Hi Bob,

Sorry to hear this. I'm in N. NJ myself. Have you added any fish or
water plants recently? I also have a bubble bead filter and yours
might have brought something in though normally the output should
feed into the UV which tends to kill any disease that goes through it
(hopefully). If that's the only thing that's changed. However I think
it is possible that even ducks or water insects might bring something
in.

As to the melafix I've never had that cure anything for me. What are
the symptoms? Is your water from well or lines? Something could have
been put into the water in the lines is another possibility.

I have both koi and goldfish and recently had a few goldfish die. I
never saw any sick fish, just found them dead with what looks like
discoloration of the flesh beneath the skin which was fine. The last
few days no dead ones so hopefully whatever that was it was self
limiting. Make sure to remove the dead fish as soon as possible. I
put them out on the lawn and the local fox eats them.

Anyway first defense is always salt 1lb up to 3lbs /100 gallons added
gradually over a day. 1lb has always done it for me. You need to be
sure to use pure salt without additives found in some water softener
salts.

Let us know how it goes,
Edgar



On Jul 8, 2009, at 12:07 PM, Bob Cutrupi wrote:

>
>
> Hi, I'm a new member and I have a big prob;em with my koi pond. I
> live in NJ and have had 2 Koi ponds for 10 years. Recently I have
> had a major problem with my big pond. Its a 5000 gallon pond. The
> fish in the pond are 5-8 years old. Most are 18-24 inches long and
> very healthy. A third of the fish are actually babies that grew up.
> The pond has maintained 23 large fish for many years. I have had no
> deaths until recently. In June 2009 I bought a used Bead Filter
> that was used by a pond store indoors. I always had ultraviolet
> lights - but I decided to add a new unit with 6 bulbs. I use a
> skimmer as well. I dont over feed them - once or twice a day - as
> much as they can eat in 2-3 minutes.
>
> The water never looked better.
>
> In the last week I have lost 10 of my 23 Koi. I started treating my
> pond with Melafix 2 days ago. Three fish died since the treatment
> started but I believe they were already weakened.
>
> I bought a testing kit and before I added any Melafix I got the
> following results:
>
> 1) pH - 8.0
> 2) Amonia - 0
> 3) Nitrite - 0
> 4) Salt .50
> 5) Phosphate - . 50
> 6) KH - 135 ppm
>
> I added a little more salt then started treating with Melafix.
> Today I added a broad spectrum antibiotic that turned the water blue.
>
> Do you think my fish could have caught something from the used bead
> filter?
>
> My little pond is doing great and its next to the infected pond. I
> have made sure not to use any nets or equipment that is used in the
> big pond.
>
> I am going to have a necropsy done on the next fish that dies.
>
> Any advice you can give me would be highly appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Bob Cutrupi
>
>
>



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