It’s been a bitter sweet week so far.
I finished the patio, we got the gazebo up, and table and chairs setup. Our swing we ordered was missing the stand. It was in a second box that apparently never shipped due to an error. Now that will have to wait.
Then yesterday morning I go to check fish and turn on lights. Immediately I see one of my new koi dead? And a second one barely hanging on. I pull them both out and grab my microscope and water test kit.
As I’m still testing the first fish a third starts to freak out. It smacks into the glass a couple times then seems weak and starts floating sideways.
Im panicing and heartbroken at this point.
All scrapes look fine. No movement on slides from any of the three fish. I even tested the third one before it died to be sure I’m not missing som that leaves them immediately after death. Nothing.
Water results show Ammonia 1, nitrite wasn’t 0 But wasn't the full color of .25 either. PH was 8.2 I never got around to doing any other tests before filling it back up.
Outwardly they looked perfect. I checked mouths and gills and those looked normal too. I didn’t see evidence of ammonia burns, but the water was obviously a problem.
While doing the last scrap and scope a fourth koi was starting to act the same way. I netted it out, placed it in a bucket, and ran it outside. After slowly diluting the tank water with pond water it calmed down and perked up.
My husband kept insisting we put all the koi outside. I really didn’t want to since it hasn’t been long that we’ve had them and I don’t want to loose all the koi if there is a problem I can’t find or am missing.
Ultimately after seeing how well the one outside was doing I was too scared to leave the rest in the house. I tested the pond and ammonia was 0, nitrite 0, and nitrates hardly detectable.
Ive taken a huge gamble and let them go in the pond. I’m really hoping I didn’t make a giant mistake.
So far they have been doing great outside and the older koi haven’t given them too much trouble. Just followed them around for a couple hours to check them out.
Now for the fun part. A few pictures.
Walkways will be next. And we haven’t decided what/if we will put some type of edging around the patio. I’ll just have to sit around and observe it for a while till I decide ?