My Koi is acting sick! I need some help diagnosing him.?

Question

I have two small koi in a 3 gallon aquarium. A couple of days ago, I found that one of them was wedged between two fronds of the fake anemone display in the tank. I was able to pull the fronds away from the fish without harming him, but now he is hanging around the bottom of the tank, with clamped fins, and not eating. He sometimes will seem to tip on his side a little. I also notice that he has lost color (from pale orange to white) and his eyes look dull and cloudy. They also seem to pop a little, although I think koi eyes do that anyway??

I researched this on the internet, and it sounds maybe like "cloudy eye" but since he was stuck in the display I thought maybe he was scratching himself on it. Now I am wondering if he is losing his vision....

I am so confused as there are so many factors, and I don't know how long these symptoms have been showing and I just haven't noticed.

Can anyone diagnose this? If this is bacterial, what is the best medicine to treat it? I read that Melafix doesn't work very well.

Oh, I checked the ph of the water, the nitrite/nitrates and ammonia levels and they are all perfect.

Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

quarantine that infected koi add rocksalt and methylene blue with good aeration.

kOi keeper & goldfish keeper.

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/world...

Answer 2

it sounds like your fish has ick. you can buy medicine for it at any walmart or pet store. call a good pet store and tell them the symptoms. they will help you with everything. also have you got a ph testing kit. i know that koi can live in some harsh environments but the better the environment the healthier the fish. also if you are using tap water STOP if you really care about these fish spend the money to buy bottled water. sodium free

Answer 3

Depending on where you get your fish, You really are never gauranteed they are not sick. I will not buy fish from Petco they have one filter system for 6 tanks. So one sick fish is put in one  tank the sick water filters to all six tanks and all the weak and stressewd fish will get sick, and they sell them that way. You need to always check out the fish closely before buying.

Fish aren't really that stupid and he probably started to get sick and thats where he landed and tried to hide to die. I am so sorry about him. I think you did all you could

. http://flickr.com/photos/29035692@N03/se...

Answer 4

Umm it is because you are keeping koi in a 3 gallon aquarium. I don't know what else is going on but garuntee most of your problems are from that. First of all Koi grow huge and the fact that they are still small after having them for three years is not a good sign. When fish are put into too small of a tank their organs keep growing (slower of course) but their bodies do not. Eventually there organs will out grow their bodies and they will die. It is a very slow painful death. It is possible that your fish got hurt when it got stuck but because of not being in proper conditions it can not handle the stress that most fish would be able to withstand. You can't reverse the damage already done but at least upgrade your fish to a 55 gallon tank for the time being.

Edit: Ok well believe what you want but you can ask any fish expert on here that is known to give good advice and they will tell you exactly what I just told you. Actually do some research yourself and you would find that what I am saying is completely true.

Answer 5

Well, one time my brother won this goldfish from a fair. He was really cool and everything (we even named him copper.) We changed his water regularly and everythign and then he started acting really weird a few days later with similar symptoms- no real appetite, hanging and not swimming really. He eventually died a few days later.

You seem like a really nice, easy caretaker for your fish. It's great to have you as a responsible caretaker :) And maybe he's just suffering from an illness hopefully.

Good Luck