yonny

I don't mate.

No mate.

I would defo have a rod on any source of aeration tbf.

I had a 3 x 3m parasol installed in Feb for this. I have various air supply systems working. Still not enough it seems😩

I don't think the pellet would contribute in a lake environment. Ultimately the carp need food. The problem is that digestion takes a lot of oxygen. It's a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation. Temps have just been too high and UK fish struggle to deal with it.

Possibly. Since we arrived that fish had always been a little lethargic compared to the others, certainly one of the older ones. In general the younger/smaller koi seem to be dealing with the temps much, much better.

Well it was a difficult weekend to say the least. I got the new/additional airlines in on Thursday night before going fishing on Friday night. Both of the fish that were struggling (a 68cm yamabuki (bright yellow/gold common) and a 60cm doitsu kohaku (white/orange mirror)) seemed to improve initially. The fishing was just savage in that heat on Friday so by 9am Saturday morning I was back home to check on the koi. The smaller of the two, the kohaku, was feeding and swimming around like nothing ever happened - a full recovery it seemed, but I couldn't spot the big yamabuki. At 10am, having still not spotted the yamabuki, I started work cleaning the filters. I still had my polarised sunnies on after fishing and I was taking a closer look at the fish from the filter house when I spotted one on its side on the bottom. I knew straight away which one it was and so it proved when I fished it out with the net. One of the best in there and certainly one of the most valuable... the yamabuki.... dead. Digging the grave in 35 degrees was not fun as you can imagine but that paled into insignificance compared to the pain of losing one of my favourite and most valuable koi. I'm a member of several koi pages on social media and it seems all over the country people are losing fish despite following all the right procedures. My water parameters are fine and I have tonnes of oxygen going in. There's not much more I can do. I'm hoping this drop in temps does us all a big favour but I know that we're heading back up to 30 degrees after next weekend. I've increased the frequency of my water changes in an attempt to bring water temps down so that should help a little. So basically it turns out winter is a doddle compared to summer when it comes to keeping koi. I knew that high temps introduce risk for koi but I genuinely thought I was prepared for it. Let's just hope that that's the end of the serious problems.

Yeah I've got around 1000 quids worth pumping away in mine. That's the problem with such a big pond.... needs more of everything! Once the balance is right you'll not need chemicals. I bought some blanket weed treatment but not needed to use it. In fact I've not added any chemicals at all. I added a couple of bacteria bombs just to kick-start the filters in spring, but on the whole mine is well established with great water quality. Just need more oxygen to cope with the temps. Stupid thing is I'll spend all this money and by next week the new gear wont be necessary!

Very worrying. I'm supposed to be out fishing tomorrow night so hopefully they're looking better by then. Another decision I have is whether to take the bivvy or not given that it looks like rain on Saturday morning.

Action stations at home. The last few days 2 of the koi have started sitting high up in the water in the flow of the filter return. No probs I thought, it's just because they like the flow of the water over their gills. Then a couple of days ago those 2 fish stopped eating. I've checked pH, nitrites, ammonia, phosphates..... all fine. Then last night a few of the others started sitting in the flow of the return. They're still eating ok but I'm obviously getting worried. I already have two air pumps feeding several air supply systems but they're all in the filter. This means the freshly oxygenated water is all coming out of that filter return and it's looking like the koi are desperate for it. None of the fish are gasping at the surface but they're opening/closing their mouths quicker than they normally do. Not yet gulping, but it looks like it could be on the way. Obviously the heatwave has elevated water temps considerably so it's becoming clear I need more oxygen as soon as possible. I'm picking up a new air pump later with a new air stone... both the biggest I can get. On paper there's loads of oxygen going in already but it's a big old pond with big old fish. Hopefully the new air line will sort it.

I bet you are. What a result.

Jesus!

Can you get away with fishing it?

Good'n's for sure.

This is that "mycamoalien" guy on Insta I believe. I think he is, or was, a bailiff on the Wraysbury waters? He's had most of the bigguns over there and did well at Wingham too. His dusted bottom baits look good but I've not tried them. The pop ups seem expensive to me but the attractor combos sound good. You'd be surprised.