My Koi Addiction....

[cas]

@mrsclem I would love to see more pictures of your koi!

 

[sissy]

Has anyone seen the koi that looks blue and white .

 

[CometKeith]

They are only 6" long right now. This particular breed from this particular breeder is somewhat hard to get at a young age and the ones I got were randomly selected from a group of 50 without me (or anyone else) being allowed to hand pick which one you wanted so yes I got two so that I can see how they do and keep the better of the two after they start growing.

Audio. Good luck with your new fish, but seriously when do you start the new pond build and how large will it be? My guess is at least 20,000 gallons, but that might be a little small. Something like 60,000 should last you a least a few years!

 

[CometKeith]

I thought my Squalo was the ruler of the pond, but I'm thinking young Yamabuki Ogon is the new drill sergeant

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Gemma. Your fish are so pretty!

 

[audioenvy]

Audio. Good luck with your new fish, but seriously when do you start the new pond build and how large will it be? My guess is at least 20,000 gallons, but that might be a little small. Something like 60,000 should last you a least a few years!

Sooner or later I'm sure I'll upgrade something LOL. And I also know that next summer I will rehome a number of these fish. My personal preference has been to buy "lesser" fish so I have enough to create a nice aesthetic and then upgrade them later as I get more and more into the hobby rather than only buying one or two really nice fish.

There are a lot of different "how many fish can I put in my pond" calculators out there and the general rule of thumb seems to be 1 koi per 250 gallons--but that doesn't take into consideration the size of the fish or how much they are being fed. A much more accurate measurement is how much food weight your filtration can process/handle every day. With this pond although it's "only" 5000 gallons I made a serious investment in mechanical and bio filtration and I'm extremely confident that next summer I will be able to feed 2-3 pounds of food a day without overloading the filters. That means the pond could support 100 pounds of fish being fed 2-3% of their body weight every day. That is pretty much max-growth mode. It's a LOT of food and a lot of fish. As fish get older they certainly don't need that much to maintain their size. Can you imagine going through two 40 pound bags of fish food every month?!?

For comparison purposes, right now believe I have about 40-50 pounds of fish and due to the cooler weather I'm only feeding about 1/4 of a pound a day.

 

[CometKeith]

Hmmm.... That's really interesting. That's great you have everything calculated. Glad to hear there is a method to your madness. So let's see... I did some calculations and I have about 50 fish that weigh a total of 2-3 pounds that is equal to the same weight of the food you will be feeding your fish!

 

[Gemma]

Gemma. Your fish are so pretty!

Thank you! My goal is to have a colorful school of fish, what is yours?
I posted that pic, cause I noticed that aside from the Shubunkins, the 2 babies and the dwarf, the rest of the they were all lined up I thought it was funny

 

[Tula]

@audioenvy , I've read many articles where a pond is heavily over stocked, but does fine, with powerful filtration. I think you're thinking through things very carefully and I enjoy following your purchases .....I'm living vicariously through you

 

[Tula]

Thank you! My goal is to have a colorful school of fish, what is yours?
I posted that pic, cause I noticed that aside from the Shubunkins, the 2 babies and the dwarf, the rest of the they were all lined up I thought it was funny

My goal is to care for and enjoy my 4 koi. I'd like to add some shower filtration next summer, but haven't figured out how to do it yet.

 

[audioenvy]

@audioenvy , I've read many articles where a pond is heavily over stocked, but does fine, with powerful filtration. I think you're thinking through things very carefully and I enjoy following your purchases .....I'm living vicariously through you

Ha, thanks! I worry about overstocking so I'm going to err on the side of caution and keep fewer than 1 koi per 250 gallons and also use the food weight calculator as well.

 

[Gemma]

I like the blue on some of these koi

 

[audioenvy]

My little future giants arrived today. I think they might get eaten or lost in my pond!

 

[Tula]

Little future giants...love that phrase ! They're very pretty

 

[Gemma]

@audioenvy How exciting when new fish arrive!

You feed your fish regularly so I think the babies will be safe, and given the size they are expected to grow, they won't be this little for long....I hope you share their progress often, so we can enjoy them too

 

[audioenvy]

I shouldn't have put the two tiny karashigoi into the big pond! They are soooo tiny compared to all of the other fish and the smaller of the two (I named him Groot) ended up in the skimmer (which is a Helix so he was totally fine). I think he might have swum in there just to get away from the others. So I caught him and put him in the garage. He's just in a 55 gallon tank for now but I'll have a "real" 250-300 gallon QT setup within the next week or so. He's so tiny he has a hard time eating even the medium sized pellets.

The larger of the two (I named him Doot because he's the doitsu) seems to be holding his own and try as I might I can't catch him. So he may end up overwintering with the big boys. Unless I'm able to catch him I'll have to buy a Petsmart koi to keep Groot company. Assuming Doot continues to evade capture, we will see how the two compare in size in May. Groot is going to be fed several times a day and will live in an indoor tank heated to 75 degrees all winter.

NOTE: I don't actually know the gender of these fish. They may be females for all I know.