Handling of Koi for a Pond!!!

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Sadielynne
Posts: 77
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 9:17 am

Handling of Koi for a Pond!!!

Post by Sadielynne » Sun Jun 01, 2014 4:18 pm

AM I OFF MY ROCKER?????? :lol:
A good friend has moved into a new house that has a beautiful yard and pond! She has no experience with ponds (the Pond Doctor in her city got it cleaned and running), but when she told me that the people at the pet store told her to just dump the fish in the water, I ABOUT HAD A HEART ATTACKI!!!!!! :shock: I said you don't ever dump fish in the water - that you have to float them, etc. In fact, I reminded her that I had told her that before she got the pond going!! She had told me OK and did tell the people (at the pet store) that I had said that and they said "no, they'll be OK". She didn't listen to me (a friend of 36 yrs, too!!) and did dump them in!! She said they seem to be OK. :shock:

The other thing that made me cringe and scream (haha!) was, when the girl was catching the fish one got caught in the net with it's pectoral fins (I suppose) and the owner asked what she was doing! She said catching the fish, etc. and was then told by the owner that you don't scoop them out with the net, you scoop them out by hand, when the net is at the top of the water!!

Of course, I go "WHAT???" I know fish get caught, but I would never pick them out by hand! AGAIN, am I off my rocker??? Reading the reviews of this place was interesting as there were many negative reviews!!

Diana
Posts: 4675
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:35 am
Location: Near San Franciso

Re: Handling of Koi for a Pond!!!

Post by Diana » Fri Jul 04, 2014 1:07 pm

There is a method of quick introduction, and it works if the water parameters are the same:
GH, KH, pH, TDS, temperature.
"Plop... plop... drop"
1) Add a squirt of ammonia locking product to the bag.
2) Add an electrolyte product to the bag and tank (pond).
3) Drop the fish in the tank, water from the bag is optional, but not recommended.

Concept:
The fish have been in the bag, respiring. The water in the bag is more acidic from the CO2. Any ammonia (can be a lot- fish under stress produce a lot of ammonia) will be in the form of ammonium, the less toxic form.
Open the bag, release the CO2 and the pH of the water rises, turning the ammonium into the more toxic ammonia. You want to get the fish out of that water ASAP.
Make the water similar by adding the electrolytes to both tank and bag. (I don't quite understand this- the fish are not in the bag long enough to adjust to the electrolytes)
Then dump the fish into the tank. If you can net them out or catch them by hand and keep the store water (possibly loaded with diseases and parasites, and definitely high in ammonia) out of your tank this is best.

Catch by hand can be done, but I would add a slime coat enhancer (Stress Zyme or similar) to the water. I catch Endlers that way, but these are small fish and my hand holds a bubble of water to surround the fish. Larger fish are in direct contact with the skin of your hand, and this might disturb the slime coat.
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.

Happy fish keeping!

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