brown blood? ammonia poisoning, will fish recover?

[UP ALL NIGHT!!]

Hi All, Brown blood, ammonia poisoning, nitrite poisoning.

What are the symptoms, can a koi recover? And to what degree? All I can find is why it happens and nothing on possible recovery. I guess I am hoping for a miracle.

I have been "up all night" researching everything koi the last three weeks (till my head was spinning) while waiting for the filter to cycle now the water is absolutely beautiful.
Where did all of my beautiful bubbles go?

I have no photos just observed the fish as I was moving them back to the pond. The fins were never bright red, more yellowish faint pink with some streaking (blood.)
I have seen and read horror stories of fins gone skin sliding off white burns on koi. Mine were bad but never like that.

All fish survived but a couple have slightly lifted gills. (These two were the fish that told me something was wrong.)
a couple have some small 1/8 blackish spots.
couple have faint veining on their backs.
a couple have slightly curled gills.

All are now swimming and playing in the current of the submerged pump.

Please reply I need your experience and expertise, Lori

[Russell Peters]

Quote: Originally Posted by UP ALL NIGHT!! Hi All, Brown blood, ammonia poisoning, nitrite poisoning. What are the symptoms, can a koi recover? And to what degree? All I can find is why it happens and nothing on possible recovery. I guess I am hoping for a miracle. I have been "up all night" researching everything koi the last three weeks (till my head was spinning) while waiting for the filter to cycle now the water is absolutely beautiful. Where did all of my beautiful bubbles go? I have no photos just observed the fish as I was moving them back to the pond. The fins were never bright red, more yellowish faint pink with some streaking (blood.) I have seen and read horror stories of fins gone skin sliding off white burns on koi. Mine were bad but never like that. All fish survived but a couple have slightly lifted gills. (These two were the fish that told me something was wrong.) a couple have some small 1/8 blackish spots. couple have faint veining on their backs. a couple have slightly curled gills. All are now swimming and playing in the current of the submerged pump. Please reply I need your experience and expertise, Lori

Ammonia burns and nitrite poisioning "brown blood" can be very difficult on Koi. How well they recover depends on how bad it was to start with and how good their conditions are during recovery. They become prone to infections and if your water quality is bad they will have a tough time of it.
You will just need to watch and deal with the consequences as they arise.

[MikeM]

When ammonia or nitrite levels are causing observable symptoms, it is definitely time to intervene. For the fish, an immediate use of an ammonia-binder (such as Amquel) and light salting of the water to reduce the entry of nitrite into the fish bodies(0.1%) will be helpful. These are basic items to have on hand in the 'koi medicine chest'. Then find the source of the problem with the bio-filtration and address it. If the level of ammonia or nitrite are high, a series of large water changes are appropriate... with proper dechlorination (and ammonia-binding if chloramines are in the source water).

As Russ says, your fish have been poisoned. How they recover depends on the level of the exposure, time of exposure, size of fish, etc.

Good luck.

[bekko]

The black spots are a sign that the fish is recovering from ammonia burn. They call nitrite poisoning "brown blood disease" because the blood really is brown. The gills will look brown too. You will likely have a parasite outbreak within two weeks as a result of the stress so be on the look-out for that.

-steve