Stress / Disease *need help*

[PapaBear]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sangreaal ...As far as the original poster's problems with koi freaking, flashing and breaching in a tank setup, I would bet there was something in the water burning them, most likely ammonia, chlorine or a PH crash. That behavior speaks loudly of a serious water problem to me. If the filtration isn't enough to filter 100 gallons like it's 1,000, then filtration is/was the culprit. Just my take on things, Marie

I guess great minds think alike.
Our small QT/hospital tank (85 gallon) has a filter rated for a 750 gallon pond.
Anything less and I'm dead certain that every time we fed the water quality would plunge. As it is the overfiltration keeps everything stable and healthy.

[Sangreaal]

Quote: Originally Posted by Kyrol In my quest to find out what’s been slowly causing my Koi to die off I found your forums and have been reading for a few days and still haven’t found what is causing my issues. First and fore most the tank set up. (temp tank for them till big enough to send to the pond) 55 gallon tank Tetra Whisper under gravel filter Tetra Whisper 40-60 filter Tetra Whisper 40 air pump 36inchs of air stone

Going back and re-reading your post, I can see where your problem is originating--poor filtration. Remove the under gravel filter. It'll harbor nasties in no time at all and is an unnecessary bummer to clean. Your 40-60 Tetra Whisper is just not enough--that rating is for sparsely populated tanks of small tropical fish and not for a dirty freshwater pond fish like a koi or goldfish. For example, better to go with TWO Hagen Aquaclear 300 filters or better and get rid of your gravel completely for a bare bottomed tank, or seriously cut down on gravel so it's no more than 1/4" deep, then vacuum it every few days. Even better would be a good 4-5 stage cannister filter, and if you have more than 3-4 five-inch fish, the cannister AND two Aquaclears would be a minimum filtration system and you'll still have to do 25% water changes at least once per week.

Looks like you're good to go on the air, and my suggestions are only illustrations of how much filtration you should have when keeping carp in a small aquarium. There are a gazillion ways to make your system work for you--just make sure you're greatly overfiltering or you'll have this problem ad infinitum.

Koi grow fast and they'll outgrow that 55 gallon before you know it. What size is your outside pond? Is it new, too? Does it have fish in it already? Is it filtered?

[bekko]

I think it's a virus. How do the gills look?

-s