A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Fish detox?

Hey guys,

I was offered some pond koi from a friend of a friend and I would like to add them to my AP system but I do not know how to do a 'fishy detox' to make sure they will not bring any contaminates or other not-so-fun stuff into my system. I tried looking it up but the Internet has let me down. Maybe I am searching for the information with the wrong keywords... Help please :)

Thanks,
-Jess

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bill Swearingen on February 16, 2014 at 11:28pm

Hi Jessica,
Bill here, I know quite a bit about koi health. First off you need to consider the pond that they are now in. Are they well taken care of? Any signs of parasites? The water temp is just now beginning to raise enough to trigger a rise in parisitic activity and hunger in koi. Spring is the season where a lot of problems accur. Most serious problems are associate with poor water quality. Parasites love decaying organics in the bottom of poorly kept ponds. If you suspect any health issues, I would urge caution and a microscope. Treatment should be done PRiOR to you bringing them to there new home if at all possible. This will allow for more aggressive treatment. You don't want to use most typical koi meds in your AP system. I do have a scope and have allot of experience spotting the enemy.

Permalink Reply by Tom Hack on February 16, 2014 at 11:34pm

Jess,

Lookup quaranteen. I would call a pond company like Total Pond in Roseville. They carry a variety of treatmeant products for Koi.

Tom

Permalink Reply by Jessica Johnson on February 17, 2014 at 8:39am

Thanks for the info!

Bill- I have not seen them yet but I was planning on keeping them in our backup tank until I am sure they are healthy, I will PM you if I see anything funny I cant identify =) I am thinking it might be better to get some larger fish from a breeder (or other APer). I was just curious if I could make it work since I need more fish and they offered. Makes me nervous that this is the time of year when problems occur and the pond was discribed as "on the property when they purchased the house and they dont want the koi". We eat out of this system, want to keep it as healthy as possible.

Tom- I will check them out! I visit my parents in Roseville often.

Thanks again for your time answering questions, I really appriciate it!

-Jess

Permalink Reply by Janet Little on February 18, 2014 at 1:49pm

Most people just quarantine by themselves in another tank for a while to make sure there are no parasites or pathogens on them. After 30 days they get a clean bill of health and can join the system.