Sadly every weekend is not happy progress around our ponds. We have lost three of our koi and a fourth is looking rather iffy. My little koi fry also perished in a storm that battered the quarantine tank where some of them had hatched. (Truthfully, the aeration and pump might have been a little too strong for them as well).
Ethel the friendly chagoi was pulled out of the pond a few weeks ago because we noticed an ulcer on her side. While she was in sick bay, she jumped out of her tank and was found practically dead on the concrete ground. I think it was too much for her to come back from the stress and heal. She’s buried under one of my new black pussy willow plants.Woody, our growout kohaku was perfectly fine this morning. Since he was going to the koi show this Friday, we decided to put him in a smaller stock tank for the week. Woody looked fine for two hours but three hours after being moved, he and the two koi moved with him were starting to roll and lay sideways in the tank. Bad sign, always poor prognosis. We’re not sure what happened but this 11.25″ kohaku went downhill very quickly. 🙁Kiki is a doitsu hariwake that we sent to the quarantine take with Woody. Also took a quick dive after we noticed her laying over. Koi can be very sensitive to changes in their environment. We tested the water they were in and the parameters were perfect. Maybe it was too much stress…Jamocha is still hanging on , but looking mostly dead in a different quarantine tank. We are doing extra aeration and hoping that Jamocha will be looking better in the morning.
So today the ponds and our koi were sources of stress instead of stress relief. The pond digger worked on the sump pump for the lower pond and hopefully we can get to putting some mulch down in the lower garden. I worked on the rocks for the upper pond’s waterfall and we just might finish that tomorrow.
lower pond garden is moving along
We’re a little bummed out about our lost koi. Are koi sentient beings? I think so and feel bad we were not able to save them.
The pack of nineteen tosai on a happier day earlier this week…
