New Japanese koi fish just arrived, they are 8″-10″ from the hi-utsuri variety, imported from Shinoda, Japan

These 9″ -10″ japanese koi beauties are now available for adoption:

A – Kohaku
B – Benigoi
C – Gin Matsuba
D – Doitsu Platinum Ogon – GONE
E – Kohaku – GONE
F – Gin Matsuba

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Believe it or not, something as simple and inexpensive as salt can be your koi’s best friend. That is because salt acts in 3 ways to cure fish of parasitic problems.

1. Antiseptic Qualities

Salt has mild antiseptic qualities, which means that it helps keep bacteria from getting into wounds and causing infection in your koi.

2. Salt Acts As An Irritant

To get rid of a parasite such as flukes, koi fish need to be irritated enough to produce excess mucus. Salt is a mild irritant and it helps fish produce that extra slimy stuff on your fishes skin which protects your fish from parasites.

3. Salt Affects Osmosis.

The main action of salt when used in a bath is to dehydrate the parasites living on the fish. This kills the parasites. This happens by osmosis or the movement of water from low salt concentration to high salt concentration.

You may be worried that adding salt to your pond could harm your filter bacteria. There are so many species of filter bacteria that not all will be affected by salt, the unaffected bacteria will take over to do the filtration. Alternatively you may use a salt bath, instead of adding salt to the pond.

For parasites and flukes on skin and gills use 3 oz of salt per gallon of water for 10 minutes per day for 3 or 4 days. Long term dosages are 1oz per 1 gallon but water changes and oxygen must be added.

Things to keep in mind:

• Care must be taken that the salt is dissolved and added gradually so the fish are not burnt.
• Do not use salt on viral diseases, swim bladder or tumours etc. as it will have no effect.
• Do not use salt with potassium permanganate or formaldehyde it could cause cardiac arrest.
• The salt should be untreated. ie. your basic table salt that would be fit for human consumption. Do not use iodised salt, pool salt, or water softener sale … etc. You get the idea.

I use 1 lb. of salt for every 100 gallons of water. This is the same ratio fish in their bodies so it can be used as a year long solution. Your plants can tolerate that much salt, and it is great for medicinal purpose, especially in the spring and fall when immune systems of fish are lowest with parasites and bacteria still active.

When fish are recovering from transportation such as being in a bag for 24 hours, a dosage of 3 lbs. of salt per 100 gallons for several days is recommended. Stress is one of the most undesirable things for fish health, and salt the best medication for relieving it.

But how do you measure the amount of salt in your pond or aquarium?

There are inexpensive water salinity test kits which work similar to your other water quality test kits that you can buy in your pet store or water garden shop.

Alternatively, if you’re short on time, or are a koi retailer doing frequent water tests, we recommend to buy a digital salt meter, it is what we use to measure the amount of salt in our koi ponds and quarantine tanks. A digital salinity meter will give you water salinity results instantly, and is a big time saver.