Welcome to 0UV.com - Koi and Pond Fish Veterinary Information (Pet Health)

Koivet.com
Koivet is a venerable, long lived koi and pond fish health site started by Dr Erik Johnson in 1994 as an off shoot of his first few websites at Mindspring.com. Now Koivet is full of information and movies and more.

Koi Beginner
Once you've leapfrogged through this tutorial you will have a solid, working concept of the Koi hobby and what it's all about. This is done just about exclusively with video and very little written material.

DrJohnson.com
More than koi health, this site spans all things animal, by a real veterinarian who shoots you straight.

Fishdoc.co.uk
By Frank Prince-Iles. A UK authority who put this site together some time ago and which is still relied upon as a major source of good Koi and pond fish information

Fish Medicines
Learn about fish medicines, what they do, and where to get them.

PondCrisis.com
If you have a koi, pond or fish problem, this site takes you through twenty easy questions and at the end you know what you need to fix in your pond to create restored Koi health.

KoiCrisis.com
Koi Crisis has a symptoms chart by system you can choose the symptom by fish part, and resolve a lot of Koi pond fish problems or at least, learn about them understand how to remedy them.

Buying Domestic Koi
What does "Domestic" koi mean? Why would you buy that kind? How do you pick good and healthy ones? Who sells them and where do you find the best ones?

Buying Imported Koi
A Japanese or Israeli imported Koi is a beautiful thing. Why would you buy one of those? How do you identify a "good one"? And what kinds are there? Who would you buy one from?

Koi Filtration - Bead
With a little bit of management every week or so, you can have gin clear water in your koi or fish pond. Bead filtration is more than ten years old and defines the state of the art in Koi and pond fish ponds.

Koi Filtration - Natural
Requiring no weekly management but one big yearly overhaul, natural filtration is the easiest there is. Relying on live plants and organic processes, water quality is usually superb. Described and common mistakes illustrated, visit this site!

Koi Food & Feeding
What should you feed your koi? How many times per day? Is Corn really that bad in a Koi diet? What are the most common feeding mistakes people make? What's the best food?

Koi and Pond Hard Goods
So many places these days, are pure ripoffs. Finding a reputable dealer of koi and pond hard goods isn't as easy as you would think but there's ways to tell. The product line should be to-the-point and not contain shams. Who's doing it right? Visit this site!

Finding Reputable Dealers
The fish are only as good as the dealer holding them. Quarantines, guarantees and fish quality all factor in. What to ask, what to see and how to handle your new fish.

Books on Koi Diseases
You will be introduced to Dr Johnson's Koi Health book but also to other books he's reviewed.

Help With Koi Problems
Koi Community rates a variety of forums and message boards on ease of use, friendliness and quality of help. Not all boards are created equal. Not mincing words here.

pH Crash

Retailer has a cycled holding facility and imports a thousand feeder Goldfish. The system goes from empty to full overnight. The filter is loaded with Ammonia which is reduced smoothly to Nitrite (liberating H+ ions and reducing pH] and then on…

Retailer has a cycled holding facility and imports a thousand feeder Goldfish. The system goes from empty to full overnight. The filter is loaded with Ammonia which is reduced smoothly to Nitrite (liberating H+ ions and reducing pH] and then on… The fish produce a prodigious amount of carbon dioxide, which reduces pH. The carbonates last as long as they can but since the production of Hydrogen ions is dense and continuous, these carbonates are quickly exhausted and the pH ‘crashes’. When it drops to pH 5.5 [five point five] the filter ‘dies’, and Ammonia reduction stops. Many (if not most) of the fish have also died by this time. Their almost immediate decay contributes to the consumption of oxygen and the death of more fish.

Another scenario unfolds in the usual fish tank. There is a collection of Goldfish. The water was changed two weeks ago and a satisfactory amount of carbonate alkalinity existed in the system. Daily, the fish are fed, and the filter reduces the nitrogenous wastes. The Hydrogen is bound out by the carbonate alkalinity and all is well, until two weeks later the carbonates are exhausted. The owner of the Goldfish collection is lulled into a false sense of security because the pH has been stable for weeks. Why check it?

The carbonates finally “poop out” and truly overnight, the fishes’ carbon dioxide production, the algae’s carbon dioxide production, and the reduction of the Ammonia in the filter crashes the pH to 5.5 and the collection is all but lost.

Using a commercial buffer like SeaChem’s Neutral Regulator (yes it has phosphates but it’s my favorite) or Baking Soda on a regular basis to maintain a Total Alkalinity over 100 PPM would prevent this completely. I advise many of my Georgia (soft water) clients to apply a neutral buffer every week.

So, what should you do if your pH is crashed?

1.      First, net the dead. There’ll be plenty.

2.      Then apply the recommended dose of commercial pH buffer. You could substitute Baking Soda. Use three to five teaspoons of Baking Soda per ten gallons.

3.      One might wonder at this juncture about the decades-old legend that you should never change the pH of a system by more than a quarter point per day. This is archaic. Indeed, the most successful approach which will save the most fish lives is to raise the pH into normal range as quickly as possible. If you were in a smoke filled room, would you want me to remove you from the room quickly or gradually?

Koi & Pet Information