Why Koi Fish Die Every Day in your Ponds? – I wrote this article specifically for beginner Koi keepers, who every day experience the death of their pet Koi. This is very worrying and certainly makes you wonder, what causes koi fish to die in ponds every time you buy a new Koi, even though you have tried your best to care for them.
Principles of Maintaining Koi Fish
Please note that the most important thing in keeping koi is maintaining the quality of the water. So in principle, if you are able to care for the water so that it remains of good quality, then naturally your Koi fish will also be able to live a healthy life.
Perhaps the question is how to care for water that suits the needs of Koi fish. Regarding this, you need to increase your knowledge about water quality, including water parameters that are suitable for koi fish, correct filtering techniques and how to maintain water.
Causes of Koi Fish Die Every Day
If you often experience death of your koi, especially when you have just bought koi fish, then the following are important things you need to know about the causes of koi dying every day. There are several possible causes of koi fish dying in ponds, namely:
1. Unfiltered or Inadequate Filter
If your pond is not equipped with a filter, whether you like it or not, you have to make one! But if there is already a filter building, the first thing you need to check is the volume or capacity of the filter chamber in your pond.
Try to calculate again, how much volume is there in the filter chamber, is it sufficient compared to the volume of water? Ideally, the volume of the filter chamber is at least 30% of the water volume. How to calculate the volume is to use a mathematical formula, namely:
Volume : L x W x H (length x width x height)
If the volume of the filter chamber is not sufficient, then the ability of the filter is not optimal in maintaining water quality.
2. New Pond
Has your pond just been built? If yes, then it is very risky for your Koi fish. A pond that has just been built or has just been built is not safe enough to keep koi fish. Why is that? Because the new pond, even though it already has a filteration system, has not been able to produce quality water that is comfortable for koi.
If you are a new pond owner, be patient, don’t rush into raising expensive koi fish, because the risk of koi dying in a new pond is very high. Wait until 2 months later, so that the condition of your filter room is mature, so that the function of the biological filter in your filter room can be relied on to maintain the quality of the water.
Read also : Blue Polar Parrot Cichlids
3. Extreme Changes in Pond Conditions
What is meant by extreme changes here include:
a. Changing Water Too much
For example, you change too much water or drain all the water and replace it with new water. Koi are very vulnerable to sudden water changes. Never change too much water let alone drain it out and replace it with new water.
If you need to change the water, a maximum of 30% is enough. Don’t change the water too often, preferably once every 2 weeks, as long as your filter system has sufficient capacity. If the filter capacity is inadequate, the consequence is that you have to change the water more often, for example every 2 or 3 days, a maximum of 20%.
b. Cleaning or Replacing the Filter Media
Another extreme change is when you clean or replace the filter media. If the filter media looks dirty and is blocking the water flow, then you can clean it or replace it with a new one, but not all at once.
It is not recommended to clean or replace the filter media all at once.
Replace or clean the filter media in stages. For example, if you want to replace or clean the bioball or Jap mat, then half it first, and wait 2 weeks or preferably a month then do it again.
c. Heavy rain
The rainy season has the potential to cause extreme changes in the condition of the water. Especially for those of you who own outdoor ponds, it is highly recommended that you install a pond cover to avoid changes in ponds water due to heavy rain.
Rainwater contains particles or substances that may be different from water, especially pH. However, different regions have different rainwater conditions. If heavy rain occurs, and the pH of the rainwater is too low or too high compared to the pH of your water, then there will be sudden extreme changes in the water. This makes your Koi feel uncomfortable or stressed. Stressed koi will be susceptible to disease.
d. Giving too much feed (over feeding)
Koi fish are very greedy and have a high appetite. However, it is advisable for you to feed just enough, don’t overfeed.
Koi only need food per day weighing 2-3% of their body weight.
So you don’t need to feed too much. it’s useless, not accelerating growth but instead being wasted as dirt that contaminates water. Especially if you have just bought a Koi. If there are new Koi, just give them a little food first. Wait after a month, do the feeding normally.
4. No Quarantine Process
If you buy Koi, don’t immediately enter the main pond, but do the quarantine process first, for at least 14 days. Why is that?
Because new Koi are in a state of stress and are also likely to be sick or carriers of disease (carriers). That’s why a quarantine process is needed. The purpose of koi quarantine is to return the Koi to normal conditions and to ensure that the koi are truly in good health.
You must have a koi quarantine facility, especially for caring for sick and newly arrived koi fish. If you are determined to bring in Koi without a quarantine process, then don’t regret it if your Koi’s health has problems or even existing koi can become infected with disease.
Thus the article causes koi fish to die in the pond, hopefully this is useful..
Source : Doni Bastian @ Gila Koi – Indonesian Koi Kichi
https://arsip.gilakoi.my.id/mengapa-koi-banyak-mati-di-kolam-baru/
