Assure "Quarantine" Capability

Quarantine, excellent, made in a preformed pond in available space. Note the foam floating in it, for fish to get under.

Quarantine is as much preventative as anything else, but it's an IMPERATIVE step. If you neglect this step, now, or in the future, you're signing yourself, or your customer up for further misery.

Quarantine is simply the detention of new fish in isolation facilities in order to stop the spread of any disease that they might be carrying through the main, resident population of fish. Great fat books have been written on proper quarantine. In a simplified form, quarantine facilities should have impeccable water quality, and should be maintained in the seventies Fahrenheit. Quarantine should be well aerated, and completely covered with a light-permitting lid or net. Do not quarantine fish in the dark, please.

Treat the Koi in quarantine with medicated food, salt at 0.3% and Prazi. You may also safely use Anchors Away in quarantine to prevent macroscopic crustacean parasites like anchor worm or fish lice.

Quarantine should be at least 14 days in length, the fish should be observed often for signs of disease. The larger the quarantine you use, the better you will like it, and the healthier the fish will ultimately be. A quarantine in which the fish are crowded to more than two inches per ten gallons, or in which water quality deteriorates (use your tests!) or in which no treatment is deployed WILL cause, not prevent disease.

Quarantine is the most important means of limiting the spread of Koi Herpes Virus and other diseases for which there is no "cure" even though such diseases may be controllable.

Go To Step Twenty

Supplemental Reading:

Quarantine - Recommendations on Size and Treatments for Limiting or preventing koi and goldfish diseases in ponds or watergardens. Article by Dr. Erik Johnson