jw's pond

Thanks Amy and yes I have goldfish, Shubunkins and some of the whatever you call the part oj and white ones. Have some solid white ones also. I chose just goldies cuz they don't mess w/ the plants as much as koi and they don't get as big as koi and they are way cheaper. I'd like to add a few of the fancy fat fantail goldfish if I would just take the time to look for some in the stores.

 

Nice. I am laning towards goldfish for all the reasons you mention. I hear you can keep goldfish and koi together.

 

Oh sure yes you can keep koi and goldies together. I never have but lots here do

 

I really want get some colorful Koi going here, they look so cool swimming around.... My five ponds here though are full of big catfish and the price they want for big Koi is just too outrageous. I want to build a couple of rock and liner ponds this year here and then get some of the small cheap Koi and raise them in those ponds until they are big enough to be safe from my catfish...

Your pond is awesome looking, I can't wait to get into water plants in the pond I am building, if it looks half as good as yours I will be thrilled... Cool idea on the bathtub fishery and water plant holder.... I have a couple bath tubs out in the yard, currently filled with soil and used for potatoes and some years garlic, but they might work for fish in the spring and summer...

 

Here we have a koi farm and if you want mutts they come at a dollar a piece and if you give them growth food they will grow faster .I have koi and goldies and shubbies together and have given lots of mixed up babies away and they have turned into some of the prettiest fish

 

Thanks @Mountain Hope you can find some nice cheaper koi. I hear they are out there and you might check w/ponderers near you that might have some extra's they need to sell or give away. They sell the small koi at pet shops also for pretty cheap.
Watch out when adding plants to your pond w/fish as some of those koi can really mess w/your plants and even destroy them. This usually happens when they get larger tho. The bathtub ponds work good for holding new smaller type fish for a few weeks before adding to a pond w/other fish.

 

All of my clay ponds are full of cat tails and some plant that grows up from the bottoms of the ponds kind of like a vine that is really leafy, then the vines reach the surface about late summer and then flower and then release a massive amount of floating seed on the water. The viney plant actually gets a bit out of control so having Koi would probably help keep it in check. The ducks and geese eat quite a bit of it and love the seed that it produces but they don't manage to keep it in check. The shoreline looks like someone went around with a bag of grain poured seed out in the fall. I just looked this up, apparently this plant is called by " Potamogeton gramineus " also called " pond weed "according to Wikipedia anyways. I guess the plants here are the broad leaf variety, these things are incredible really, they grow from the bottoms of the ponds 12 feet down all the way to the surface, kind of cool looking but not fun for swimming in...

This is what the plants looks like when it is flowering.....http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...04457237252939&thid=JN.XA29g3jcmqEvciqN3T6XjA

 

Hey I have that Pond weed plant in a big tub and was thinking about adding it to my pond but was worried it might take over and get outta hand. Sounds like it will from what you say and I don't think I want a bunch of seeds all over the surface of my pond. If I had a natural clay pond like yours it would prolly work tho.

 

In the few ponds I've made, any plants that I place in the water, and any leaves from plants that dip in to the water from the sides seem to get eaten by my koi and goldfish.
Is this normal?

 

@ZEROPILOT Koi I would say yes, but goldfish not so much depending on the type of plant. I only have goldfish and they don't bother my water lilies or parrots feather but they will eat the hornwort (I assume that is where it disappeared to anyways) duckweed but not so much the azolla. They won't eat my creeping jenny either. Oh they love Anacharis! I think it is different w/everyone tho. Some who have koi say their fish don't bother plants. Some say they are like having a bull in a china shop and just rage around tearing up everything in sight, edible or not!