What is the guide lines for the amount of fish you should safely have in a pond? Does it depend on size of the filters or the size of the fish you have in the pond??
What is the guide lines for the amount of fish in a pond.
- Thread starter Willo
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It depends on many things! Gallons, shape, depth, surface area, type of fish, amount of water changes you want to do, pump flow, filtration, etc. Generally I suggest 50 gallons per goldfish or 300 gallons per Koi. This is not scientific or an absolute but it works for me to keep my water in good condition with a moderate amount of filtration and a minimal amount of maintenance and water changes.
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Agreed not a simple answer, there are to many factors. I am very close to the stats above, 50 gals per goldfish and 450-500 for koi. Everything so far is working very nicely. I will have to thin out my Goldfish most likely next year due to the baby's. They are to small to worry about this year and fun to look at.
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
now me,,, i've kept 230 koi in 800 gallons of water...no issues. i keep 150+ in that pond 6 months a year atleast every year. October til May. now i am definately not recommending it. good filtration and regular sceduled maintainence wether you think its necessary or not.
Can you please comment on the size of these fish? From what I know from past posts is that they are probably very small? Im not saying it can't be done, just wanted to clarify for the original poster that I forgot to mention that the SIZE of the fish would also make a difference. Of course a 3" Koi would need much less water than a 3' Koi. My suggestion was for a full grown fish.
JBtheExplorer
Native Gardener
Is that a typo? Or maybe they are very young? My new pond is 850g and I don't think i'd go over 20-25 goldfish. I couldn't imagine 50 fish in there let alone 230.
I believe he keeps Koi fry inside over the Winter to grow them out and sell them in the Spring.
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
4 koi at 20" -plus about 230 2" - 5" koi... yes i sell them every spring.
sorry about the poor quality video...cant see where the cameras pointed...just guessing mostly!
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Thats some really cool action!
Willo our Pond is a retro fitted Koi dealership QT pond with the Mother of all filtration 3 x 32" vortex style filters and a barrel bio filter , it was designed to hold many more koi than we have in it nowadays somewhere i the region of KoiGuys levels depending on size and amount of koi in each size ( we actually saw it with hundereds of small koi in it whilst the same size QT pond next to it had 100 12" koi in it ) when on frequent visits to the dealers .
I think in reality its what you feel your filters can handle and that your happy you can safely handle without going nuts or as we say OTT .
Top end for us would be around about 14 koi or so of differing sizes that I feel e can safely look after in both water changes and filter maintenance whilst maintaining the optimum best in water conditions .
Like KoiGuy we always sell on when they reach 22"
Dave
I think in reality its what you feel your filters can handle and that your happy you can safely handle without going nuts or as we say OTT .
Top end for us would be around about 14 koi or so of differing sizes that I feel e can safely look after in both water changes and filter maintenance whilst maintaining the optimum best in water conditions .
Like KoiGuy we always sell on when they reach 22"
Dave
bettasngoldfish
Maria
For anyone selling koi, Just curious how easy it is to sell a large koi?
When you do sell them does the buyer show any kind of proof that they can provide a proper home?
When you do sell them does the buyer show any kind of proof that they can provide a proper home?
It totally depends on the filters. But a pond itself is a filter. Algae is a great filter. Streams and waterfalls are filters. Water changes are a filter.
It is commonly said that you can keep Koi in a bath tub with the right filters. What this means it is there is only one way to determine whether filters are needed...you measure ammonia. If you see ammonia increasing the pond needs more filtering or fewer fish which nature will handle for you. The thousands of people saying this or that # gals per fish is good or bad is just something they heard or at best just what's worked for them and their ponds. If I have 1000 gal per Koi and haven't had any problems that can be a guideline, but it doesn't mean 999 gal would be bad, or 500 gal, or whatever. It's ammonia that tells you.
Best video on fish and filters.