koi & pond fish pet information veterinary

4Koi's Links

Koivet.com
Koivet is a venerable, long lived koi and pond fish health site started by Dr Erik Johnson in 1994 as an off shoot of his first few websites at Mindspring.com. Now Koivet is full of information and movies and more.

Koi Beginner
Once you've leapfrogged through this tutorial you will have a solid, working concept of the Koi hobby and what it's all about. This is done just about exclusively with video and very little written material.

DrJohnson.com
More than koi health, this site spans all things animal, by a real veterinarian who shoots you straight.

Fishdoc.co.uk
By Frank Prince-Iles. A UK authority who put this site together some time ago and which is still relied upon as a major source of good Koi and pond fish information

Fish Medicines
Learn about fish medicines, what they do, and where to get them.

PondCrisis.com
If you have a koi, pond or fish problem, this site takes you through twenty easy questions and at the end you know what you need to fix in your pond to create restored Koi health.

KoiCrisis.com
Koi Crisis has a symptoms chart by system you can choose the symptom by fish part, and resolve a lot of Koi pond fish problems or at least, learn about them understand how to remedy them.

Buying Domestic Koi
What does "Domestic" koi mean? Why would you buy that kind? How do you pick good and healthy ones? Who sells them and where do you find the best ones?

Buying Imported Koi
A Japanese or Israeli imported Koi is a beautiful thing. Why would you buy one of those? How do you identify a "good one"? And what kinds are there? Who would you buy one from?

Koi Filtration - Bead
With a little bit of management every week or so, you can have gin clear water in your koi or fish pond. Bead filtration is more than ten years old and defines the state of the art in Koi and pond fish ponds.

Koi Filtration - Natural
Requiring no weekly management but one big yearly overhaul, natural filtration is the easiest there is. Relying on live plants and organic processes, water quality is usually superb. Described and common mistakes illustrated, visit this site!

Koi Food & Feeding
What should you feed your koi? How many times per day? Is Corn really that bad in a Koi diet? What are the most common feeding mistakes people make? What's the best food?

Koi and Pond Hard Goods
So many places these days, are pure ripoffs. Finding a reputable dealer of koi and pond hard goods isn't as easy as you would think but there's ways to tell. The product line should be to-the-point and not contain shams. Who's doing it right? Visit this site!

Finding Reputable Dealers
The fish are only as good as the dealer holding them. Quarantines, guarantees and fish quality all factor in. What to ask, what to see and how to handle your new fish.

Books on Koi Diseases
You will be introduced to Dr Johnson's Koi Health book but also to other books he's reviewed.

Help With Koi Problems
Koi Community rates a variety of forums and message boards on ease of use, friendliness and quality of help. Not all boards are created equal. Not mincing words here.

SALT as a treatment for fish diseases

More detail at DrJohnson.com

Salt is the greatest bath treatment of all time. This would have to be one of the single, uncontested assertions made in this book. Salt is both tonic to fish and toxic to parasite. It’s got a wide spectrum encompassing most of the ciliated protozoans and it can offset the negative effects of some water quality derangements such as Nitrite accumulation.

Salt can occur in numerous forms. The first salt I ever used was from the pet shop and cost quite a bit. It worked very well. It must have been very special.

Many folks have used Kosher Salt, Water Softener salts, "Solar" salt, rock salt, Sea Salt, Ice Cream Salt, Synthetic Reef Salt (Instant Ocean®) Non-mineralized Salt blocks for cows, and table salt. Results with all of these have been excellent with the following notes: Sea Salt is rich in carbonates and will raise Total Alkalinity and pH which may be undesirable if there is a significant Ammonia accumulation. Cow Salt Blocks occur in a mineralized format, rich in Magnesium and other minerals. You'll kill your fish. Make sure the label indicates the salt is not trace mineralized and that the salt is 99.97% NaCl.

No salt should contain Yellow Prussiate of Soda, or YPS. Another anti-caking agent contains cyanuric acid. Avoid this as well. The salt sould contain no Iodine because while this will have no negative effect on the fish, it may damage beneficial bacteria.

On the other hand, the desiccant Sodium Alumino-silicate is just fine.

Indications for the use of salt include the elimination of parasitisms caused by vulnerable ciliated protozoan parasites, curbing the absorption of Nitrite, and reducing the osmotic pressure exerted by fresh water on any hole in the skin or gill.

Salt also makes popcorn taste great, and it melts the snow on your driveway in winter.

Dosing salt is usually simple.

The dose for 0.3% solutions is 1 tablespoon per gallon. This is the amount used for most protozoan parasitisms

The dose for 0.6% solutions is 2 tablespoons per gallon. This is the dose for salt resistant Trichodina.