….but the Pond Digger never gives up on the koi if they look like they might have the smallest spark of life.

Our koi that stayed in an indoor garage tank and developed a pop eyed was definitely dead when we returned from a 24 hour trip to Iowa. Zuzu’s two tank mates seem fine so we changed out a little more water than usual and will continue to watch them.

The outdoor ponds are melting and it’s getting easier to film what’s happening under the ice. Yesterday afternoon the GoPro footage revealed one of the koi looking pretty dead next to the bottom drain. The Pond Digger came home from work and went to remove the dead koi since it will create poor water conditions as it deteriorates. Of course, little Ika twitched a bit in the net and the Pond Digger said “let’s set up sick bay.” I was not so sure because this koi looked pretty dead…In the process of netting Ika, he also netted a few other koi of similar size who looked in good to weak condition. Wintering outdoors in Minnesota can be tough.

Once sick bay was set up, we added a little bit of meds, some salt and the pond digger set up a filtration system. After an hour he declared that Ika looked mostly alive. Twelve hours later, we checked on the koi in the sick bay tank. The pond digger’s efforts have successfully revived our mostly dead koi. Ika is still looking a little on the weak side but we are hopeful that like Cha Cha (last year’s revival koi…) this koi will be in the pond and not the fire pit this spring.