Koi Quarantine
When humans are subjected to stress our immune system is compromised, we become susceptible to pathogens present in the air resulting in colds, flu or worse. Koi are affected by stress also; chasing & netting them, loading them into a plastic bag and transporting them in the trunk of your car is stressful.
What is quarantine? / Why do I need to quarantine?
Separate quarantine tank is a Must-tool for Koi hobbyists.
Newly purchased Koi could possibly still carry parasites, bacteria, fungus etc., even though your Koi dealer including us did there very best to eliminate these. Besides, if they are shipped to you in a box, they are usually extremely stressed and exhausted. It is important to provide them a nice surrounding so that they can recover quickly.
Keeping and treating new Koi in the separate quarantine tank for at least 21 days is the best way to decrease the risk of disease before introducing them to your main pond. In addition this will give your new Koi a chance to rest.
We strongly request the quarantine of new Koi to every customer who purchase Koi from us.
These nasties are in the water but don’t affect them when they’re healthy, when they become infected they risk infecting others they are around. To ensure your new fish don’t infect the rest of your fish they should be quarantined for several weeks to several months. Keep a few Koi [inexpensive feeder fish will do] in a quarantine tank to keep the filter activated in case it’s needed as a hospital tank. Before introducing them to your pond, just to be on the safe side, choose a kamikaze Koi to pal around with your new fish for a couple more weeks; if both are OK then you can put them both in the pond.
The reason for the redundancy is that if your fish contract this Koi Herpes Virus you will have to go through hell and back to sterilize and prepare your pond to support fish again. It would almost be easier to dig a new pond!
All New Koi Arrivals Should be handled properly.
We will outline below some of the problems that novice Hobbyist can encounter.
1. Improper Acclamation…Koi Normally are packed in Ice, Which means their Temperature can be much lower than your pond.
If the koi are Not Struggling, Please float your bags for 20-30 minutes to allow the temp to equal.
2. Improper P.H……….The P.H. Can be significantly different in the shipping bag. Never add pond water to the shipping bag!
3. Quarantine allows your koi to rest and adjust from travel, their immune system is very low after travel.
If you do not have a good Quarantine system, then you can damage the koi by bad water quality, which will kill it.
Please test, P.H., Ammonia, Nitrites Twice Daily.
4. If you do not have Quarantine, and you must put in your pond. Then you MUST treat the Whole pond as a quarantine system
And Apply Medications to treat for a Broad Spectrum of Parasites.
SUPAVERM for 7 days will eradicate FLUKES
Terminate Will kill most everything Else
Reward will kill some bacteria that causes mouth and fin rot but is a herbicide and will kill plants.
Also, There Is a Strain of Trichodina that is harder to kill now.
Salt Can be used after you are done dosing Terminate at a dosage of 6PPM for 5-7 Days
I suggest buying a Salt meter from Tom Hatfield at KOISTUFF.com
We are A fish Farm with Literally Thousands of koi. We will Have Parasites.
But our water systems flow constant fresh water 24 hrs a day.
So when you place your koi in a small pond, Parasites can and will take over if you do not treat for them.
If you have a koi that dies, Please do not call us unless you have the following Information, And it is accurate.
1.P/H. At the time of Death
2. Ammonia and Nitrite Levels
3. Water volume and type of Filtration
4. If you did Not Quarantine and treat immediately for parasites
Another reason to Quarantine:
KHV Virus…Will more than likely kill all your koi.
Isolate your koi for at least 2 weeks and raise temperature to 78 degrees. This will more than likely set off the virus if your koi has it. Send the blood off for serology testing.
IT is best to know your koi has KHV in the quarantine system, then to contaminate your whole pond.
There is no treatment for KHV.
KHV is out there, and can happen to you, me, or anyone, it shows up after heat or a stressor.
First off let me say the biggest mistakes made by koi pond owners are as follows.
#1 mistake is not quarantining new koi upon arrival
All koi during shipment need time to rest, This allows you to check for parasites and treat them accordingly.
Don’t Start Dumping Chemicals on them immediately, Give them a day or so to Rest from Travel.
All Hobbyist should have a microscope and use it.
It is a cheap investment, and very Valuable.
Just scrape a light mucus sample from the slime coat and put it on a slide and look at 40X and 100 X. Parasites are easy to see and identify.
Quarantine is very important; Koi farms and most retailers keep pristine water.
If you throw a koi in your pond, your background pollution may not affect your existing koi, but it WILL affect your new koi,
Slowly introduce your pond water over several days during the last days of your quarantine period.
This will also allow you to treat JUST your new fish if a problem develops, if you don’t quarantine, you will end up treating your whole pond.
99% of the time if a koi dies within 2 weeks, the hobbyist blames the dealer.
Why would the koi die, if it was inspected for pathogens, and treated accordingly?
Shipping is a stressor; it alone can weaken the immune system of koi
And allow pathogens to affect it, when they wouldn’t at any other time.
#2 mistake,
OVER TREATMENT.
This means creating a water quality problem while medicating.
Water must be pristine during treatment.
#3 Mistake
Lack of enough water changes, and allowing debris to collect on the bottom of your pond.
This creates problems I do not have time to discuss.
Just because you have 86 goldfish in your pond that are thriving,
Don’t expect a Show quality koi that has been pampered all its life to survive 1 week in that!
Did you know that most koi farms have a CONSTANT fresh water supply at all times?
Plus enough filtration to keep 10 times the amount of koi as an average koi pond?
First I will Name the parasite, then the order of preference of treatment.
These are dosages that I use at the farm,
And are suggestions based on our experience as koi farmers
Every environment is different; please use all meds at your own risk.
Most of these meds are safe for consumer use on koi ponds.
Potassium P to be used with caution, always have peroxide @1pt per 5000 gals to neutralize if you get in trouble.
Always wear mask and gloves when administering meds.
Ich- SALT @ .5ppm to .8ppm with aeration
Chilodonella -SALT @.5ppm, Proform “C”, Three days in a row, per instructions on bottle.
Epistylus- Salt @ .5ppm
Trichodina-Potassium Perm, 8g per thousand, maintain purple for 8 hrs, 50% water change between treatments, every other day for 3 treatments.You can also use Terminate
Anchor worm- Express IDI@ 1 gram per thousand, 2 treatments, Salt @ .5ppm
Argasilus- Dylox1 tsp per 1000 Gals, every 7 days for 3 treatments
Gill flukes and skin flukes, - Supaverm, AquaPrazi, follow instructions, 1 treatment only
I also recommend Aquazyme for controlling Aeramonas, “ulcer disease”
It is absolutely true that Koi Disease is often the result of a parasite invasion, but almost always; the parasites require some sort of stressor to make the fish vulnerable. Notable exceptions exist, but if you are aware of water quality management, and can identify disease factors in your livestock, you can prevent more diseases and save fish lives.
