Thread: Bulging eyes and sluggish... help!

One of my Koy has always acted quite different to the others, often stays at the bottom in one corner at feeding time etc. The others all come up to feed. It's just always been 'different'. I've had it about a year. Today I have noticed it's floating nearer the top, sluggish and eyes seem to be bulging! Please help!

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Sounds like the fish is struggling, weak immune system. Could be parasites, can you scape?

Originally Posted by Maddog1

Sounds like the fish is struggling, weak immune system. Could be parasites, can you scape?

I don’t know how to scrape… I ordered a temporary setup yesterday and arrived Friday so I can qt but not sure what I’m doing once it’s out in there tbh!

Originally Posted by Ajm

With the eyes I would be thinking pine coning . !? Not a good thing . Heat salt and scrapes are needed ASAP. Qt in door tank set of some description would be best

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Ordered a qt to come Friday. How do I do the rest??

Unfortunately too late ��

Any advice on what to do with pond to avoid others getting sick?

Originally Posted by Ajm

Need to know what we are fighting , can you do any scrapes and microscope? . Can you do a list the full water test results , . Am thinking bacterial or water quality so can you please give so more info on your pond . Volume, filter , age . Is there anyway in the system that could be hiding muck and crap that the bacterial are living in .

Virkon aquatic anti bac could help if it is bacterial

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Thank you - I've now buried the fish... so no... I don't have a microscope either. The pond is about 3/4 years old, first I've ever had a problem. This fish is the most recent but about an addition about a year ago. It's always seemed a bit 'different' didn't hang with the others who are always together, didn't come up for food etc. I had a good look at it before buying and I couldn't see any obvious wounds or marks. I do feel like it might not have been right from the start though.

Pond is roughly 6m x 2.5m x 1.5m. This was 1 of 6 fish in there, you can sort of see size from pic but all about 45cm long I would say, decent size. Rest of fish seem totally healthy, no problems that I can see.

I will do some water tests today. It has sump pumps up to an overground oase proficlear system. The sump pumps have baskets before them, I will give the baskets a thorough clean this weekend also and do a large water change. I've also ordered a new carbon filter for the tap water that tops it up each day as that is probably overdue for a change.

Originally Posted by Feline

The bulging eyes are a sign of dropsy- doitsu fish without scales don’t ‘pine cone’ so the eyes tend to be the noticeable sign.
Dropsy means retaining too much fluid, which tends to be caused by end stage organ failure and/or septicaemia.
Saving a fish that far gone is difficult- but most likely with heat, salt and antibiotic injections. Meanwhile you would need to try to find out what the initial cause was- water quality or parasites.
Without being set up to do scrapes you can only guess at what is going on unfortunately so it would be impossible to protect other fish from going the same way.

Also in the photo provided there is the appearance of the body swelling where the body appears to extend past the width of the head. This could just be a natural deformation but if it is something that gradually appeared over time then combined with the bulging eyes it is certainly indicative of water retention / dropsy.

Dropsy can be an internal issue specific to a single koi, so whilst it would be good practice to check water parameters and the potential for a parasite infestation to rule out these causes, you may be lucky in that the other Koi remain fine.

Your next steps partially depend on your abilities and available equipment, but one word of advice would be to not rush into replacing the lost Koi until you can be certain over a good period of time that there is nothing untoward going on. Appreciate you may not be considering a replacement Koi, but it is common for people to rush out and buy a new Koi which tips the balance of the eco system and then all hell breaks loose.

Thank you. Really hope it is specific to the fish. Like I say, it doesn't surprise me because it hasn't been right really.

I will do a big water change, clean everything and add vikron.

No plans to add any fish for a while so will see how it goes...

I see you are in Surrey, I have a microscope and have scraped a couple of my fish, but use Bryony at London Aquatic Vets.
Specialises in Aquatic animals and has helped me out when I have had problems in the past.
She is London based but will travel.

She comes and checks my Koi twice a year or if I have a particular problem.
Her standard visit would consist of full water test scrapes on three fish, treatment and advice and a written report.

As with any vet and specialist her fees are more than the local garden centre but I'm my view worth every penny.

If I could ever get photos to upload I would load up a pic of her performing an ultra sound on a Kojaku and a clean up of a wound on my Sumo Goromo.

https://londonaquaticvet.com/

Details her health checks are on the above website.



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That sounds great thank you. No further problems so I think it was that fish unfortunately