Health problems

[farne230]

About two weeks now one of my koi (3yrs old) has started to drop her head. She has not spounded, no parasites, no surface infections, no gasping for air, open fins, stomach soft and firm, no buldges. A week ago a second 2yr old has started doing the same. I have stopped feeding, remaining 7 koi are fine. Water chemistry is normal, nothing out of the ordinary. New pond-lots of flow and filtration and air. Sounds like air or swim bladder issues, but what caused it food or bacteria or something else who knows at this point. What do you recommend?

[REC]

First, two questions:

1. How old is the pond??
2. Did the fish all come from the same place?

Oh.. and a third... can you post your water parameters, please? pH, ammonia, nitrites, KH and GH levels.

REC

[farne230]

Pond was filled mid June and had the fish about year in previous pond, balance of fish by April and all of them were in holding tank same filter til June then the same filter was used until the new filters kicked in.

Temp: 82 to 84
PH: 8.4 to 8.9
TDS: 211 to 226
NH4/NH3: 0
NO3: 0
NO2: 0 to .25
estimated hardness: 300ppm.
Fish load: 9 (100 inches)

Largest fish 23" acting up was scraped/and examined: no sign of health problems or parasites-yet "nose down". Other fish similar came on line with health problems about a week later, little problem swim slightly tilted to right, did not notice that on other. No sign of health problems with other fish.
Stopped feeding week ago.
Walls of pond green algae, some brownish, no hair algae, algae on waterfall rock, not heavy-no hair algae. Pond receives 5 hours of sun (outside temp-up to 100 degrees).
Did a 25% water change last night.
UV & one aerated bottom drain running 24hours,
Pond is 8,300 gallons + filters (2x bakki towers w/presurized vortexs + 9.0cuft bead filter w/k1 type media-w/UV from skimmer) and two bottom drains (one aerated), four tpr's (one not working). Turn-over estimated at every 20 min., and one waterfall (12,000 flow). Had a green water about two weeks ago. Backfilled bead filter since green algae bloom every other day, until cleared. Other filters one a week.

Our water from tap is hard with high ph.

[Doug Ward]

My first thoughts are temperature swings since you mentioned the Bakki Aeration Unit(s).
Test the temps about every six hours and see what kind of swings you have.
Of course " heads down" often is a sign of bacterial issues ( normally) BUT.. like a kid catching a cold, the swings in temp stress the immune system and WALLAH.. illness can show up.

[farne230]

It has been a few months since I last commented on this koi. Since then throught the hot water periods (85 to 88 degrees) in South Texas this kku would float head down. What I have concluded is the very warm waters I believe cause this koi to float. Without medication and just waiting it out she finally came around. As the water temps dropped into the low 80's she became much more level and active. One other note even when the waters were obove 85 degrees she would come to live when feed.

In the end she is a loner and has a personnality of her own. Patience was the best cure in this case and now I know what to expect from her. Today the water temps are below 55 degrees and the group are moving slow but still in great shape.

[koifishgirl]

You were lucky cause you could have very well lost that koi. Signs like this are most of the time caused by a bacterial infection in the gills and you can loose the koi within a matter day's.

Im glad the koi is ok for now but I would keep a eye on the koi

[farne230]

Yes, I was lucky. No one likes to loose koi, expensive ones at that. The point being you should IMHO never jump in to fast and treat. Take your time and observe. There are always those cases, knowing the habits of your koi and observing similar symptoms in other koi may move to chem. treatment a little faster. But in my case, anyway, this may have made things worst.

[Brutuscz]

I had similar symptoms over a year ago. Turned out to be columnaris. Lost many fish to this. Thought it was khv..but tests at Univ at georgia were negative. Can't jump to conclusions on these things. The gill lesions were what really confused me.