filters

QTY 1-6Ft Show Tank w/Net Cover
QTY 1-350 gph Mag Drive pump

QTY 1-Pond Master 1000 Internal Box Filter

Excellent setup for Quarantine
Everything you need to keep your water clean and healthy
And Maintaining good circulation

Everyone should have a medicine Chest BEFORE they Buy Koi.
If you Encounter a problem, It may be too late , you should Always Have these medicines readily available
Call Tom Hatfield @ 1-866-564-7883 to order !

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. please add fresh water from your quarantine slowly.

3. Quarantine Allows your koi to rest and adjust from Travel, their immune system is very low after travel.
If you dod not have a good Quarantine system, then you can damage the koi by bad water quality, which will kill it.

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
Proform "C" Will kill most everything Else

Also, There Is a Strain of Trichodina that is harder to kill now.
Salt Can be used after you are done dosing Proform C 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 take over if you do not treat for them.

I have a Special Section on my Website That Explains in Detail, Koi Parasites and Treatment.

If you Have a koi that dies, Please do not call us unless you have the Below Information, And it is accurate.
1.P/H. At the time of Death
2. Amonia and Nitrite Levels
3. Water volume and type of Filtration
4. If you did Not Quarantine and treat immediately for parasites

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.
IT is best to know your koi has KHV in the quarantine system, then to contaminate your whole pond..

The treatment for KHV is heat to 87 degrees for 5-6 days..
It is easier to heat a small quarantine, then to try to heat a whole pond.

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.
Dont 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 retailer 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 dont 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
Not 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,
Dont expect a Show quality koi that has been pampered all its life to surive 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.

Ich- SALT @ .5ppm
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.
Proform C
Anchor worm- Dimilin@ 1 gram per thousand , 2 treatments, Salt @ .5ppm
Ergasilus- Dylox1 tsp per 1000 Gals, every 7 days for 3 treatments
Gill flukes and skin flukes, - Supaverm, Prazi, follow instructions, 1 treatment only
Ulcers, quarantine, raise temp to 78-80 degrees, inject w Baytril 2.27%
dosage= 6" .01cc
10" .05cc
14" .07cc
18" 1. cc
22" 1.20 cc etc

3 days in a row, then skip a day, inject, skip a day , inject
total 5 injections.

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.

Please Visit THE LAB Here
This is a section Totally Dedicated to Koi Health

Although the following essay demonstrates the effect of hormones on the immune system, other hormones can have an effect on the growth of Koi. If a Koi does not grow in your collection, experiment by removing it to another pond, if possible. If it starts to grow then you know that the hormones from the other fish were affecting the growth of that particular fish. If it does not grow then one of two things has happened - the genetics of the fish has dictated the size of the fish or the fish is older than you know or realise. Just as in all creatures, growth hormones stop after a certain age and the creature stops growing (unless you are a body builder and munch on your daily hormone). (does that sound right?).
A study by Perimutter, Alfred, Daniel Sarot, Man-Lin Yu, Rocco Filazzoia and Seely on the Effects of Crowding on the Immune Response of Fish indicates that there are ‘other’ hidden factors at work than first meet the eye.

These are not readily visible or apparent to most Koi keepers. Sometimes we simply notice that our Koi die without explanation. Perhaps the study by Perimutter et al can throw some light on this phenomena.

Their study may indicate that fish kept in overcrowded conditions suffer impaired immune systems as a result of biochemical agents released into the water by the other fish living in the pond.

This may be natures way of reducing a large population to more acceptable levels. The studies suggest that fish can release immune suppressing pheromones (hormones) in overcrowded conditions. This makes the other fish in the system less able to fight disease.

To investigate their suspicions three separate experiments were set up. These involved different treatment and control groups.

The first two experiments had 30, 15, 5 and 5 fish respectively. Four similar control groups were set up. Fish were assigned randomly among the groups. All ponds were the same size.

The water in the treatment groups had methylchloroform added to remove organic substances. The control groups were not treated but simply monitored.

Ammonia, nitrate, dissolved oxygen, carbon dioxide and pH were monitored regularly.
The immune systems were challenged with infectious Pancreatic necrosis virus. All fish in the treatment and control groups were injected with the virus two weeks after the experiment began. Two week later they were injected again.
The researchers made antibody tests. These antibody measurements showed that maximum antibody reaction occurred three weeks after the second injection of the virus.

Looking through the results shows that the fish from the experimental groups had two to four times the antibody levels than the fish from the control groups.

As the level of crowding increased so the difference between the groups increased. The implication was that the methylchloroform was removing something from the water that affected the fish immune response.

This unknown factor was directly proportional to the crowding level. The greater the crowding level the greater the immune suppressing effect. The evidence suggested an immune suppressing pheromone was present.

To check their findings the authors then decided to refine a third experiment. This third experiment was run twice with each of the four treatment and control groups. These being 30, 15, 5 and 5 fish again.

Conclusions: Low stocking densities can help minimise bacterial and viral disease problems. It is presumed that the fewer the fish in the water the less the concentration of pheromone present that suppress the immune system.
The lower the stocking density the lower the bacterial load on the pond. The offending pheromone can be removed with proper chemical and physical techniques.

The importance of water changes should NEVER be under estimated. Regular water changes will dilute the biological ‘soup’ the fish swim in. To save water, utilise the pond water for watering the garden then supply the fish and pond with fresh water. Both will benefit as will your pocket. You will have created a mini eco-system on your property.
The use of activated carbon has been shown to remove organic agents such as pheromones.

Skimming the frothy bubbles or scum that forms on the surface of the pond (Dissolved Organic Compounds or DOC) from time to time will also lower the level of pheromones. The DOC should be removed from the system and not simply skimmed back into the filter. The amount of scum or DOC is important when the fish load is high. This should be removed from the system.

A last consideration. Perhaps we should select and remove Koi from our collections regularly. As they grow and as we add new ones to the system voluntary removing the old ones which are not of good quality will have positive results.

The contents of this Article are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the express consent
of the officials of the SFBAKC - which we normally give freely as long as you give credit
where it is due.