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Treating external infections and wounds on your Koi & Goldfish

Fish live in an environment where bacteria are always present. Healthy fish living in healthy water conditions have a special slime coat designed to protect them against infections. Bacterial infections are almost never a primary cause of disease. When parasites, physical injury, or poor water quality damages a fishes skin, fins, or gills you can bet that external bacteria infections will eventually show up. An additional important consideration is water temperature. At water temperature below 65 degrees a fish’s immune system is greatly reduced and below 50 degrees it is almost nil. To successfully treat an external infection you must have water temperature above 65 degrees at minimum and 75 degrees would be much better. This is another reason to have a quarantine tank that can have it’s water temperature maintained at 75 degrees at all times. If you are continually treating external infections you must find and eliminate the primary cause/s. In order of probable primary cause look for:

1)
Poor water quality could be due to high ammonia, nitrites, D.O.C.’s., dirty filters or pond with lots of decaying material, or low oxygen levels. Larger filter system and or better maintence.

2)
Skin or gill parasites – must be identified and treated specifically

3)
Rough or sharp objects in the pond that fish can rub against – eliminate.

4)
Immune deficient fish due to liver or kidney damage or internal infection.

Once you have checked for fish parasites and tested your water and everything is fine. Then you should be able to treat you fish’s fin or skin infection easily. If external infections are detected early, prompt wound care and topical disinfectants work very well. Here is an effective method to administer effective first aid for skin or fin infections.

1)
Use surgical gloves.

2)
Gently catch the infected fish and use an anesthetic to put it under so you can work on it.

3)
Gently place the fish (wound side up) on a plastic bag molded to hold the fish in place and keep it’s skin and gills moist and not damage the slime coat on the rest of the body. Your fish will be just fine for at least ten minutes under these conditions.

4)
Use a paper towel to gently clean and dry the affected fin or wound area.

5)
If there is a lot of infection material present thoroughly clean area with hydrogen peroxide but be sure it does not get into fish’s gills or eyes. Clean entire infected area including under each affected scale with a disinfected fingernail cleaner to remove any pockets of infection.

6)
Use topical disinfectant such as iodine on a cue tip to drench the affected areas and allow to dry briefly. You may want to use a hair dryer set on cool to speed up the process.

7)
Move the fish into a clean container with aerated pond water until it revives and starts swimming. Then return the fish to a heated quarantine tank or pond if temperature is warm enough.

8)
Closely observe daily to be sure the wound is not getting worse. Feeding is a good way to get a closer look at the treated area. Healing should be visible in 3-7 days depending on the water temperature. Do not reapply disinfectant or re-clean wound unless healing is not apparent after one week. Fish heal by having a thin clear fragile membrane like layer of skin grow over the affected area. Try not to net or otherwise damage the healing area. Slowly the affected area will turn white, which means it is healing - leave it alone. If after one week the area looks worse or shows indication of bleeding you will need to repeat the wound treatment process but this time be sure you do a really good job of cleaning and disinfecting the affect areas.