check out what I found in my backflush water

[fishin4cars]

I found another survivor! I was cleaning out my plant bogs which are fed with a small pump. It was full of pea gravel. Over the inlet at the bottom of the container I have a plastic3" mesh pot to keep the stones out when the pump cycled off(which I haven't done in a while). The water had stopped flowing out so I pulled the hose from the connector tee(two seperate tubs) and there was a 1" koi stuck at the tee! I pulled him out and he was still moving some. Placed him in the water in the palm of my hand untill he drifted away. About an hour later I noticed him by the edge of some rocks, so I bent down to give him a nudge and he darts back down to the bottom of the pond. I have seen no signs of him since because I am doing maintanance and only have a couple feet visability at the moment. Here is the crazy part. He was living in an area no bigger then a dixie cup under 6 inches of pea gravel. Again did not have the camera handy and was panicked just to get him back in the pond. He is silver with an orange head.

Isn't it wild where they can end up being found! Hope it makes it, sounds like it could turn out being a really nice one!

 

[Nova]

Crazy places for finding fish. I had my goldfish in the leaf basket of my skimmer twice, poor Clifford being chased during spawning. The other day I found a koi fry swimming on the other side of the leaf basket swimming around the pump.

For all the spawning going on by the goldfish I have not seen any goldfish fry just koi.

 

[jameskoi]

That is a pretty looking 3/4-1" fry. It looks an adult koi!

That said, none of mine look like that and they're 2 months old. I guess the parents didn't pass down any good genes to their babies. I guess they didn't have any good genes to begin with. Arrggh.

 

[Luke]

call the little fishy rambo, cause hes a master of survival :bowdown:

 

[taherrmann4]

Every year I get about a dozen fish in my small creek, their odds of making it in there are slim. They have to get throught my skimmer basket, then the skimmer prefilter, make it through the filter basket, throught the filter, then take a ride up the hill to where there is a split in my pipe one goes to the waterfall the other goes down to one of two creeks, so the little guys takes the split and go down the hill to the bottom where there is a "T" in the pipe where I have a small 1/2" pipe that brings water to the small flowing creek. All those obstacles and every year I have them, simply amazing they make it, and were not talking about one or two but about a dozen. I only see them when they are about 1/2" long so they make make it through it all as eggs; don't know. I believe they are mosquito fish.

 

[fishin4cars]

That is a pretty looking 3/4-1" fry. It looks an adult koi!

That said, none of mine look like that and they're 2 months old. I guess the parents didn't pass down any good genes to their babies. I guess they didn't have any good genes to begin with. Arrggh.

I've seen your adults, they got plenty of good genes, I think part of it is natural feeding selection, That little guy had to be feeding from the filter mats so lots of live worms and such, also swimming ina current of 3200 gph in 30 gallon container he probably built up strength pretty fast. They will spring out more once they get out into a pond and are able to get more nutrition. I've seen the same thing happen on tank raised fish.

 

[koidaddy]

Hay fishin, I was cleaning my solids filter yesterday after about a year. After draining the water down I noticed a small koi, silver in color, down in the muck. Before I could grab it, it flushed out the bottom drain. No problem I just picked him up off the lawn. I am guessing it is from last season as it is smaller then last years but larger then this years. Not much food or light in the filter but it managed to survive. I tossed him in the pond and he is hiding right now. I didn't have my camera handy at the time.

I found another survivor! I was cleaning out my plant bogs which are fed with a small pump. It was full of pea gravel. Over the inlet at the bottom of the container I have a plastic3" mesh pot to keep the stones out when the pump cycled off(which I haven't done in a while). The water had stopped flowing out so I pulled the hose from the connector tee(two seperate tubs) and there was a 1" koi stuck at the tee! I pulled him out and he was still moving some. Placed him in the water in the palm of my hand untill he drifted away. About an hour later I noticed him by the edge of some rocks, so I bent down to give him a nudge and he darts back down to the bottom of the pond.:regular_waving_emot I have seen no signs of him since because I am doing maintanance and only have a couple feet visability at the moment. Here is the crazy part. He was living in an area no bigger then a dixie cup under 6 inches of pea gravel. Again did not have the camera handy and was panicked just to get him back in the pond. He is silver with an orange head.

Update. Well the two I found are looking real nice. The small silver one (Mr Tee)has black spots on his back and his orange head. The one from the filter(Tommy) has developed orange and black spots.:surfing: I am trying to get good pics but its not easy. You can see Mr Tee in the pic.

 

[addy1]

fish are darn hard to film. The only thing that has helped me is a polarized lens, or filming under water lol

 

[DrDave]

Too bad most of the new digital cameras don't have a way to add a polarized lens. That sky reflection I think, could be reduced with one.