koi carp food & wood

Question
QUESTION: hi one expert gave me quick reply but now it is showing he is on vacation. he suggested me to give food vegies like peas, spinach to my koi carp and i have gold fish also in my aquarium. so may i boiled first these veg. or how can and how much i give these? other thing it is ok for gold fish? for mopani wood he told that it made water acidify and use artificial wood. so artificial means fiber glass or plastic wood.regards.
shaz

ANSWER: Hi Shazad,
Peas for vegetables work better than spinach.  It is proven that peas benefit all fish's digestive tract.  It even cures constipation in fish that result from swim bladder disease.  Usually it is best to have 1 pea day in a week.  You have to boil the peas and peal the outer skin off.  Depending how big your fish are, you can either cut the 2 halves of the peas into smaller sizes, or mush it between your fingers.  Small fish require peas to be mushed between fingers before adding into the aquarium.  

Driftwood lowers the pH of the tank, but it must be a large quantity of driftwood.  Even so, it will only lower it slightly, not much to show a difference.  Artificial wood does not lower pH.  Both real and fake wood will be ok for your tank.  Fish can tolerate a high range of pH from 5 to 9, anything lower than 5 or higher than 9 will require some adjustment.  The chances of yours being out of this range is very very low.  Majority of the people have pH's 6.0-7.6.
-Matt-

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QUESTION: hi matt,
sorry for delaying. thanks for your precious suggestions.but now i have an other problem, which i already faced 15 days back.so briefly i explain the history.there were ARGULUS bugs on my fishes and they are flashing and scratching, basically bugs were on 3-4 fishes but almost all were scratching. so i discuss this issue with one of your expert. he suggested that daily partial water changes and add aquarium salt teaspoon=gallon of water and add this quantity to .3% in 12 hours break.and when i partial change the water same amount of salt add again, i did the same, and he suggested to raise the temp, which i did so, daily partial water changes till 4 days and i was adding same amount of salt how much water i was removing after 4-5 days fishes were looks great no scratching and no flashing and mean time i remove the bugs manually from the fish body.so when 8 days passed i partial change the water and didn't add the salt.but today again almost all my fishes were again scratching.what i will do? my water is crystal clear and no over feeding.can u help me that now i will use any medicine or any treatment.i am in united arab emirates and here i have limited resources regarding aquarium medicines and test kits.just now i ordered my water test kit from USA and it is on the way.so please i m waiting for your suggestion, take care

ANSWER: Hi Shazad,
Sorry for the delay as well, been caught up on many things.  Argulus can only live for 2 weeks without a host.  So think about it, why not separate all the fish into a different tank for 2 weeks?  The hospital or alternative tank including the main tank must have salt added.  1-2 tbsp for every 5gallons of water.  It is usually recommended 1 tbsp for ich treatment, but since Argulas are a bit more hardier, I would recommend 1 1/2 or 2tbsp.  All the Argulus in the main tank will due due to no fish host.  The hospital tank will work on killing the Argulus on the fish.  Also the adult Argulus will not have any place to lay eggs since they usually lay eggs in cracks of wood, rocks or decorations.  Vacuum the bottom of the hospital tank once ever 3 days to remove any eggs as a prevention.  After 2 weeks or 2 1/2 weeks, transfer the fish back to the main and continue water changes every 3 days to reduce the salt in the main tank.
-Matt-

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QUESTION: hi matt,
thanks for suggestion, first of all i have only one tank and difficult to purchase a another one. now i didn't have seen any argulus in the tank, but they r scratching so today i change 50% water,and the temperature is very high 30C(86F), i tried to lower down temp, so how can i make temp lower and what is recommended temp, i tried to add ice cube in the filter is it the right way? and today i feed them peas, they liked it.
regards and take care
shaz

Answer
I'm glad they are eating the peas, if they like it, you should feed it to them twice a week.  It is REALLY beneficial to their GI tract.  Koi are cold water fish and do not need a heater.  If you have a heater, remove it.  Ice is too sudden, I wouldnt use it.  You can purchase a chiller, but it is quite expensive and I dont believe it is worth it.  
-Matt-