New members, koi will EAT YOUR PLANTS!

[ZEROPILOT]

Right as I was finishing my pond build, I purchased two water lilies. One with pink flowers. One with blue. I also bought the special fertilizer tablets, etc and the whole thing was about $100.
I did this because I believed at the time (and I'm not sure why) That Goldfish ate plants. Koi did not. I added fish and other water plants.
Over a period of a few weeks, my plants began to get destroyed. I placed duck weed and water lettuce in the pond as I could see that Koi do in fact eat plants. And this forum backed that up.
Long story short, I now have the soil and gravel from two lilies all over the pond. The water is brown with debris. I have two lilies, mostly eaten and dead, floating around with no roots and shredded lettuce and duck weed remnants everywhere.
In a period of about 2 months, the pond looks 100 years old. The Koi are far from calm, graceful creatures. In fact they splash, jump and thrash everywhere they go. Seemingly very healthy, thankfully.
I say this because when I went into this, I knew I wanted plants and it came down to large Goldfish or Koi and I went with the Koi.
If you want plants, stick to goldfish IMO.

 

[sissy]

Reason I built a water lily pond .Koi eat just about anything and uproot every pot .I am going to try my plant window screen bags next year .I will see if they will let the leaves alone and stems then .Or stick to fat fantails .

 

[cas]

My 8 and 11 year old koi do not eat my waterlilies. They have been known to move the kitty litter and rocks out of the pots, but leave the flowers and pads alone. They also have not eaten the roots from the lily tubers that have escaped the pots. I guess some of us are lucky.

 

[j.w]

Live and learn and some get lucky but I think they are the minority here. Sure glad I just have goldies as I like the plants I have. Goldfish aren't perfect angels tho, they love Duckweed and Anacharis but if you have tons of the stuff it manages to survive. Same w/Hornwort. I did notice them eating the dead mushy leaves off the lilies but hey I'm good w/that. Less clean up for me

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Look Ma.
No plants!

 

[j.w]

@ZEROPILOT Oh yuck, they made a real mess for you to clean up!

 

[Tula]

I've had good luck covering my pots with deer fencing ....they don't bother the leaves and blooms.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Mine started by munching the leaves and stems and graduated to the pots.

 

[Lisak1]

Do you feed your fish? The reason I ask is we were at one of our favorite pond plant supplier and she told us about a customer who came in complaining that her koi had eaten her expensive lilies. She later said it happened while she was on vacation and the fish weren't being fed.

Our koi don't bother our lilies at all - never have. I'm not sure why some do and some don't... a fishy mystery!

 

[mgmine]

I guess I'm lucky mine have never eaten the plants(at least I don't think they have). They also don't thrash around they just swim and hide under the lilies. How many fish do you have? In my 2900 gallon pond I have 6, I just added two this year but will remove two when the new ones get bigger. I added the two new koi because the other two, a comet and a shubunkin were boring

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Do you feed your fish? The reason I ask is we were at one of our favorite pond plant supplier and she told us about a customer who came in complaining that her koi had eaten her expensive lilies. She later said it happened while she was on vacation and the fish weren't being fed.

Our koi don't bother our lilies at all - never have. I'm not sure why some do and some don't... a fishy mystery!

Yes. But i suppose it's possible that they don't get fed enough.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I guess I'm lucky mine have never eaten the plants(at least I don't think they have). They also don't thrash around they just swim and hide under the lilies. How many fish do you have? In my 2900 gallon pond I have 6, I just added two this year but will remove two when the new ones get bigger. I added the two new koi because the other two, a comet and a shubunkin were boring

1,420 gallons
Two small Ranchu
One giant comet
And 8 small koi from 4 to 7 inches.
The koi often swim very fast and even breach the surface of the water.

 

[Rajesh]

Right as I was finishing my pond build, I purchased two water lilies. One with pink flowers. One with blue. I also bought the special fertilizer tablets, etc and the whole thing was about $100.
I did this because I believed at the time (and I'm not sure why) That Goldfish ate plants. Koi did not. I added fish and other water plants.
Over a period of a few weeks, my plants began to get destroyed. I placed duck weed and water lettuce in the pond as I could see that Koi do in fact eat plants. And this forum backed that up.
Long story short, I now have the soil and gravel from two lilies all over the pond. The water is brown with debris. I have two lilies, mostly eaten and dead, floating around with no roots and shredded lettuce and duck weed remnants everywhere.
In a period of about 2 months, the pond looks 100 years old. The Koi are far from calm, graceful creatures. In fact they splash, jump and thrash everywhere they go. Seemingly very healthy, thankfully.
I say this because when I went into this, I knew I wanted plants and it came down to large Goldfish or Koi and I went with the Koi.
If you want plants, stick to goldfish IMO.

I think wire mesh around the pot will protect it from Koi, at least root might be safe.

Lily might do well if you put a mesh with larger hole, its leaves generally comes out in form of rolled up, that can easily pass through mesh as the plant gets bigger.

Sorry, its just a thought.

I have guppies or mollies in most of my lily tanks.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

They have eaten holes in the adult, fully formed leaves at this point.
I've started to feed them more.
I'll see how it goes.

 

[sissy]

mine have gotten bigger now and stopped eating the plants the last couple of years .I sometimes feed them only once a week lately since I forget to feed them .