Farewell to a jumbo

Had a real shock early this morning when I discovered my largest prized koi stone dead and floating on the surface! She seemed fine the previous day when the fish in my pond started their annual spawning triggered with the warm weather here in the Cape. Her death was evidently caused by the stress of the spawning which must have peaked over night and has continued today. I was amazed that what seemed a very healthy fish just hours before had died so quickly! She had various scuff marks from the ordeal but this seemed pretty minimal. I understand that the bigger the koi the more vulnerable they are to a stress induced heat attack?

This sad saga is completely the opposite to my previous koi casualty, when a large palm frond fell from a high height and hit or landed close to a similar sized large Koi. The fish was neurologically damaged according to the experts and was partly paralyzed, had difficulty swimming, ended up with a crooked back and could not feed. I did not have the heart to put her down in case she made a miraculous recovery. This time it was an incredibly slow death that lasted from March until Christmas Eve, an unbelievable nine and a half months without food! .


As regards today’s spawning death, I question how common this is with koi and how this might be prevented from happening again? She was about 14 years old, approx 800mm and weighed a whopping six plus Kgs. RIP

Can somebody PLEASE remove Murphy from this pond, not sure I can take him much longer!

 

Sorry man what a loss ,that was a beaut

 

Hi Trevor

@Trevor Pleco - Dang,what a fine looking Doitsu Hariwake - rare to see adults with such clear colour - no black markings/spots at all... Sorry for the loss - she was a real beauty...

I have also lost many females during spawning over the years - the males get real rough with them,bumping and nudging the abdominal area of the females... In a controlled spawning in a separate pond where we use just one or two males,this is less prevalent... however in a home pond where there are usually a lot more males that gang up during a flock spawning,this is often the sad end of a beloved fish...
The only real way of eliminating this completely is by keeping males and females apart in separate ponds as the professional koi breeders do - not quite feasible for you I should think.... Maybe try reducing the number of males - swop some out for females - Dont know what your male/female ratio is,but good to aim for a mix of 2 females to one male in the home pond....

 

WOW! bud what a big fish. she's a beaut!

sorry for your loss.

 

Hey @Trevor Pleco,got your text this morning but my phone is slow.Sorry to hear about your koi.

On a lighter note:that Murphy guy has been riding me last week,hopefully got rid of the bastard now.

 

Wow she was a beaut. So sorry for your loss.

 

I got to know that fish over a good few visits
...sorry Tbird!

Couple this with a concomitant increase in temperature, increased metabolism, spawning activity, resultant increase in organics , reduction in oxygen, reduction in stress resistance and THEN factor in a rough orgy lasting a few days ....

Taking all this into account, realise, that in CT, at the moment you have to waylay some of these issues:

Waterchanges, with a few over a couple of days (unless you trying to raise any spawn? )

Additional venturi (or a crude protein Skimmer can be rigged)

Overhang Shade area, or floating cover for temporary respite from heat

Your fish still have a good few randy days ahead of them .....heheh

 

Ai! That was a beautiful fish! Sorry for your loss.

RIP.

 

so sorry to hear about your loss. that was a stunning fish!

 

Sorry to read