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Thread: Black patches

  1. #1

    Black patches

    Hi,

    I was hoping somebody could help.
    My pond is 1700 gallon in ground pump fed (9000 lph) to a pressure filter (pre-filter), evo55w UV then finally through a 4 tray Bakki style shower filled with alfogro.
    There are currently 5 Israeli koi in the pond 16-17” feeding on Hikari Saki growth/balance/colour mix.

    Water perimeters are:
    Ph 8.2
    Ammonia 0ppm,
    Nitrite 0ppm
    Nitrate 5ppm
    Kh 7-8 dkh
    Salinity 0.3%

    I add 43g koi clay weekly and bi-carb as needed.

    Problem is my Shusui has started getting black patches all over him. His red belly & head have all blackened he has small black patches all over his once lovely blue body?!

    I have recently added (couple months) a tancho asagi the red spot on his head has started to get black patches now. None of my other koi have this issue (Yamabuki Ogon, Sanke & Ai Goromo).

    Thank you



  2. #2
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Mature Champion AdamKoi78's Avatar
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    Pictures would be useful but it sounds like it could be shimmies? Shusui are prone to shimmies as a rule of thumb.

  3. #3
    Thanks for the reply, I’ll get some pics tomorrow doesn’t look like shimmies, but I could be wrong
    Last edited by JayC; 30-06-2018 at 10:55 PM.

  4. #4
    Here are a few pics, 1st last spring when I brought him home 12” full of colour. Then now 16” and dull.
    I had a few issues with Nitrite last year but nothing above .25ppm. Also a bad case of skin flukes all sorted now !
    6A66EE21-3393-46AF-BEF8-AE30472C22ED.jpeg06EC896C-0BE5-4EE2-A9F0-28CF9E6A489E.jpg46B2BBDA-2B78-48A1-9ED5-C7092689B536.jpg35120D16-2064-45EF-9231-01F7EF934587.jpg
    Last edited by JayC; 01-07-2018 at 09:36 AM.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion voodoo_15_uk's Avatar
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    I'd say that was sumi /shimmies making an appearance.
    Is your water very hard?

  6. #6
    Hi, I’ve not tested GH was only told to monitor KH. I was advised this could be the issue because my water was too hard and told to add salt to soften it. I will order a GH test kit now. How can soften my water so the asagi doesn’t go like this ?

    Thanks

  7. #7
    Tested pond with api kit: gh 10 kh 6 ..... so a gh this high is what I’m assuming is causing the Sumi on the Shusui and asagi. Would increasing the salinity to 0.4-0.5% be beneficial in softening the water or will this just cause more issues down the line?

  8. #8
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Mature Champion AdamKoi78's Avatar
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    Hello Jay, adding salt to your water will do nothing for its hardness. The only way to lower these values would be to use a reverse osmosis system which are fairly expensive to use if you are on a water meter and will not guarantee no shimmies . They look like shimmies but it isn't easy to say 100% from those pictures.

    Some koi will get shimmies no matter what water they are kept in. It all depends on genetics and some breeds of koi are more prone to get shimmies then other varieties.

    I have a couple of fairly expensive Japanese Kohaku that have a few shimmies and my what isn't RO but classed as moderately soft.
    Last edited by AdamKoi78; 05-07-2018 at 02:23 PM.

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  10. #9
    Hi Adam, thanks for the reply. I was told the salt would soften the water, it’s obviously the wrong advise. I’ve used RO when keeping marine fish and don’t fancy going down that route again so I’m guessing Shusui, Asagi and maybe Goshiki are just not suited to my pond ��

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