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Marietta, Georgia, 30062
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KoiCrisis - Koi and Pond Fish in Trouble? Help with Koi & Pond Fish - Medications for Koi

Site Links

Symptoms Finder
You'll get a picture of the koi / goldfish, you click on the koi fish where it's sick, or choose from several other behavioral options that your koi may be exhibiting.
Sample Submission
Koi and pond fish samples may be run directly at KoiLab or move to UGA for testing at basic cost price. When you send a koi or pond fish to Koilab, the diagnosis, sample collection from whole koi and goldfish, and consultation included.
What KoiCrisis Is For

OutBound Links

KoiVet.com
Probably the first and largest all-Koi health site on the web. Searchable, with chat and message board areas. Content by a veterinarian for fish and author, Dr. Erik Johnson.
KoiLab.com
If you're curious about the latest in Koi health, Koi Lab is where it's being learned. There are no "committees" and no "motions" to determine if we should learn something. Just clinical experience. It's a koi hospital.

Koi Beginner
Once you've leapfrogged through this tutorial you will have a solid, working concept of the Koi hobby and what it's all about. This is done just about exclusively with video and very little written material.

DrJohnson.com
More than koi health, this site spans all things animal, by a real veterinarian who shoots you straight.

Additional Resources

KoiFiltration.com
Non retail: All filtration, all the time. Site was designed for someone who wanted a balanced overview with illustrations and pictures. All types of filtration considered including Nexus, Vortex, bead, sponge, canister, etc.
KoiNutrition.com
Non retail: Just feeding, feed, and food. It's not a retail web site, it's all about different foods, feeding and nutrition.

Koi and Pond Hard Goods
So many places these days, are pure ripoffs. Finding a reputable dealer of koi and pond hard goods isn't as easy as you would think but there's ways to tell. The product line should be to-the-point and not contain shams. Who's doing it right? Visit this site!

Finding Reputable Dealers
The fish are only as good as the dealer holding them. Quarantines, guarantees and fish quality all factor in. What to ask, what to see and how to handle your new fish.

Books on Koi Diseases
You will be introduced to Dr Johnson's Koi Health book but also to other books he's reviewed.

Help With Koi Problems
Koi Community rates a variety of forums and message boards on ease of use, friendliness and quality of help. Not all boards are created equal. Not mincing words here.

Diseases or Disorders of the Belly Area

There are three distinct defects which you may see in the belly area of the fish.

Belly is swollen or bulging on one side
Belly is swollen all over and no scales seem to be raised.
Belly is swollen all over and 100% of the scales are raised.

Belly is swollen or bulging on one side

When you see this presentation, sometimes it is normal, and sometimes it is not. If the fish is a goldfish, and it's a male, you may notice that the body is SLIGHTLY peanut shaped, with a bulge on the right and a convex surface on the left. It's VERY subtle. If the assymmetry is noticeable to all, then it is NOT normal. If there is a bulge on one side of the fish, an ULTRASOUND should be done by a veterinarian trained in fish medicine to determine the content of the bulge, and then to determine if the bulge is a feasible surgical target. What if the services of a veterinarian are not available? The fish which is affected by a bulge on one side, can sometimes be diagnosed by anesthetizing it in Oil of Cloves. A small knick incision can be made over the bulge, and the content of the bulge can then be observed directly. If pus is recovered, the

bulge is probably caused by an abscess. A professional can open this lesion more and debride it. Closure of either the small diagnostic knick incision or the major open debridement is made via the modified figure-8 pattern

Belly is swollen all over and no scales seem to be raised.
Again, When you see this presentation, sometimes it is normal, and sometimes it is not. If the fish is a goldfish, and it's a male, you may notice that the body is SLIGHTLY peanut shaped, with a bulge on the right and a convex surface on the left. It's VERY subtle. If the assymmetry is noticeable to all, then it is NOT normal. If there is a bulge on one side of the fish, an ULTRASOUND should be done by a veterinarian trained in fish medicine to determine the content of the bulge, and then to determine if the bulge is a feasible surgical target.

Belly is swollen all over and 100% of the scales are raised.
This presentation is Dropsy. Dropsy, also known as Bloater or Pinecone disease, is usually caused by bacterial invasion of the fishes' kidney.
There IS a sporozooan parasite that can damage the Kidney this way, called Mitraspora cyprini, but I have yet to see this on a necropsy.
Dropsy is, for all intents and purposes, untreatable, based on 7 years experience, using the following drugs: Azactam, Baytril, Chloramphenicol, Gentamicin, and Amikacin. I have tried a Sulfa drug, brand name Albon, and that did not resolve the problem either.
Bacterial dropsy is usually caused by Aeromonas or Pseudomonas bacteria. By the time the fish "blows up" and the scales protrude form the body, the damage to the kidney is so profound that recovery is impossible. If you must try to save the fish, Isolate the specimen, elevate temps while elevating oxygenation, and begin injecting antibiotics intraperitoneally. You could also feed the antibiotics in a medicated feed, see additional data, here.

Action Items
+ Considering that any process which predisposes a single fish to bacterial infection ALSO predisposes its mates to the same fate, ALL fish should be treated to impeccable water quality, minimal crowding, excellent feeding practices, and then whatever antimicrobial you choose to use for the infection.	+ To learn more about surgeries in Koi and Goldfish, please key word search "surgery" at: http://www.koivet.com and note the link to Flipover surgery at http://www.koivet.org
+ Obtain medicated food here.	+ Scalpel blades are usually available from your veterinary surgeon or perhaps a blade could be obtained from a hobby shop. Suture material is available here.

DrJohnson.com
More than koi health, this site spans all things animal, by a real veterinarian who shoots you straight.

Fishdoc.co.uk
By Frank Prince-Iles. A UK authority who put this site together some time ago and which is still relied upon as a major source of good Koi and pond fish information

Fish Medicines
Learn about fish medicines, what they do, and where to get them.

PondCrisis.com
If you have a koi, pond or fish problem, this site takes you through twenty easy questions and at the end you know what you need to fix in your pond to create restored Koi health.

KoiCrisis.com
Koi Crisis has a symptoms chart by system you can choose the symptom by fish part, and resolve a lot of Koi pond fish problems or at least, learn about them understand how to remedy them.

Buying Domestic Koi
What does "Domestic" koi mean? Why would you buy that kind? How do you pick good and healthy ones? Who sells them and where do you find the best ones?

Buying Imported Koi
A Japanese or Israeli imported Koi is a beautiful thing. Why would you buy one of those? How do you identify a "good one"? And what kinds are there? Who would you buy one from?

Koi Filtration - Bead
With a little bit of management every week or so, you can have gin clear water in your koi or fish pond. Bead filtration is more than ten years old and defines the state of the art in Koi and pond fish ponds.

Koi Filtration - Natural
Requiring no weekly management but one big yearly overhaul, natural filtration is the easiest there is. Relying on live plants and organic processes, water quality is usually superb. Described and common mistakes illustrated, visit this site!

Koi Food & Feeding
What should you feed your koi? How many times per day? Is Corn really that bad in a Koi diet? What are the most common feeding mistakes people make? What's the best food?