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Advice for Koi keepers in spring

Here we go again with another year of fishkeeping. But for some of us this may be your 1st time with the hobby. As winter has now departed and the spring days are starting to warm up the pond is starting to come back to life.

Testing the water

One of the first jobs to do is to test the pond water. We will be checking the levels of PH, Nitrite, Nitrate & Ammonia in the water. We will then have a good starting point as the condition of the water is very important. This is also a good time to spring clean the filter. Brushes can be thoroughly cleaned and settlement chambers flushed. But remember not to disturb the biological parts of the filter. If sponges are to be cleaned, then it should be lightly in a bowl/bucket of pond water and not tap water as this will kill off the millions of bacteria that have colonised on the sponges.

Water test kits
Water test kits

Dealing with parasites

As the days are warmer in the spring, the nights are still cool and the water temperature can fluctuate, this will often cause a parasitic outbreak in the pond. So spring is often a good time to add a treatment to the pond to prevent any outbreak happening. A good treatment to add at this time of year would be Malachite Green this will take care of most external parasites and any fungal infections the fish may have.

Pond Parasite treatments
Pond parasite treatments

Note: When adding the Malachite Green or any treatment it is important to know the pond gallonage as accurately as possible. This can be worked out by the length x breadth x depth x 6.25. This will give you your pond volume in gallons. If treating your pond it is best to carry out the treatment over a 3 or 5 day period rather that just the once. (Remember to switch off any U.V. Clarifier as this will knock back the efficiency of the treatment).

Observing the pond from a distance, (choose a good vantage point where you can see the fish but they cannot see you). This will enable the fish to act more naturally. If you see fish rubbing themselves on the sides or bottom of the pond or jumping out of the water this normally signals their could be a parasitic outbreak i.e. whitespot, skin flukes etc. It is often said that with close examination of your fish that you can see the parasite on the body or fins. In my experience I have found this to be untrue and most parasites are microscopic and can only be identified with the aid of a microscope. So a treatment is needed like Malachite Green.

After completion of cleaning and testing the water, it would be a good idea to add a filter bug pad to the biological part of the filter, as through the winter if the pond it unheated the filter would have died back, therefore adding a filter bug pad soaked with millions of bacteria will restart filtration.