Koi bulging eyes Red splotches

[FusilliJerry]

Hello Koiphen folks,

Long time lurker, first time poster. Noticed the other day one of my koi's eyes seem a little more bugeyed than usual, and he had some red splotches on his scales. I figured at first it was a scrape as they had recently been spawning and going crazy, but it didn't seem to be recovering like the other fish, which has lead to my concern.
I'm looking for some advice on how to treat the poor guy, I'm leaning toward it being Aeromonas, but I don't know how I could confirm this, Should I attempt a scraping? Would it be worth it to isolate him in a hospital tank with a low salt level?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'll attach a photo of him to see if that will be of any help, apologies for the quality.



The fish eats normal and seems to be more or less acting completely the same, although holding his ventral fins in, and jumping out of the water after feeding.

Waiting on my hardness test kit to arrive, otherwise the water parameters are as follows:
pH - 7.5
Nitrite - 0 ppm
ammonia - 0 ppm
phosphate ~ 10 ppm
It's a big pond about 15,000 gallons, 3 stage suburban water gardens vortex filter, UV Delta EP-20

Thank you!

[fly4koi]

If you can scrape and scope, do that first and confirm for parasite, otherwise you might need to treat this topically with TricideNeo or other antibiotic treatment, the bulging might have to do with water intrusion from the injury. I say keep observing it for a couple days first while you get your medical supply in order.

[FusilliJerry]

Thank you for the advice! Hospital tank supplies should be all ready by end of the week. The Fish seems to be holding up ok for the time being, asked some friends with koi and they have some spare minnfinn and koifix for food, which I believe is just neomycin, Would this combo work? The red streaks do not seem to be deep as of now and have not become ulcers.

[fly4koi]

neomycin should be fine, careful on the QT water quality.

[SimonW]

You wrote "the other day", when was the "other day"?

I would generally do nothing if the "other day" were not at least 10 days ago, and no more symptoms have shown up: Isolating itself, not eating, the redness turning into ulcer, etc.

Save the hassle of adanced treatments. Keep in mind that most of people's so called "treatments" harm the koi more than they help, because people too easily get into "Panic! I must do something" mood without first thinking: "What is the cause? What is the best solution?"

Of course, you can do simple and general treatments, like adding salt to 0.3%, PP-treatment.

[FusilliJerry]

My apologies I should have been more specific with my timeline of events, I'd say the red splotches/scratches showed up a few days after they spawned with was probably at around the 10th of July. I didn't think much of it at first as it usually resolves itself, but it seems to have persisted. The bugeyes I would say I noticed last monday.

I would generally do nothing if the "other day" were not at least 10 days ago, and no more symptoms have shown up: Isolating itself, not eating, the redness turning into ulcer, etc.
Save the hassle of adanced treatments. Keep in mind that most of people's so called "treatments" harm the koi more than they help, because people too easily get into "Panic! I must do something" mood without first thinking: "What is the cause? What is the best solution?"

This does put my mind at a ease a bit, I think I'm just being a little paranoid as last year I had to treat the entire pond with prazi and proform-c for the first time due to gill flukes. I think approaching it methodically and trying to minimize stress for the fish is the best course. As of today the 31st, the fish seems to be a bit more energetic and eating plenty, completely normal behavior, and this is still without any treatment.

[fly4koi]

In the past I've seen fish stressed but managed to recover after a week, I say if it doesn't get better in a week then you need to consider treatment.