Darn,

[blacksmith37]

This morning a 21 " koi was belly-up in the pond. He looked just fine , the 3 others did not seem to have a problem (2the same size ,1 smaller ) . Been warm but the last few days were cloudy with some rain so I don't think the water was too hot ( about 86). The giant danios are no different. The koi are all from the same brood , about 8 years old. With no known cause , can't think of anything to change.
(I am working on getting photos from phone to the internet .)

[imhill]

Thats pretty young for koi.

[blacksmith37]

Yes, I expected it to outlive me ( sounds strange to say ). The others are still fine , no sign of any problem. I put the body ( at least 5# ) in the woods behind the house, nothing but a few scales this morning. The other 2 big ones are long fin which seems odd as this is the 3rd generation of 4 Koi from Japan ( from a club auction in about 1997) and one local long fin Koi.

[ptran]

Sorry for your loss.

[blacksmith37]

Update, no more Koi problems, maybe he had a heat attack ,or something similar.
Although, this evening I was cleaning leaves out of my stream and flushed a large snake; he was gone into the plants in not much more than a second. I am never ready for them; he was very likely a green water snake . I have had several over the years,killed some. he was short ( 3 to 4' ) but fat , like 5" circumference ( a small wrist). I put out minnow traps, caught one once that way.

[blacksmith37]

I caught him in a minnow trap, I didn't look til this afternoon ; i guess he went in last night. However the glimpse I had of his body was wrong, not a green water snake. It was a cotton mouth, I did kill him thinking it was the water snake . but I don't like cottonmouths either. I see copperheads a few times each year , they are never aggressive . I have never killed one; I even stepped on a big one a few years ago, when I came back 30 minutes later , he was still there. I guess i took the wind out of him. The neighbors kill the copperheads; usually the same neighbors who complain the most about the increase in voles, moles , mice and rats. Last year, I cut a copperhead out of some netting i had in the yard, he seemed happy to get back in the woods.