Category : Articles in the Top Ten

Healthy koi keeping As a beginner it is easy to get the impression that the skill of koi keeping is knowing how to treat health and disease problems. Not true! While this is often seen as proper hands-on fish keeping, the real skill in any kind of fish-keeping lays in preventing  health problems. The skilled koi-keeper is not ..

Read more

When disease is suspected Any unusual behaviour or changes in physical condition often indicate a health problem. As already stated, it is impossible to make a firm diagnosis based purely on ‘symptoms’ or clinical signs. However, careful observation of symptoms helps to reduce the number of possible causes. See clinical signs- a guide to common problems Making ..

Read more

Don’t just guess what the problem is! Guess or diagnosis? Let me say right from the start that it is just not possible to diagnose fish disease and health problems without first examining the affected fish and possibly the fish’s environment. After all, would you trust a doctor who told you what was wrong with you ..

Read more

Diagnosing Fish Disease It is not possible to diagnose fish disease purely on the basis of  behaviour or physical changes. These “clinical signs” that something is wrong can be useful as pointers to possible problems. However, many of these clinical signs can be caused by more than one disease condition, which is why further examination ..

Read more

“Look after the water and the fish will look after themselves.” That just about sums up just how important water quality is to fish health. Indeed, unless conditions are right, fish health problems, disease and fish losses will follow as sure as night follows day. The birth of water How water is formed: oh, and by the ..

Read more

Prevention is better and cheaper than cure! Fish disease can be both highly distressing, and in many cases, costly both in treatment and replacement costs. A key aim is encourage prevention via regular water testing and husbandry. This is particularly important with koi ponds and their often-high stocking levels and reliance on biological filtration for ..

Read more

Water quality and fish health The single, most important factor affecting fish health and influencing disease in fish ponds and tanks is water quality. Raised levels of ammonia or nitrite, sub-optimum pH and water hardness levels or a high level of organic pollution will be stressful to koi and other fish; predisposing them to disease. ..

Read more