Koi Only Come Out At Night????

[jgrakla]

Hello:

I am a new koi owner, and a new pond owner. I recently put in a 95 gallon rigid liner pond with a fountain pump. I let the pond cycle for a week before adding 4 small koi from the fish store. They are about 2.5", so still very small. I introduced them to the pond the night I got them, floating them in the bag for a half hour, and then mixing the water, and finally releasing them. I have had aquarium fish before. Being new to the environment and potentially stressed, I didn't expect them to eat the first day, but I gave them a little bit of food and they ate. The fish have been in the pond for 8 days now.

Here's the funny thing that I can't figure out. They are only active at night! All during the daylight hours, they sit on the bottom, hardly doing anything. If you put some food in the water during the day, they will tentatively come to the surface and get it and then go right back to the bottom. But, once the sun goes down and I turn on the yard lights, they come out and swim around like normal. They poke around in the rocks, and they eat very well. This is how I would think they would act all the time, but it seems so odd to me that they only act normal at night when I turn on the yard lights and not under natural lighting conditions.

Any ideas?

 

[pondlady]

They are scared and need time to adjust to there new home. FYI 95 gals. is not going to be big enough for 4 Koi as they grow fast. They will need a much larger pond soon.

 

[clm]

Baby fish are fraidy fish. They'll continue to hide until they get a little bigger. Like the last poster said, they'll get bigger very fast. I have 4 baby koi that were born in my pond in April and they are now over 6" long. 95 gallons will hold them while you work on digging them a much bigger pond, minimum of 250 gallons per koi. You have to remember koi get to be 24"-48" long.

Cindy

 

[jgrakla]

Thanks for the info.

Wow, I guess I was misinformed. They told us at the fish store they would only grow as large as the pond would support. In other words, in a small pond they would stay small and wouldn't outgrow it. I guess I will have to give them away when they get too big. Perhaps I should have just gone with gold fish for a small pond like this in retrospect.

 

[DrDave]

It is very rare for a Koi to get that large. There was a Koi that was 230 years old and was 6 foot long. It had been handed down and kept in the family for this period of time. Modern Koi seldom reach more than 32" and live 40 to 60 years.

Using the Ludwig von Bertalanffy growth equations (1938) it can be shown that generally Koi reach about 50% of their final adult length at 24 months, 95% at 10 years, and 99% at 14 years.

Their growth is more rapid in a large environment but no matter the vessel, they will eventually get bigger.

Your 6" Koi will need more water to maintain their health. It is very difficult to regulate water quality in a small pond. When things go bad, they go fast and you may lose fish before you can see the problem.

If you are vigillant, they will be fine if you start digging soon. You can also do above ground ponds as temporary homes for your Koi.

 

[bunnymp]

The only other thing I can think of to cause the night time activity is the water temp. Last winter my koi hid in the cave during the day and explored at night - go figure. But, since they are new, it is probably just fear.

 

[DrCase]

at least you can enjoy them at night under the light.