2nd Best Pond Fish

[Carpe_Diem]

Good evening all,

As many of you have been into Water Gardening for many years and probably have A combination of fish, I was thinking about what type of fish I would like to put in my pond.

I personally don't feel my pond is large enough for Koi so I would like to poll this forum to find out what they feel would be the second best choice of pond fish.

Many thanks to all of you in advance.

:fish:

 

[jason081180]

i would also like to know what others would suggest. Mine will be about 3000GL but only 3 ft deep and 1.5 for half the pond.

 

[nigil]

Gold fish can be just as inspiring as koi. However, I am talking about sarasa and Shubunkin. The shubs can vary in color (orange, black, grey,blue) and usually have multiple colors.

Here is one of my shubs

and not a great image but one of my sarasa comets

I also have a few shubs that have just orange and black and one sarasa that looks like a white koi with an orange head.

Hope this helps

 

[chilligirl]

Also, if you're going to heat your pond over the winter, fancy goldfish are nice.

I've got fancies in my pond (an oranda, a ranchu, a few telescopes). However, the climate here is pretty mild, with my pond being at or above 50 for all but about two months (lowest it got was the low 40s for a couple weeks), and my pond is very deep (6 feet).

 

[koikeepr]

watonai goldfish would be my #1 choice. They are pond hardy and very fancy. Unfortunately, they are very hard to come by and expensive. I have 5 of them and they have flourished and have had no problems surviving winter.

You can find wakin more easily (and cheaply), and they are close cousins.

My next choice would be sarassa. They are known as the "poor man's koi" because they look pretty darned close to kohaku koi. Great for the pond, extremely easy to find at your local pet store, and cheap, cheap, cheap.

 

[Carpe_Diem]

watonai goldfish would be my #1 choice. They are pond hardy and very fancy. Unfortunately, they are very hard to come by and expensive. I have 5 of them and they have flourished and have had no problems surviving winter.

You can find wakin more easily (and cheaply), and they are close cousins.

My next choice would be sarassa. They are known as the "poor man's koi" because they look pretty darned close to kohaku koi. Great for the pond, extremely easy to find at your local pet store, and cheap, cheap, cheap.

Koikeeper,

Until your post I had never heard of either the watonai or the wakin goldfish and after looking them up on the net, they sure do look like a great substitute for Koi.

The Sarassa also looks like a good choice, especially considering the price


Thanks to everyone who has replied to this thread thus far, the info is very important.

Cheers.

 

[OntarioTodd]

We used good ol 12 cent feeder goldfish. We picked 12 of the "nicest" ones we could fine and they are all doing well. We already had 2 from a previous pond. Our veteran pair are 4 years old and about 8" long! They have bred and we have several babies. All but one baby survived our Canadian winter.

Todd

 

[27goldfish]

I have a mix. I have Sarraso's, SHubukins, and koi. Do not buy your koi from a pet store, you will wish you had braced your feet!!! At least I did. I got 2" koi for 8 bucks a piece. Now I get at least 6" for 14 bucks each!! All I have to do is be patient, he comes up once a month

 

[DoDad]

I have a few Wakin's in my 250 gallon pond.

 

[koikeepr]

wakins are easier to come by. In fact, I went to my local koi shop this week and they had goldfish, which they deemed "fancy" and they were wakins. They are just charmers when viewed from above. Watonai are kissing cousins of the wakin except they have long fins.

However, you typically need to get wakin on the internet. Watonai are quite rare, and there are only two or so breeders online. One is raingarden in hawaii, where I got my fish two years ago. Steve found an old goldfish genealogy chart and bred two fish to form the old watonai. In japan, watonai are extremely commonplace--the equivalent of a comet here here in the US. But in this country watonai are nearly non-existent, which is a shame since they are strikingly beautiful and very hardy. I hope to breed mine and sell the babies next year. I was planning on it this year, but I've got a new pond coming, so that's the priority at the monent.

Sarassas are great fish and you won't be disappointed. And you can get 'em for just $3 or $4 at petsmart if you're just wanting the pond grade variety.

 

[DoDad]

You can breed a Ryukin with a Wakin and come up with a Watonai

 

[Carpe_Diem]

Thank you very much for the replies all.

Well, many finishing touches have been added to the pond today which you will see in another thread with a picture. We also went out and got 2 baby Koi and 1 Comet because my son wanted it. There is 3 of us in our family and we each picked out 1 fish to start.

Please don't worry about the Koi. I realize my pond is not big enough at 1000 gallons for 2 Koi but my plan is to do a documentary on raising the two Koi to adulthood, let's say roughly 15 Inches, then give them to a local ponder that has more than 5000 gallons.

Have a great evening.

 

[koikeepr]

You can breed a Ryukin with a Wakin and come up with a Watonai

Exactly. That's the combo. But according to steve from raingarden who brought the breed back here in the USA, you need to use a poor looking ryunkin--and not the very high backed ones that are prized now. He tried with great quality ryunkin, and they didn't look that great according to him.