new ponder in maine

[Jerry In Maine]

hi from maine! i'm in the tiny town of Surry, which for those of you familiar with maine is not far from mt.desert island and acadia national park.

my pond is under construction at the moment. it'll hold about 1100 gallons best i can tell so far. bought a hose type water meter so i'll know for sure once i fill it. will be using the home-brewed 70 gal "skippy" biofilter overflowing through a waterfall and a 950 gal/hr mag drive pump.

koi are illegal to have here in maine but we are allowed to have natural species to this area (sunfish, etc) in ponds so once the water and filter get established i'll try adding a few.

my wife and i are really into wild birds so we hope they'll use the pond for drinking and bathing after filling up at the bird feeders.


jerry

 

[Waterbug]

First time I'd heard of Koi being illegal anywhere.

I like birds too. I built this shallow pond for neighborhood kids but it turned out perfect for birds of all kinds. Concrete over liner so they got a good grip, 1/4" deep in the stream for the smallest birds. Hummingbirds perched on the lip of the waterfall and bathed. First time I ever saw that. One of my fav ponds.

 

[j.w]

Jerry
I've never heard of koi being illegal either. Why are they?

 

[Jerry In Maine]

koi are indeed a no-no. feds recently "raided" a chinese restaurant (with guns drawn!) because the owner had an indoor pond with koi. they took them to a pet shop in new hampshire where the owner bought them back and took them to a relatives business in mass.

can't have common goldfish either unless they're kept indoors. take them outside and a alarm goes off at the offices of fisheries and waterways there at the state capitol. maine is very active on non-native species of plants too. a sign mentions this as you cross the state line, right next to the 'welcome' sign.

birds: i got two cockatiels napping on my shoulder as i type this. they don't go out but like me enjoy watching the wild guys at the feeders.

 

[sissy]

geeze talk about strict laws .Welcome to the forum and seems rather weird to me to be so strict

 

[j.w]

Found this on the net and it appears that Maine is the only state where it is illegal to have koi in a pond:

Koi have been accidentally or deliberately released into the wild in every continent except Antartica. They greatly increase the turbidity of the water because they are constantly stirring up the substrate. This makes waterways unattractive, reduces the abundance of aquatic plants, and can render the water unsuitable for swimming or drinking even by livestock. In some countries, koi have caused so much damage to waterways that vast amounts of money and effort have been spent trying to eradicate them, largely unsuccessfully. Because of the danger to the environment koi possession is illegal in the state of Maine.

 

[sissy]

gosh what about carp and a lot of other fish .They do the same and we worry about water quality huh

 

[addy1]

Native fish can be fun too!

I had hummingbirds bathing in my waterfall all of the time, in arizona, so much fun watching them. They would fly up, land on one of the rocks under the moving water and just fluff their feathers. They would also just fly up to get a sip of water.

Birds like moving fresh water to drink and bath in. The birds here, like my bog (shallow moving water), the small fishless ponds, with lots of plants to land on to drink, the stream, with rocks to land on to get their drink. I do not see many, except the doves drink from the main pond. The doves like to land on the edge rocks and get their drink.

 

[Waterbug]

Maine Koi Club directory
Sorry, no Koi clubs in your state yet.

Now I know why.

 

[j.w]

And w/ that note I'm going to bed,lol!

 

[Becky]

Hello and welcome to the forums Jerry! :wave:

Nice avatar! One of your birds I assume?

 

[Jerry In Maine]

the avatar is a picture of "sissy" - our 3 yr old cockatiel.

our other child is "byrd" - a 9 year old female cockatiel. we got sissy thinking that another female would be good company for byrd while my wife and i are not home. the name came from the idea that sissy would be byrd's "little sister".

but "she" turned out to be a "he". trouble was though she...i mean HE had already learned his feminine name so it stuck, but he's confident enough in his masculinity that it dosen't seem to affect him.

 

[sissy]

oh geeze is that my future too LOL AND I'M GOING TO BE A BOY

 

[Jerry In Maine]

AND I'M GOING TO BE A BOY

keep your wing and tail feathers long and no one will know the difference...

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Found this on the net and it appears that Maine is the only state where it is illegal to have koi in a pond:

Koi have been accidentally or deliberately released into the wild in every continent except Antartica. They greatly increase the turbidity of the water because they are constantly stirring up the substrate. This makes waterways unattractive, reduces the abundance of aquatic plants, and can render the water unsuitable for swimming or drinking even by livestock. In some countries, koi have caused so much damage to waterways that vast amounts of money and effort have been spent trying to eradicate them, largely unsuccessfully. Because of the danger to the environment koi possession is illegal in the state of Maine.

Good Lord! I have seen the aftermath of what livestock can do to natural ponds in very short order when given access, the results are nothing short of absolute devastation and obliteration of all the native wildlife that once lived there. And yet after the water and shorlines have been so contaminated and destroyed that the native life can no longer exist the cows don't seem to mind drinking from it.
There is probably a reason only one state has that law.