Nick South East

the show men and real carp worshipers won't touch them . . apparantly grading is not such a fine art .

No problem with the Koi food its a reasonably well balanced feed. Its quite hight in protein so should be fed when the waters above 60f. The same company also makes a staple food for when the tempreture is over 50f and below 60f and a wheatgerm when its below 50f. The occasional 'accident' dropping into the pond should have no ill effect to the fish. Hikari also do a very high quality food. Again in staple, wheatgerm and growth. Occasional treats are fine, the fish will let you know how much they want, if they don't clear it all within about five minutes then feed that much less the next time. Natural protiens are fine in the winter, such as worms maggots etc but the protien in fish foods is normally fish meal or animal protiens which can be harmful when fed at low tempretures. Your fish will like the occasional treat, most fishing baits are fine as are oranges, lettuce, brown bread spread with honey or marmite! peeled prawns. etc

Hi There, Ok I'll try to keep this shortish as the subject could see me going into loads of detail! I am going to presume (please correct me if I am wrong!) that you bought the Tancho at 6" and it's Japanese and was imported at this size. On this basis I would expect the fish to be about 1 year to 18 months old. I would expect the fish to have been spawned in the spring then left in the mud ponds over summer, harvested at around 4-5" In November then held inside until next spring, then, either put back outside and shipped the following October/ November, or if he was a fast grower maybe earlier in March. This you will be able to tell by when you brought him, Phew hope thats clearish. There are some slight variations to this as some varieties grow much quicker that others, such as single coloured Koi (Chagoi, Soragoi, Magoi etc) but the Go-Sanke varieties (Kohaku, Sanke, Showa) will all grow at a similar rate. Its all about genetics, big parents = big kids!! Two large, say one metre Koi bred together will give the basic genetic make up to produce big offspring. With the culling the Japanese conduct to keep the Colour, shape etc desired, entails good strong bloodlines throughout the next generations. As for how big your Kohaku may get, and at what rate depends on feed, temperature, whether it is male or female, depth of pond, parentage and size of environment. Although fish do not grow to the size of their environment it is a factor of how fast they will obtain their max size. So if given good food, and is from a good bloodline, and lives in a reasonable size pond, is female and we get a few warmish summers, there is no reason why 'she' should not get to 20 - 24" and should put on two to three inches per year. A long answer I know but hope its of interest!! All the best Nick [ 07. January 2003, 04:48 PM: Message edited by: Nick South East ]

It would also depend on how practical it would be, if you are planning a very large pond it may be practical to just have a clay lining, but you may have to look at water table and see if the area will hold water. Water will find a way out given time if the water table is much lower than your planned pond. If the pond you are planning is a smaller 'garden pond of say 1000 - 2000 gallons then a pond liner would work out, in the long term cheaper, ie saving you time, mess & agro. A good quality PVC liner will be fine giving you a permanent water tight seal. A concrete clay mix as suggested by Newt will be fine but you may want to think about a 1/4" render over the top using sharp sand and concrete with some stuff called Fibromix, which is small strands of glassfibre this mixed with the render will give added strength. Then use a water proof paint over this to seal the render and stop anything nasty leaching out of the concrete. Just a few ideas! [ 07. January 2003, 12:43 PM: Message edited by: Nick South East ]

As previously posted there are no hard and fast rules about water changes. If the situation at the time dictates, then action should be taken. Natural evaporation in the Summer, will probably equate to about 5-10% a week this can be added direct from the tap just angle the hose in the air slightly to lose some of the chlorine, the heavy metals in this amount are no problem. One little tip if you do your water changes on a tuesday or wednesday the water will have less additives in as water companies may add more leading up to the weekends when demand for water is higher! If in an area that has high metal content then a water purifier can be used to filter this out, a purifier will also take out the heavy metals and chlorine, so only clean water enters the pond. The only time to use a dechlorinater would be if changing more than say 20% of the water, try and find one that nutralises other chemicals as well. I would always use tap water for changes and not use stored rain water.

Koi really are no more difficult to keep than any other pond fish if given the right conditions, they are however more sensitive to slight changes in their environment, the most common time to have problems with your fish would be a few weeks after introducing them to your pond, spring time or autumn, these times will see greater fluctuations in tempreture, (fishes immune systems are dependant on tempreture they work most effectively at 60f or above) water quality and oxygen levels. First and formost all fish keepers should be 'water keepers' as if the pond system is stable then the fishes health will follow. There are many more things to take into account but I can go into mre detail about specific topics so direct any queries here, to stop me waffling!!!

I always fed them peeled but It probably doesn't make too much difference, there are natural colour enhancers in the shells. Any koi or other agressive feeding fish fish will be able to eat them from about 10" upwards. Some of the koi were around the 28" to 32" mark so they never had too much trouble!! You could always try breaking them up into smaller bits for any smaller fish.

As a rough guide if the tempreture is below 50f then feed a low protien, quality wheatgerm based feed, the fish will let you know how much they want if they don't clear it all within about five minutes then feed that much less the next time. Between 50f and 60f feed a medium protien food and over 60f a high protien feed. Natural protiens are fine in the winter, such as worms maggots etc but the protien in fish foods is normally fish meal or animal protiens which can be harmful when fed at low tempretures. Also your fish will like the occasional treat, most fishing baits are fine as are oranges, lettuce, brown bread spread with honey or marmite! peeled prawns, the fish get fed better than I do!!! [ 06. January 2003, 01:33 PM: Message edited by: Nick South East ]

There are no real problems with introducing swan mussels, in my experience they don't actually do a great deal in the way of cleaning or filtering the water or gunge on the bottom, but I am sure they will add to the natural feel of the pond. One last thing is to be careful buying them make sure the supplier is reputable and if there are any dead ones in the tank or empty shells, then buy elsewhere as they can carry a virus.

I would be interested to know if there are any koi keepers out there? and would like to offer my services to answer any queries or questions on keeping them, treating illnesses, water quality problems, filtration, varieties etc.

There is no need to put anything on the bottom of your pond as in a small amount of time natural sediment will build up. With natural style ponds, ie without artificial filtration or aeration it is essential to do everything slowly as it will take time for the ponds natural system to adjust to any outside changes ie stocking with fish or plants. The most important thing is to keep the stocking of fish down to a manageable level. 'Oxygenating' weed is a little missleading as although any plantlife will oxygenate the water during the day using photosynthesis, at night plants along with all other aquatic life will use oxygen from the water, so back to my first point of everything in moderation and don't let the plants take over!