Health Advice needed

[Erns]

I need some health advice. Our show is in 5 days. Winter has moved in pretty fast and my water temp dropped from 23 degrees to 18 degrees (celsius)in about a week. I detected a small fungus on one of my sanke and called out our koi vet. We dipped the koi and she took some scrapes from a few fish and found some bacterial activity in the mucus. She advised I raise the salt level. So I raised the salt to 0.4% from 0.1% in a day. Today I noticed a mild case of pop -eye (exopthalmia) on a few of the fish, it's worst on the tosai. Is this due to me raising the salt to quickly? I've stopped feeding. THe water parameters:
PH: 7.5
NH3: 0.01
NO2: 0.00
NO3: 18ppm

Will this correct it's self or is there anything else I can do at this stage

[dick benbow]

I suggest you consider passing on your show this year. Let's face it, a show means more stress for the koi and there is no need to complicate the present situation. I believe the action you took to be valid and that the koi will slowly
recover. You will probably want to re-start a light feeding regiment. I would think that in about a week things should appear to be back to "normal" and you can thru water changes start to drop your salt % to former levels. In extreme cases I have seen salt used from .0 to .6 so i don't think your increase was something you should have concerned feelings about. Keep your eyes open and observe and be proactive if you discern anything else.

[KoiCop]

Erns . . .

Sorry to hear your koi are having some health troubles.

If you don't mind my asking, how do your koi benefit from raising the salt level in re: fungus and bacterial issues vs. more specific treatments?

As for the pop-eye (exopthalmos), koi with dropsy are often treated by raising the salt level to reduce the fluid retention by dropping the osmotic gradient -- so I don't believe that increasing the salt level caused the pop-eye.

Perhaps another call to you vet might be in order?

Best Wishes,