I'm weak!

[callingcolleen1]

Some of the most interesting ponds that I have seen have koi and goldfish mixed together, the different colors and shapes makes viewing more exciting, and if your not worried about the koi and goldfish breeding then its no big deal really.

I had my bottom pond just for smaller goldfish, but now I bought three baby koi just cause they are so cute and have decided to leave them there to grow cause the snakes that have come to my pond the last two years seem to eat only the small gokdfish, so when these koi get bigger I hope that they scare the small grass snakes away and protect the goldfish, as I have never had the grass snakes bother the koi in the top two ponds at all but the koi are strong and can be bullys so I hope that they will scare them snakes away in the future.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

the kois tend to be mid to bottom water fish and the shubbies are mid to higher water fish...

Hmmm? I've always felt koi are mid to surface fish, almost land fish, especially when feeding. They always seem to come up out of the water more than goldfish breed.
Here's an example of what I mean

Goldfish would never come up out of the water like that.

 

[slakker]

What I read and understand is kois are still more instinctually carps and their mouths are still designed for bottom feeding. But are easily trained to surface for feeding with floating pellets. Once food goes away, they'll go back down until they think someone is feeding them again...

 

[callingcolleen1]

My big koi follow me around the pond, eat my fingers, toes and just love to eat dog food! I have been feeding them dog food for many years now, the goldfish perfer the dog food as well.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

There are definitely amazing looking koi out there.
I'll be sticking with Shubunkins and Comets, though.

 

[slakker]

My big koi follow me around the pond, eat my fingers, toes and just love to eat dog food! I have been feeding them dog food for many years now, the goldfish perfer the dog food as well.

Oh wow! That first koi with the rounded pink/white nose is beautiful!!!

 

[DOUBBLE TAP]

I can feel your pain I got into ponding almost 2 years ago and wanted to confirm my fish keeping skill with cheap sarssas and shebunkins I was able to keep them alive and winter them last year. This spring took all of them out except one (my kids really liked that one) a shubi and put 13 koi in. It was always my intention to keep koi only but its funny how attached you can become to the "throw away fish" after feeding and watching them grow for a year started out 2-3 in and gave them away at 6-7 in. It took me 3 weeks but I finally found someone with a pond big enough to handle the fish load and I even held onto them and gave her 5-6 at a time and let her bio catch up for a week then gave her more and more. I was going to give them to a fish store but felt bad that they had been in a 5k gal pond to then be stuffed into a 30 gal tank. Please don't get me wrong the sarasas and shbus are cool and pretty but there is something about the koi and there personality and colors that made me want to get into ponding in the fist place. And I am glad I kept one shebu its kind a a reminder of where I came from lol.

 

[slakker]

My wife's point to encourage me getting kois is that I always called our pond a "koi pond" and if I don't have at least one, then stop calling it that! LOL...

 

[Nepen]

Just looked at the pictures of Koi on ebay and I'm struglling to hang on to my 'goldfish only' pond... the koi on there are so beautiful

But if I get koi I will probably have to give away all my other fish.. and cant get more than 2 in my small pond...no way I would be able to do that. Better not start when I know I cant stop

 

[DOUBBLE TAP]

Yea it's hard to stop.... You start to want one of each. I am holding myself back from getting more as I know that he ones I have will continue to grow.... But maybe one or two more wont hurt lol

 

[callingcolleen1]

Koi get very, VERY large and will quickly outgrow a pond. I can't believe how darn big my two oldest koi of 22 years are, just when I thought they reached full size, they grow again! I can not tell you how much the one biggest orange Koi weighs cause I have not moved her since she was very little, like 15 years ago.. I don't think she can be moved with a net cause she is very strong and I don't know for sure how I will move her when I rebuilt the top pond and make it larger....

I love goldfish and they come in so many shapes, sizes, and colors. I had a goldfish once that was like over 20 years old! What exactly is a shrubby? Is a that the fat fantail goldfish? in

my goldfish collection in the bottom pond....

 

[DOUBBLE TAP]

Lol no it's short for shebunkins. It's like a calico goldfish.

 

[Fishylove]

Mmhmmm Shubbies are tri colored. I think a cross between a surassa and a comet maybe?

 

[Fishylove]

I got a new BF Matsuba koi a couple weeks ago. I'm hoping it is female so I can breed the two butterflies. Well see next spring maybe, the new one is growing fast I'm weak too!

 

[mtpond]

I started out with 2 goldfish and 4 koi three years ago last month. I now have 13 koi and 1 goldfish. I liked my goldfish but by far the koi are so much more friendly. My smaller koi seemed to have doubled in size from this spring and I'm sure my bigger koi have grown but I don't notice it so much with them.