the  main  six  metals  as  metals  released  from
different substances could be any of those metals.
If you suspect any other metal could be released
eg. silver, then that metal should be added to the
testing list.     If you are just testing the tap water, then only
one water sample is necessary and this should be
collected from the tap supplying the water to the
pond.     You  must  ensure  that  containers  used  to
collect  water  for  testing  cannot  themselves  add
any  metals  to  the  water.  Eg.  Bottles  must  not
have metal caps.     What about our kois’ experience with metals?
Expectedly  we  lost  virtually  all  our  ‘best’  koi,
they  were  automatically  the  most  vulnerable.
Those who died early on had the ‘kindest’ deaths.     We still have Big Mac (looks like a beefburger)
who seems to sail through life and who has grown
reasonably well. Robin (call that a koi and what a
travesty  of  a  showa)  occasionally  gets  minor
health  problems  but  is  severely  stunted  and  at
about seven years old is probably the size of an
eighteen month old koi, if lucky. Big Boy was a
platignum   ogon   with   a   very   deep   white
colouration  covered  with  intense  gin-rin  scales.
He lost all the gin-rin and the white skin took on
the  look  of  watered  down  milk  with  that  pale
bluish  tinge.  All  these  years  later  the  white  is
deepening  quite  nicely  and  more  and  more  gin-
rin is gradually creeping back.     Samson the Ochiba (even if I say so myself) is
a  nice  looking  koi  and  is  one  of  the  main characters  of  our  pond.  But  he  has  damage  to
internal organs. How can we tell? Koi’s red blood
cells  are  manufactured  in  the  head  and  kidney
and  are  then  stored  in  the  spleen.  Samson  is
anaemic and has a suppressed immune system. I
still  spend  many  hours  hanging  over  the  pond
‘nurturing’ him, he remains vulnerable. He and I
have our own little secret - when I want to feed
him  a  tit-bit,  he  moves  out  of  the  way  of  the
rampaging  mob,  swims  behind  and  round  them
while catching my eye and manoeuvring himself
into just the right place so I can drop the morsel
into   his   open   mouth.   Who   said   koi   aren’t
intelligent?     Only  Big  Boy  (aptly  named?)  has  joined  in
spawning activity! Samson - still vulnerable but ever the character. Busy on pond construction inspection duties for pond Mark Five. Photo courtesy of the author Big Boy lost all depth of white and gin-rin through metals damage. Years later he is gradually improving depth of colour and the gin-rin is slowly creeping back. Photo courtesy of the author Robin and Mac. Mainly only the lowest grade koi survived the metals damage. Photo courtesy of the author