I have bought 3 Koi from Petsmart over the past month and all of them have died after a few days. My pond water seems to be perfect. I test it myself and then have Petsmart test it as well. I put the new Koi in and they don't eat and then anywhere from 3 days to a week later, they are floating.

Any ideas? Should I just not buy Koi from Petsmart or could this be a bad shipment?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I'm sorry about the koi. Fish at chain pet stores often are more diseased although sometimes they're ok. If you get new fish, you should quarantine them. If you want high quality koi, get them from a koi dealer.

How big is your pond? What's in it? What kind of equipment do you have? Do you have other fish in there? What water tests were done?

Often, even if fish are sick when you get them at the store, they can be nursed back to health. It's easier to do that in an aquarium. Add aquarium salt, MelaFix, antibiotics, and parasitic medications. By dosing them with all sorts of things, you will stress them but sometimes you can bring half dead fish back to life. The last time I got rosy red minnows (sold as feeders), I treated them with salt, MelaFix, Maracyn I and II, and Aquarisol all at the same time for a week. The fish were severly anorexic, lethargic, and septicemic (blood vessels obvious under the skin). They all survived and went to my 153 gallon pond after a month of quarantine where they've thrived every since. Of course, if you don't treat the fish with the right medicine, they might still die. Or, if the problem is in the pond itself and not with the fish, all that work could be for nothing.

I have 1 small Koi about 5", 2 goldfish and a pleco (just for the summer). It is about a 600 gallon pond. I have a bio uv filter. I test the ammonia, nitrites and ph 2 times per week. Ammonia and Nitrites are 0, PH is 7. I have plenty of plants and areation- waterfall and a spitter.

I went to Petsmart last night and the tank I had bought the pervious Koi from had 3 dead in it and the rest seemed very lethargic. I may just let the pond be as it is.

It sounds like the koi in the store are really sick. I guess you couldn't be more sick than dead! They could at least remove the bodies.

Since koi "experts" say to have 1000 gallons for the first koi and 100 gallons for each additional, your 600 gallon pond is not ideal for koi. Koi can grow to 2 or 3 feet long and need a good filtration system. If you stick with the other fish, you may have fewer problems with the fish over time.

Hi...I have bought 13-14 koi from Petsmart over the last couple of months and until yesterday all have been healthy and great fish...I think my new neighboors(Raccoons) Might have had something to do with the death of one of my babies day-before-yesterday...you might have a bad batch at your Petsmart...I bought my first 2 about 6-8weeks ago and they have grown at least 2-3 inches since I bought them... :D I didn't see any marks on my DOA koi but I know there are at least 5-7 of them(raccoons)..I just moved my outside dogs up here a few days ago..so they should go away..if not I will have put up an electric fence around my pond..I never thought I could get so attached to these fish...lol... <_<
I think I got some great koi from Petsmart...just my 2 cents worth... :P

Nature Farmer, in what condition did you find your poor deceased koi? We have a ton of raccoons here. They are good at making a mess, dumping pond plant pots, ripping up plants, dumping bird baths and feeders, pulling out snails and frogs and then leaving them to dessicate, etc. but ours haven't noticeably impacted the population of fish (at least the big fish with which I am more familiar on an individual basis).