Large pond with 7 koi - should I add more?

[carpe diem]

My pond is about 30,000 gallons and has 7 koi (1 male, 6 female). Every year they spawn, and every year the hundreds of bluegills gobble up any possible fry.

I'm getting the pond cleaned this week, and the bluegills and snapping turtles are being rehomed, so it will just be my koi left. For once they'll be able to breed, and I'm excited!

Should I look into getting some new koi to add? Or will 7 koi quickly breed and take over an 80' pond?


Edit: I tend to lose a lot of fish in the winter/spring because it's hard to treat a pond this big, and even harder to catch a sick koi. I guess I'm worried that I'll lose more fish before I have the chance to breed more.

 

[Mmathis]

Where do you live? Does your pond have any kind of filtration or aeration (to keep the water moving)?

 

[GBBUDD]

I would look at fb and other forums . Koi quickly out grow many of these garden ponds. Thus many look for a good home the only issue there is you MUST DO THOROUGH QUARANTINE procedures you don't want to add anything to your pond. If a pond does not look healthy move on.

 

[carpe diem]

Where do you live? Does your pond have any kind of filtration or aeration (to keep the water moving)?

I'm in Mayland, so the weather's just beginning to get into the 70s. It ranges from about 20F to 95F most years.

I think the water movement's pretty good. I have 2 aerators (one on either side) and a floating fountain in the middle. The pond has a gravity feed filtration system, with a submerged pump on one side pumping the water to a smaller filter pond. The filtered water comes back out on the other side of the main pond.

I ordered an oxygen meter to test the levels, but I haven't had a chance to calibrate it yet.

 

[carpe diem]

I would look at fb and other forums . Koi quickly out grow many of these garden ponds. Thus many look for a good home the only issue there is you MUST DO THOROUGH QUARANTINE procedures you don't want to add anything to your pond. If a pond does not look healthy move on.

I actually have a friend of a friend who's constantly culling his small pond, so that's a great idea! He's a pretty hardcore enthusiast, so he might even have a quarantine setup I could use. I didn't even think about asking him.

He tends to go for high-end koi, so even his rejects are probably nicer quality than mine (although I love my weird mutt koi, they really do have great personalities).

 

[GBBUDD]

The nice thing about muts is they can be very unique and really stand out. Just saw your in Maryland and on my PC the next post on the forum below yours is looking to rehome in maryland

 

[carpe diem]

Just an update: No new fish for now. Before I put the current koi back in the pond, I did a thorough inspection of each one while they were netted. Two had ulcers which I treated topically, and some have what looks like the early signs of fin rot. They're all acting normally, so I hope the water change does the trick. But I won't be adding any more fish until I can find a vet to treat them.

I wish I'd discovered this a few days ago when they were in their temporary tanks, but they're so agile that I couldn't net them even in a 500 gal. I spent 30 min chasing a two foot butterfly in circles before giving up. Even the pond experts couldn't net them until the water level was down to a foot.

Thanks everyone for your help! Fingers crossed that they make a full recovery.