New “Unwelcome Additions to our pond

[DenniMac]

We have a water trough patio pond that holds about 120 gals, and houses 4 medium size shibunkins and some tiny mosquito fish.
its been hot in N. Ca all summer and fall, but the water temp. at night goes down to 53.5 or so. After a preditor grabbed one of our original 5 fish, we’ve been netting it at night.

It seems that they prefer less moving water, and they’ll come out and become very active, when the pumps water spouting center feature and the watering can waterfall are off, so I’ve been leaving the filter and UV light off in the afternoons the last 10 days.
Today I was cleaning out the slightly overdue filter, to clean it out, and on the fake Lilly pads I saw something unexpected, that I’ve never seen before.
If anyone know what this is, and if it’ll hurt the fish, and how toget rid of it, I’d sure appreciate some advice!

Thanks, Dennimac

 

[DenniMac]

We have a water trough patio pond that holds about 120 gals, and houses 4 medium size shibunkins and some tiny mosquito fish.
its been hot in N. Ca all summer and fall, but the water temp. at night goes down to 53.5 or so. After a preditor grabbed one of our original 5 fish, we’ve been netting it at night.

It seems that they prefer less moving water, and they’ll come out and become very active, when the pumps water spouting center feature and the watering can waterfall are off, so I’ve been leaving the filter and UV light off in the afternoons the last 10 days.
Today I was cleaning out the slightly overdue filter, and on the fake Lilly pads I saw something unexpected, that I’ve never seen before.
If anyone know what this is, and if it’ll hurt our happy, quickly growing fish, and how to get rid of it, I’d sure appreciate some advice!
(Here’s a photo of the pond).

Thanks, Dennimac

 

[addy1]

Sort of looks like snail eggs, if so I would not worry about them. That fish , yellow and black, in your picture does it have whiskers? It looks like a koi to me, if so you will need to rehome it, it will rapidly outgrow your pond and cause all sorts of water issues.

I don't have koi, but that one looks like a koi.

The water quality is better off if you leave the filters running 24/7.

 

[mrsclem]

Agree with Addy, snail eggs. Also, looks like possible 2 or more koi, orange and black one as well as white and black.Check for those wiskers. The good bacteria in your filter starts to die off if the filter is not running.

 

[addy1]

white and black

I was debating on that one, not having koi it did trigger my thinking it was a koi

 

[addy1]

Also, looks like possible 2 or more koi, orange and black one as well as white and black

The yellow and black I think you can see whiskers. And I think the other orange and black looks like it has whiskers, can just barely see them.

 

[Lisak1]

Yup - agree on both counts. Snail eggs - not a concern (especially on a fake plant) and Koi - big concern in a 120 gallon pond.

Sorry @DenniMac - sometimes you get more than you asked for here on the GPF. Koi will not survive in that size pond much longer. They will continue to grow and at some point will hit the point of no return.

And turning off the filter is a big no-no - you risk losing all the beneficial bacteria that have colonized your filter media. Also, not filtering the water for any period of time will affect your water chemistry negatively. It would be like filtering the air on an airplane for MOST of the trip, but turning the filtration off for a few hours at a time. Each time you do that, they affect on your fish can be compounded. What you are seeing as them "enjoying" the pump being off may actually be them responding to a reduction in the water quality. Koi are by nature river fish - they love currents and water movement.

Again - sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we are all fish lovers like you and never want to see a bad outcome.

 

[JamieB]

An alternative to rehoming the koi is bigger pond! Think several thousand gallons, idealistic 1000 gallons per koi, this can be done by going deep rather than wide/ long. This can be either dig deep or read on other threads how to do an above ground pond.

 

[DenniMac]

Yup - agree on both counts. Snail eggs - not a concern (especially on a fake plant) and Koi - big concern in a 120 gallon pond.

Sorry @DenniMac - sometimes you get more than you asked for here on the GPF. Koi will not survive in that size pond much longer. They will continue to grow and at some point will hit the point of no return.

And turning off the filter is a big no-no - you risk losing all the beneficial bacteria that have colonized your filter media. Also, not filtering the water for any period of time will affect your water chemistry negatively. It would be like filtering the air on an airplane for MOST of the trip, but turning the filtration off for a few hours at a time. Each time you do that, they affect on your fish can be compounded. What you are seeing as them "enjoying" the pump being off may actually be them responding to a reduction in the water quality. Koi are by nature river fish - they love currents and water movement.

Again - sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we are all fish lovers like you and never want to see a bad outcome.

I’d rather learn this now instead of later, which is why I posted, asking about leaving the filter off for a few hours a day during nice weather, (in addition to the goo stuck to a fake lily)!

I’ve not seen any snails in the pond, and have not yet added any live plants, in order to keep snails from being introduced accidentally. The only snails we have living in this area are the big, brown garden snails, (unless you buy them for a pond).
Where would they have come from, if in fact they are snail eggs?

It’s ironic because I did my “homework” before buying any fish, and was told that shubinkins would be ideal fish for my patio pond.

I went to a reputable fish seller, where
they have seemingly very experienced
“fish people” working, who told me that the fish in the tank were all shubinkins, which is why we selected them!

I definitely would NOT have selected koi
for a pond this size knowingly, so I’m both surprised and frustrated to hear that quite possibly, two of the four fish we have are koi.
At least I have a little time to decide how to proceed from here, instead of waiting until they were 7-8” long! Thanks for the input.

 

[DenniMac]

An alternative to rehoming the koi is bigger pond! Think several thousand gallons, idealistic 1000 gallons per koi, this can be done by going deep rather than wide/ long. This can be either dig deep or read on other threads how to do an above ground pond.

Hum, well I haven’t yet had the gravel delivered for that area in my yard, which is about 12’ x 20’, and is currently dirt, with pavers laid on top, so I might have to do some digging!

 

[DenniMac]

The yellow and black I think you can see whiskers. And I think the other orange and black looks like it has whiskers, can just barely see them.

Looking very closely at the pic enlarged, I can see part of a fin, and bits of food that do look like whiskers, but in the event that they are Koi, at what age/size do their whiskers start to sprout?
I’d noticed that two of the four fish looked a bit “different”, (the black & white, & one orange & black), are somewhat sleeker, and more streamlined, but they were labeled as “Shubunkins- plain and fancy”, at the store where I bought them.
(So much for Fish Store “Experts”)!
But if I can’t trust them, it’s hard to try to buy the appropriate fish next time around...

 

[mrsclem]

At the size they are they should already have the whiskers. If they don't it is possible that they are not koi but they do look like they are.

 

[addy1]

See if you can get better pictures of their heads top view and side view we can help you out.
Have someone drop a bit of food in and snap pictures quickly as they come to eat

 

[jgrandmont]

Well, the good news may be that you bought koi at shubunkin prices.

 

[mrsclem]

I once bought 2 long fin goldfish- I knew they were koi, store didn't. $1.25 each. Both grew to 3'. Most stores hire people with little to no knowledge, just sell, sell ,sell.