed our koi for 3 days now and our salinity level was increased to .2 (recently .15) and are trying to get it up to .3 in time.

[Matt24]

... We did put in 4 100% cotton mop heads floating near the top to try and induce spawning. ... Our temperature is around 75 degrees right now. ...

If those mop heads are tied against the sided of the pond and the temperature you mentioned is the water temperature, then that should normally get the koi to spawn, if they are feeling well. I guess I should also point out there there generally needs to be at least one healthy male koi.

[KingstonKoi]

We had an unexpected spawn about four weeks ago when our temperature changed pretty drastically over a week. I didn’t check if it was a full moon, but that’s another rumored aphrodisiac

Both the daytime and night temperatures went up by 10° and the pond water reached about 75°. We have water hyacinth in the pond and that seem to be enough inducement to spawn for the first time in five years of owning Koi. The two females were much larger than the smaller males, but they managed to all get it on together. And as my husband said, “come quickly, your Koi are fighting in the back of the pond under the plants.”

I thought spawning was a one day deal. But it can happen over more than one day, until the female koi have emptied all their eggs. we definitely had two days of active activity. Since I didn’t want to raise small koi, I used a one part per million treatment of potassium permanganate to kill the eggs. it’s important to do that the day of spawning or the next day at the latest. The Koi can still eat the eggs without an issue, but you won’t be facing raising koi down the road. And you need to watch the water quality. Be sure to test it and do water changes for the next couple of days to ensure that the quality stays high after they spawn.

[Matt24]

...my husband said, “come quickly, your Koi are fighting in the back of the pond under the plants.”

I thought spawning was a one day deal. But it can happen over more than one day, until the female koi have emptied all their eggs. we definitely had two days of active activity. ...

I've seen something like that once, in different circumstances. I had a small female in a pond that had 4 much larger males. At that time, there were some large flat rocks leaning at an angle at the side of the pond. It had a sort of "cave" behind it that she could get into, but they couldn't. They would spawn for a while, then she would duck into the cave, while they would search in vain for her for maybe an hour. Two or three days later, she came out, and they resumed spawning. Then it all repeated again, until she had laid all her eggs in three sessions over about a week.

[fly4koi]

got 4x 60cm plastic brush hung over 2ft. width, is that enough for I should add more?