Koi Care
Quarantine Your New Koi
Quarantine - Enforced isolation, usually to contain the spread of disease.
There are many reasons why you should quarantine a new Koi. There's parasitic infestations, bad strains of bacteria like Aeromonas Hydrophilia and viruses like KHV (Koi Herpes Virus.) If your new Koi has any one of those ailments, it will be much, much easier to treat in a small hospital tank versus a large pond. Quarantining a new Koi is cheap insurance for keeping your other Koi in your collection healthy and alive. Here's a couple of scenarios to help you out:
Scenario 1
John Doe buys a Koi from a local, but shady, pet store. Unbeknownst to John, his new Koi has a small infestation of Costia, which it picked up from a goldfish tank that was connected to the same filter as it's tank. John takes his new Koi and puts it directly into his pond, which is full of his other Koi. A week later, John notices that some of his Koi have irritated patches of scales and some of his Koi are flashing. His new Koi has a red ulcer and is separating itself from the group. Luckily, John has a veterinarian in his area that specializes in Koi health. John had the veterinarian come to his house and check out his Koi. John then spent the better part of 2 hours trying to net his sick Koi out of his pond. When he finally succeeds, (after completely stressing out all of his Koi) the vet discovers the infestation and instructs John on how to fix it. The vet also administers an injection and a Tricide-Neo dip. The veterinarian also teaches John how to treat an ulcer with an injection and Tricide-Neo. The Koi is treated and pulls through, luckily, with the veterinarian's instruction, John was able to treat the rest of his Koi and keep them from getting ulcers himself. John could have saved a bunch of time, headaches and money (don't forget the veterinarian bill) if he followed the procedure below.
Scenario 2
Jane Doe (she's unrelated to John, but shares the same last name) buys a Koi from a local Koi dealer. Unfortunately for Jane, the Koi dealer is a bit shady and sold her a Koi with an infestation of Tricodina. Jane took the Koi home, acclimated it, gave it a quick scrape with a microscope slide and then released it into her quarantine tank. She looked into the microscope lens and saw the Tricodina spinning around rapidly on the slide. She then administered the proper treatment, which she learned at a Koi health education course. The Tricodina was eradicated and the rest of the quarantine went perfectly fine. Around a month later, Jane took her Koi out of her quarantine tank and released it into her pond.
The scenarios above dealt with parasites and harmful bacteria. The next scenario deals with a virus, KHV.
Scenario 3
Jack Doe (Johns Brother), also has an interest in Koi, but he doesn't like to spend much money on his collection. Early in the spring, Jack went to a backyard dealer one weekend because he heard that the dealer has a good deal on the new shipment that he just got in. Jack went to the backyard dealer and purchased a couple small Koi. Jack brought them home a released them into his pond. A week later, his pond temperature climbed up to the mid-70's and his two new Koi died. Jack called the backyard dealer and told him his situation. The backyard dealer told him that there are no refunds or replacements and then hung up, leaving Jack in the dark. Jack came out to his pond the next morning and discovered five dead Koi. He called a local Koi club and they got him in touch with a veterinarian. Unfortunately, the veterinarian was booked solid and wouldn't be able to visit for two more days. Jack woke up the next morning to find the rest of his collection floating at the surface. He saved a couple for the veterinarian, who was able to come a day early. The veterinarian suggested to Jack that he send a couple tissue samples to a laboratory for testing. That's just what Jack did, for Jack does not want to seem like a fool. He waited and waited for the results to come back. A little while later, he finally got them in the mail. Jack tore open the letter, hoping to find an answer, but all he ever found was the word "POSITIVE" written next to each sample. He called the veterinarian and asked what he should do next time. The veterinarian told him all about quarantining and its benefits. Jack took this advice to heart when he restarted his pond. He quarantined every Koi that he bought from then on.
Quarantine Instructions
Every new Koi should be quarantined for at least 3-4 weeks. Even if you have quarantined a Koi for 2 weeks and you add a new one, the quarantine period for the original Koi should be restarted. Anything that's going to affect them will appear in that amount of time. A good quarantine tank will be large enough for your new Koi to swim in and will have a good filter system. Quarantine tanks usually range in size from 100 gallons to 500 gallon. This small size makes them easier to manage and the amount of chemicals needed to treat the Koi will be smaller.