Simply Koi and More Koi

I'm also sorry to hear your sad news but, if it's any comfort, at least you tried your best to save her.

I must admit that I've never needed to try this but, if you could see the undigested shells on the floor, it would quickly show that a suspected swim bladder problem wasn't due to constipation. My wife used to feed sweetcorn as treat and we could see the shells the bottom of the pond until the botto...

David, This is very much Duncan's area but here's a suggestion about feeding peas. When I first heard of this, the idea was that constipation could cause swim bladder problems and that peas might help. It was said that, to prove that the peas had actually passed through the gut rather than also bein...

Susan, Koi can suffer from hardness shock if the KH is raised too quickly. This is unlikely to be fatal but will stress them for a day or more (according to how dramatic is the rise) and that will compromise the immune system so that they will be at risk of succumbing to something they might have ot...

You've had two good answers already but you don't appear to have been given the best information by the person who originally advised you. I'm guessing that you were told that pH variations can be limited by increasing the KH. This is correct but increasing the KH with proprietary products or compou...

Blimey Duncan, I was feeling rather pleased with myself for a similar diagram I produced to demonstrate how fish respiration worked but that was just a diagram and you've well and truly trumped me with your video. I'm off for a little sulk, back later.....

I've never had to deal with such an issue but I recall Paula telling me about something similar where she anaesthetised a fish and found that the lower jaw was dislocated. She then described how she manipulated it back into position. I wouldn't like to try to describe the procedure but it would do n...

Nick, The Hanna, in common with other electronic test equipment, uses a test method called the Nessler method (increasingly deep shades of yellow as the ammonia level increases) and this method cannot distinguish between ammonia and aldehydes. Formalin is made from formaldehyde which is obviously an...

One of the reasons why I think this forum isn't as busy as some others is that it isn't a place where people regularly go to chatter about their latest koi etc. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but there are many places where they can do that. There is a "chit chat" section for ...

I don't suppose there's any chance that she could return it and exchange it for something else you might want because the repair I was talking about consists mainly of replacing a gasket at well under £20 and isn't complicated if you know how. It might even just need cleaning or a bead or piece of g...

It's likely that it's leaking to waste through the multiport. Undo the union leading from the waste port and see if there's water coming out of it. If it is leaking let me know and I'll tell you what to do next to make a proper repair but there's a quick temporary fix. Using some liner material or s...

Sorry missed this one. The flow rate through a filter ideally should be enough to give the pond at least a one hour turnover so the pump flow rate should sufficient to achieve this after friction losses and head losses are taken into account.

Thanks for that Duncan, very interesting as usual.

Without a picture I'm not completely sure how your system is plumbed and what level drop it will tolerate before the flow into the last chamber becomes less than the rate at which water is being pumped out but these are some general principles that may help. It is frequently said that the flow you c...

Thanks Duncan.