I need help quick, before I lose all my koi!

Need Help Quick for sick koi, pond fish or a koi pond water problem? You came to the right place!

No matter how well you care for your koi, goldfish and pond water quality, sometimes you’ll find a problem that you just can’t fix.

When you have a sick koi or pond fish it’s a real problem to find good koi and pond care help from someone with pond fish experience that you can trust. I can help you!

For FREE personal help with your sick koi and /or pond water problem, I suggest that you use my easy HELP Form. E-mail the form to me and I’ll return help within 48 hours weekdays.

Note: If your problem is urgent and you need help faster, place Urgent in your details and I’ll do my best to contact you as soon as possible.

The more details you give me about your sick koi pond fish or unhealthy koi pond water the better I can help you.

Thank you,

The importance of life supporting oxygen in your pond water

All your fish and the good and bad bacteria in your pond consume oxygen 24 hours a day. Any plants and algae in your pond produce oxygen during the day however, plants consume oxygen at night.

A fish’s gills are basically the same as our lungs are to us, they absorb oxygen. The gills give your fish the ability to absorb very low levels of oxygen from your pond water. Your pond water must contain plenty of fresh oxygen for your fish to thrive.

Pond Aeration is vital to strong, healthy, fast growing pond fish and high quality pond water.

Here are just some of the benefits of adding Aeration to your pond

Increases the oxygen your fish and pond water need to stay healthy
Removes toxic gases that build up in the bottom of your pond
Helps reduce pond algae, “algae hates oxygen”
Enables your “good bacteria” in your pond filter to multiply and thrive
Increases “low oxygen levels” in your pond that retard growth, increase sickness and can even cause death
Will greatly improve the performance of any “beneficial bacteria” you add to your pond water• Stops overnight “fish kills” caused by the oxygen demand of plants and algae at night. Plants and algae produce oxygen during the day and use it up at night, called “Photosynthesis”.
Will keep a hole open in the ice of your winter pond, plus, will remove “toxic gas build up” in your pond water all winter, reducing fish deaths in the spring.
Increases low levels of oxygen in your koi pond during the hot summer months which cause many fish deaths each year, because warmer water contains less oxygen plus the metabolism of your fish and bacteria in your pond are at their peak demanding much more oxygen.

Here’s a sign your pond might have low oxygen:

Immediately before daylight check your koi fish to see if they are gulping for air at the surface of the water. You might scare them and they will dive deeper, only to quickly return to the surface.

If you have plants or algae in your pond, your koi fish will return to deeper water as the oxygen builds up during the day through photosynthesis.

If you’re looking to improve the health of your koi pond fish and the quality of your pond water, a pond aerator should be at the top of your list.

Water changes are simply the removal of some old pond water, and the replacement of that old pond water with new water. It sounds so simple but there are problems, nationwide.

First, tap water can be chlorinated.

Second, a lot of pond keepers don’t do water changes, at all.

Thirdly, failure to do pond water changes allows the accumulation of background pollution such as phosphates and proteins which inhibit koi fish health and growth.

Finally, water changes need to replenish trace elements and minerals in your pond water which your koi fish need.

Chlorinated and chloraminated water is usually supplied to pond keepers “at the tap” from municipal water supplies. The water company adds these two chemicals to disinfect the water.

Each day, municipal source-water is tested for eggs, spores, ova and cysts of various pathogens. If any are found, it may be that the municipal water authority will double or triple the chlorine or chloramine concentration.

Spritzing the water into the pond slowly will dissipate a lot of chlorine, but will it dissipate all of it? Dechlorinate. By de-chlorinating your tap water, you can be 100% sure the chlorine is gone and will not harm your koi fish.

Many municipal water departments use chloramine for treating your drinking water. Chloramine is a combination of chlorine and ammonia. When your municipal water supply uses Chloramine, you want to use a water conditioner which removes both chlorine and ammonia.

Note: Recently FDA has changed it’s regulations in order to improve municipal water quality.

Many utilities that have used chlorine as their disinfectant in recent years, have changed their disinfectant to chloramines to meet new disinfection byproduct regulations. You never know when your water department will make that change, if they haven’t already?

Many of the water conditioners on the market ONLY remove the chlorine from your tap water leaving the harmful ammonia in your pond water.

When purchasing a water conditioner, make sure the directions state, “removes chlorine and ammonia”. Many water conditioners state “removes chlorine and destroys chloramines”. Sure it destroys chloromines because it removes the chlorine from the chloramines however, it leaves all the deadly ammonia behind.

Some say that the amount of ammonia left behind in your pond water will not harm you koi fish. Why leave any ammonia behind in your pond water? No matter the amount, the ammonia left behind just adds to a bigger work load on you pond filter to remove. Your pond filter has enough work to do just removing the toxic ammonia produced by your koi fish.

In speaking to pond keepers from across the country, I found that about forty percent of the hobby is not doing ANY water changes at all. This accounts for recurring illness among their fish, slow growth, and poor color. This is the most common cause of seven year old Koi that are only seven inches long.

A koi in good pond water with plenty of water changes should grow at least 3-4 inches per year. I encourage you to follow a water change regimen as outlined in the chart below.

“Topping Off” your pond is not a water change. You should know this about water: The solids in pond water do NOT evaporate, nor do many of the chemicals in the water. This means that the nitrates, phosphates, a good bit of the carbon dioxide, all the salt, minerals, etc. never leave the pond and accumulate over time.

As the pond water level goes down by evaporation, you may notice that your fish perk up as you add water back.

There is a transient increase in water quality after the addition of “new” water but it’s rapidly offset by the dissolution of the existing background pollution. So, “topping off” actually concentrates solids and organic chemicals in the water over time. Real water changes are a must.

Ideal Pond Water Change Regimens

Every week 10 percent water change

OR: Every two weeks 20 percent water change

OR: Every three weeks 30 percent water change

Note: Smaller water changes more often are much healthier for your koi fish than larger pond water changes not as often.

No matter which of the above regimens you choose from above, I highly recommend that two to three times per year you should perform a 60-70% pond water change to really refresh your pond water. You will notice a real boost to your koi fish’s health and growth.

Major water change: Simply drain the pond down 60-70% and add dechlorinator. Then refill your pond. Don’t do this in the PEAK of the summer as you might chill your fish. But surely in the early summer and late summer you’ll see how happy your fish are for this major water change.

Note: with a large water change of 50% or more it’s very important to use a dechlorinator which removes chlorine and AMMONIA.

If you are performing the recommended water changes, you should have robust, hungry and healthy fish. Koi fish may still become ill, of course, however, it is much less common if your adding lots of fresh water to your koi pond on a regular schedule. Fact is, if you wouldn’t swim in the pond, your fish shouldn’t be.

Pond Water Quality

Testing your pond water

In general, everything you should know about your water is available in some sort of simple test kit. Most kits are very easy to run. You can buy these kits at your local shop or online. Run them at least weekly during the first part of pond opening but monthly or more during the season.

If fish ever get sick or start acting funny, you should know that SEVENTY PERCENT of fish health problems, INCLUDING vulnerability to disease-causing organisms – are related to WATER QUALITY.
Important: DO NOT make the mistake of not testing for pH and ammonia at the first sign of trouble.

Ammonia
One of the most important pond water test, is testing for deadly Ammonia.
Nitrite
Nitrite binds fish Red Blood Cells causing gasping and brown blood disease.
Nitrate
Nitrates are a natural by-product of the bacterial “reduction” or removal of Ammonia and Nitrite in the natural pond’s ecosystem.
Koi Pond pH
The pH can change overnight…In particular, the pH is prone to fall, and “crashes” are quick, and fatal.
Carbon Dioxide
CO2 can exist in water independently of dissolved oxygen. If the level gets too high, even with normal dissolved oxygen levels, illness will result.
Dissolved Oxygen
Oxygen is obviously essential to fish health, but how much or how little?
Hydrogen Sulfide
The smell is one of rotting eggs. Losses may be great and they will continue after theH2S is long gone.

Please remember: SEVENTY PERCENT of your fish health problems are related to your pond WATER QUALITY.