Terri
02-23-2005, 10:29 AM
I received this from a very nice lady not to long ago and she has given me permission to pass her experience on...
Good evening Terri:
Remember me the lady from Victoria, BC with the puzzling problem with my koi??? Just a word to share with you the experience we have been going through. Maybe it can help someone else, who knows!
When I got my koi inside for the winter in at the end of September, little did I know that I would have to deal with a nasty problem. My koi had had a perfect summer and were so happy, vigourous and healthy. I had transfered all my filters with the biologic bed and of course my readings were always perfect. Early November, I started to notice a change in some of my little guys and I lost one, then another one... I have done everything humanely possible to give them the perfect conditions. I could not understand what in the world was wrong. We did scapings, no parasites. One by one I tried to eliminate the possible sources or causes of stress, analyzing all products and procedure, and one morning in December it hit me. I was doing my water changes from inside the house using the shower head from a bathroom downstairs next to the room where the pool with the koi is located. I was using a hose and hooking it up and was doing my water changes using the hot and cold water miser. It had to be the water from the water heater I thought. It had to be the pipes. There had to be something toxic in the water.
I took a sample from the hot water I was using, I went to a lab here in Sidney and met with the microbiologist Wendy overthere and sure enough when the results came back a week later, the mystery was not a mystery anymore. The result for Copper was 6 times the normal value. I had a 0.91 reading when it should have had a max of 0.014 for freshwater fish. My little guys were poisoned. The consequences on their immune systems were tremendous. I did some research on copper toxicity and I learned a lot.
Even before the results came in I was so sure that I had already started to change the water with the exterior faucet I had used all summer without problem. The water is colder for sure but I do smaller water changes to upset them as little as possible. I detoxified the water and little by little got rid of the contaminated water. The copper poisoning was severe and I lost some of my favorite guys. Fortunately the remaining ones are still very healthy but I lost a tancho, two ogon, two kohaku and two showa ... they were all 10 to 14 inches. Right now I am adding Bentonite clay to detoxify their bodies and sure enough the second addition cleared up the water and the fish now are just perky and happy. They eat like little pigs and fight for the oranges, peas and other food. I am still waiting for my komunryu to come back to life... he was the last one to get lethargic.
There you have it. A decision to take water from inside to avoid water temperature fluctuation that was very costly. If you ever come across a similar situation please share this experience and if it can help anyone to avoid deadly consequences then "good".
Good evening Terri:
Remember me the lady from Victoria, BC with the puzzling problem with my koi??? Just a word to share with you the experience we have been going through. Maybe it can help someone else, who knows!
When I got my koi inside for the winter in at the end of September, little did I know that I would have to deal with a nasty problem. My koi had had a perfect summer and were so happy, vigourous and healthy. I had transfered all my filters with the biologic bed and of course my readings were always perfect. Early November, I started to notice a change in some of my little guys and I lost one, then another one... I have done everything humanely possible to give them the perfect conditions. I could not understand what in the world was wrong. We did scapings, no parasites. One by one I tried to eliminate the possible sources or causes of stress, analyzing all products and procedure, and one morning in December it hit me. I was doing my water changes from inside the house using the shower head from a bathroom downstairs next to the room where the pool with the koi is located. I was using a hose and hooking it up and was doing my water changes using the hot and cold water miser. It had to be the water from the water heater I thought. It had to be the pipes. There had to be something toxic in the water.
I took a sample from the hot water I was using, I went to a lab here in Sidney and met with the microbiologist Wendy overthere and sure enough when the results came back a week later, the mystery was not a mystery anymore. The result for Copper was 6 times the normal value. I had a 0.91 reading when it should have had a max of 0.014 for freshwater fish. My little guys were poisoned. The consequences on their immune systems were tremendous. I did some research on copper toxicity and I learned a lot.
Even before the results came in I was so sure that I had already started to change the water with the exterior faucet I had used all summer without problem. The water is colder for sure but I do smaller water changes to upset them as little as possible. I detoxified the water and little by little got rid of the contaminated water. The copper poisoning was severe and I lost some of my favorite guys. Fortunately the remaining ones are still very healthy but I lost a tancho, two ogon, two kohaku and two showa ... they were all 10 to 14 inches. Right now I am adding Bentonite clay to detoxify their bodies and sure enough the second addition cleared up the water and the fish now are just perky and happy. They eat like little pigs and fight for the oranges, peas and other food. I am still waiting for my komunryu to come back to life... he was the last one to get lethargic.
There you have it. A decision to take water from inside to avoid water temperature fluctuation that was very costly. If you ever come across a similar situation please share this experience and if it can help anyone to avoid deadly consequences then "good".