This Section Is For Advanced Hobbyists Discussing new original cutting edge Experimental and Trial Treatments and Surgical Techniques, here we take koi health and pond keeping to the next level
Hi all
Had a few problems this year flukes etc so much rain and bad temps up one minute down the next.
Fish are ok at present apart from my big komonryu she just cant get up to feed and when she does try i see her lunk for air then roar round a bit then sink to the bottom i have tried putting he in q tank with salt and raised temp up slowly to 23c but all she did was sulk there were a few feeder koi in there so she wasnt on her own she is a big fish and as usual one of my favourites so any advice would be good i had a showa do the same last year but he recovered after a couple of weeks but she has been like this for over 3 weeks now
Hi Duncan
I have tried temp up to 23c and salt at 0.3 she was in q tank for this but just became miserable so i put her back in the pond she is feeding is i give her a mussel but i have to go to her and let her try yo get to it. she is a fsirly big fish so she struggles more than normal she does go up gulp air and then whiz round for a short while but then just goes back to the bottom . the pond is fairly shallow at one end 2ft and 5ft at the other,
ok you have pretty much done most of what you can environmentally
it gets physical now you would have to pierce the swim bladder with a syringe and vacate any fluid easy enough if you understand the anatomy ?
I really have no choice Duncan its that or watching her slowly decline with ulcers underneath and eventual euthanasia.
can you give me instructions Duncan i have a picture of where the bladder should be if poss do i need to inflate the bladder at all?
This is interesting, Duncan, I'd also like to know how it should be done. Have you written about this anywhere with diagrams that show how it should be done correctly?
ok guys here tiz sorry for the delay but life gets in the way
the picture shows where you need to be, but one thing i cant help you with is to determine a 3 dimensional picture of where the needle needs to end up to be secure in the posterior air sack
so what ive done is in red pencilled the lateral line int relationship to the swim bladder and the spine
directly under the spine is an artery not visible on the xray
so position the syringe to pierce to end up where the X marks the spot and withdraw fluid ( if there is any)
don't be4 surprised if fluid is readily available if you get as much as half a litre, but: if your extract that much you need to replace it with air
the koi will inflate the bladder itself but it will take time better to help it
any question just holla but this is a seat of the pants procedure you dont wanna know what the next step is if this fails
to be honest its trial and error based on you visualising where in a three dimensional space your needle is to end up
all i can see is look down from the top and visualise how far in the needle needs to go to put it dead centre of the fish then watch the needle acheive that length as it goes in
in other words if 30mm puts you dead centre and you have a 40mm when you have10mm outside of the fish you should be where you need to be
but: dont forget the bladder has depth so you wont need to get to the middle im just making a point
