koi with white slime

Question
I was just outside checking on our fish pond. The all of the koi have a thick white slime that is all over them. just some details there was ice over the pond we had about 3 ft of snow but the water fall and pumps were running so it was not completely froze.It's all melting off and raining now. Is something wrong or is it normal for hybernation?

Answer
Dear Beth,

Thanks for your mail!
White slime is not normal on koi so there is an issue.
This is however hard to see from A distance and with no picture but I think there can be several problems.
One of them is the koi has been glued to the ice surface and therefore had injury.
This needs to be resolved by cleaning the wounds and handle it with antibacterial product en seal.
Other problem can be parasites or fungus etc.
Mostly fungus becomes on the fish due to other problems like parasites, bacterial infection, wounds and so on. So the fungus is mostly secondarily.
When parasites can be the issue, we need to check this by microscope and so this can only be preformed by experienced koikeepers or veterinarians.
Best way to go I think is to check if there ore wounds and then go from there.
Maybe advice from an expert dealer is also in place to give you the best on hand advice in this case.

Good luck!
Kind regards,
Raf