Koi adventure at Fish Story Aquarium and Rescue, Naples, FL

[thebiggerthebetter]

A couple of unexplained deaths, showa and sanke. These were okay one week. Then the next got "soft", couldn't swim, and died. I've no thoughts except maybe i let the water get too hard for too long for the sake of the sturgeon, wels, and the redfish in the same tank and water system (unwittingly; haven't thought that the continuous water change decreased due to a leak; while I am continuously adding a little of hard, raw well water to the 25K to up the hardness). I corrected this.

One of the 24"-ers (still alive and feeding well) has been developing dropsy, retaining fluid. IDK what to do about that because I dont know the root cause. Perhaps that elevated water hardness and elevated TDS were stressing out the koi a bit too much. According to my measurements, the hardness before correction rose to around 10-12 degrees.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

About 2ft new arrival, long fin, from Randy, a fellow rescuer from Fort Myers, FL:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

The rescues from Carissa, the koi and the goldfish, have been doing well, growing in 240 gal:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

We got some golden orfe aka ide aka Leuciscus idus in our cyprinid exhibit now too. It is a challenge and an experiment as ide likes cooler water (in nature usually no more than 65-70 F), or more oxygen to be more exact, than what is typically found in subtropical Florida.

We kept a couple dozen of golden orfe when we lived in Rochester, NY and we brought them with us when we moved to Florida in 2011 (they were already about 18"-20") but the water in our makeshift ponds proved too oxygen depleted for them and they swiftly perished.

These new orfes I tried to get into the exhibit during the cooler season and it took two tries but the first one was unsuccessful (all 6 perished) because the vendor used too little water and didn't thermally insulate the shipping box. Second attempt was better, 4 of 5 live today. They came in Jan-Feb 2020 at 8"-9" and are today around 14"-16".

Will report how they do through the hot season when our water in this exhibit can be as warm as 85 F.

Out of 5 golden orfe aka Leuciscus idus we got in Jan 2020 at 8"-9", four survived by Apr 2020.

One more died for an unknown reason in Jul 2020 at 14".

And now one more passed in Jan 2022 at 16". I think the reason for this loss was that our water change has slowed down too much - I waited too long to buy 6 new RO membranes. The WC was like 100% in 3-4 weeks, versus 3-4 days when the RO membranes are fresh. Even though the TDS was still around 300-350 ppm, that is quite acceptable, I think this is the reason behind this orfe passing and the unexplained losses of koi over the past year or two.

There is no any other reason I can think of that'd be even remotely possible.

Tummy removal courtesy of vulture catfish 4-pack that now lives in the 25K gal.

We are down to two now






...

I think the same did in this 26" kohaku rescue several months ago too:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Eleven feedings. Some footage of koi man-handling 8" herring, the perpetually hungry bastards:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Plenty of koi photobombing footage:

Full video:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Feeding the smaller rescue koi and gf in 240 gal:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

 

[Woefulrelic]

Eleven feedings. Some footage of koi man-handling 8" herring, the perpetually hungry bastards:

Is that cat an Attu? Bro looks like he could clean that tank down to 1. Beautiful tank and stock, so much movement and so much to appreciate.

Edit: I watched a video with sound and found out it's a wells, I'm not a catfish guy ?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Three salt baths at 3% and one permanganate bath at 5 ppm: