There is a risk At the risk of becoming repetitive, it is important to remember that there is a risk involved when anaesthetizing fish and the procedure does require some knowledge and experience. Avoid all unnecessary stress Regardless of which anaesthetic agent is used, all possible steps should be taken to minimize stress on the ..
There are many agents used to anaesthetize fish. Obtaining supplies of anaesthetics will depend on location – but all veterinarians should be able to obtain MS222 for you. Some of these anaesthesia agents can be obtained from the local pharmacy – or mail order from hobbyist magazines. MS222 (tricaine methane sulphonate) is the only product licensed ..
There are occasions when it becomes necessary to anaesthetize a fish so that it can be either examined or handled safely. A common situation is when there is the suspicion of a health problem and it becomes necessary to carry out a thorough examination. While it is possible to check the general condition of a ..
Taking a skin scrape Taking and preparing a skin scrape involves using a blunt scraper, such as a wooden spatula, to gently take a sample of mucus from either immediately behind the gill cover, alongside the dorsal fin or the base of the tail. The scraper is held at approximately 45 degrees to the body ..
Koi suffer can suffer from a whole range of health problems and diseases including hypoxia, gas bubble disease, dropsy and general lumps and bumps. Dropsy In the case of ‘dropsy’ or ‘pine-cone disease’ the fish’s body often swells up, the eyes may start to bulge out (exophthalmia) and some or all of the scales may ..
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 ..
Bacterial infections and diseases Common and difficult problems to deal with Bacterial fish diseases Bacterial fish diseases and infections are very common in fish keeping and are probably one of the hardest health problems to deal with effectively. However, with a basic understanding of how bacteria cause disease and how to recognize bacterial infections it ..
At the heart of the koi pond At the heart of a koi pond is the filtration system. To encourage a vigorous growth of nitrifying bacteria in the filter we need to keep the filter media fairly clean, which is often easier said than done! Efficient biological filtration also depends on the media of choice ..
Dealing with pollution In an active koi pond we have two types of pollution; dissolved and solid. If we could remove the solid wastes from the system before they had chance to dissolve and pollute the water we would have better water quality, less dissolved pollutants and fewer health problems. Solid wastes and koi health ..
Koi ponds and organic wastes If we ignore the fate of metabolic ammonia for a moment and concentrate on the organic matter, it will be easier to understand how these pollutants can affect the long term health of our koi if we have a clear idea of what happens to them in the pond. To ..