There are good ones out there!

What do you need to beware of?

Why?

Unfortunately most all the fish shipped to the retailer from the breeder will be infested with parasites. Parasites bring on bacterial infection. Both are contagious in the pond. Imported koi, more so than domestic, are especially prone to breaking down with bacterial infections weeks after we recieve them. This is partially due to disease problems overseas plus the herendous stress involved in shipping them here. Importers and wholesalers do not have massive facilities to hold their fish. They deal with very large quantities and it’s basically fish in / fish out. One told me he holds his fish for a week and another told me that he has too much money tied up and can’t sit on them, needing to recover his investment right away. Some of their facilities are nice but some are less than desirable.

How does this affect you, the consumer?

Most all retailers receive their fish by air. They are then floated then released into tanks very much like you do in your pond. Some retailers, just like the wholesalers and importers, sell their fish immediately without a treatment or a quarantine period. Why do they do this? Economics. Besides the fact that most do not have the facilities to separate and quarantine the shipments, holding and treating the fish adds cost. These costs include water, chemicals, salt, etc. PLUS many fish die while undergoing the quarantine process. On the average, during quarantine, we lose 15% of our domestic goldfish and koi and 30% of our imported fish!

Our philosophy at The Pond Doc’s Water Garden Center is that we’d rather them die on us - not you. The fish you buy become "pets" and a pet is harder to lose than a "fish". Our guarantee to you is that we quarantine all our new arrivals for a minimum of 3 weeks. During this period, these fish are treated for parasites and bacterial infection and held in 0.3% salted water.  By going to all this extra effort and expense we increase the odds tremendously that you are going to receive a healthy "pet" from us.

Does buying a fish (even from us) that has been through this quarantine and treatment period a substitute for quarantining your own fish before entering them into your healthy pond?

Absolutely NOT. Read on.

Quarantine – Quarantine – Quarantine! Prevention is the best cure – and the lease expensive – and the easiest!

The Atlanta Koi Show is almost here and there will be several koi vendors there selling beautiful, irresistible koi. Many of these vendors will be the importer or wholesaler selling direct (not a nice thing to do to your reseller, by the way). As I eluded to earlier, many of the koi for sale will not have been in the vendors’ possession for long. Some less than a week - some maybe longer. It is possible that his new arrivals could have parasites or some latent bacterial disease that has yet to rear its ugly head.

Here’s the scoop. On most occasions, bacterial infections are precipitated by parasites and/or stress. A fish can stress from high ammonia levels, being shipped, netted, from handling, moving to a new environment, or simply from unhealthy water conditions. Dr. Erik Johnson tells us that whenever a fish is netted and bagged he loses his immunity system for 72 hours!

Here’s a case scenario: The vendor must bag his koi at his location to bring them to our show. The fish could stay in this bag from 4 to 24 hours. Results – Stress, ammonia build-up, loss of immunity system. The fish are then put into holding tanks that still are not the ideal situation for them to be in. Most tanks are over-crowded and the fish are constantly netted. Results – Stress, ammonia build-up, loss of immunity system. Then you purchase your fish and it is rebagged for the trip home. For the koi, the duration of this event could be as long as 4 days. Results – Maximum Stress Level and an opportunity for infection to set in!

Parasites and bacterial infections are contagious! Before subjecting your existing fish population to the (great) chance of infection, the only logical thing to do is to quarantine. It is tough (and a hassle) to treat a large pond and relatively easy to treat a smaller quarantine tank.