I know a few guys here are keen carp fishermen, as I was. But do any of you keep Koi?
3 years ago when we decided we weren't going to flip this house (which was the original intention), I decided after all these years I would love to raise some Koi. We have a 4000 litre pond, so I set about emptying it to clean, I had a couple of hundred Comets at the time but lost around half due to disturbing years and year of rotting leaf matter on the bottom of the pond. I managed to transfer the remains fish into a huge water storage tank in the garden where happy.
Having cleaned the pond, I bought a filter and two small pumps....got a lot of daft advice from the aquarium shop who sold me the equipment. needles to say none of to was sufficient to keep the water anywhere near adequate for Koi keeping.
I learned some very harsh lessons early on. Someone locally was selling some Koi, the only proviso was I had to catch them from a small lake. So, I put my carp gear to good use, caught six Koi all around 60cm in about an hour and transferred them into my small 4000 litre pond. This is where I learned quickly about inadequate filtration, lack of oxygen, nitrate levels and ammonia spikes....also at the same time realising the pond was too small!
I went out and bought a 12,000 litre kids swimming pool and a much bigger filter, along with an air pump to drive 4 big diffusers and a pump that could shift enough water through the filter. This was a temporary measure however.
The House we bought to renovate had one very odd feature. When the house was built over three stories back in 1983, much of it was unfinished. The couple really only ever used the middle level which is ground level at the front of the house. The top floor and bottom floor were unused.
The weird parts were the way the house was segregated room wise ( Im sure it made sense to them at the time) and secondly they had built an indoor swimming pool that had never had a drop of water in it. It was plumbed but nothing had been connected, it had a brand new filter and pump, both used in boxes from 1983.
Having had a previous house with a pool, I had no intentions whatsoever to use it for what it was designed for as we had rarely used ours and it was frankly a pain on the arse to maintain.
So, how about turning it to a Koi pond? I set about gathering information, again getting a lot of conflicting advise until I stumbled across a guy who had built ponds for 40 years. He came up with a plan and two years ago this weekend, we filled the pond up. Its about 30,000 litres.
I have to say, its one of the most satisfying things Ive ever done. Initially I had four bigger fish from the initial lot I caught and a few others Id picked up along the way. Once the water had matured, I started to add fish.
Here in Australia the main koi keepers are Asians, Im fortunate as in other states its illegal to keep anything that's called a carp, so in NSW there is a reasonable following for Koi keeping. Although we have limited bloodstock as the origin of most fish here date back a while, the upside is they aren't as expensive as in Europe and the US.
I started buying small fish with potential and due to the warmer climate here Ive watched some of my fish grow from fingerlings to 40 to 50cm in literally no time at all. Nowadays I grow the smaller fish on in the small out door pond which often gets up to 30+C and the larger fish in the indoor pond which rarely rises above 24 or below 14, which is ideal.
I was going to say keeping the fish, but probably more appropriate to say keeping the water has been a really amazing experience. I love watching the fish and now when I enter the indoor pond the fish swarm towards me to be fed and some like a tiny Chargoi I bought 3 years ago the size of my small finger will feed from my hands, she's now about 60cm and a really good weight.
In what for me has been a really awful last twelve months the Koi have kept me occupied and distracted....I guess this thread isn't going to interest most people, but I just wondered if anyone else here has enjoyed keeping fish as much as I have.
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As part of the work I'm doing to get this place on the market I've cleared our little stream fed "lake" both inside and around the banks (I call it a lake, but it's just a really big pond). I'm in the process now of making a cast so that I can make a concrete monk at the lower end to control the water as, at the moment, the water is leaving the lake at a faster rate than it is fed. I know a bloke who has a couple of massive "proper" lakes, so I can go there and catch as many small silver fish as I need. I have looked at koi, there's a French guy quite near to me who sells them from his "natura unfiltered pond" quite cheap (About 20 euros for a 200mm fish) but we're not intending on staying so there's little point. I know koi can survive in larger waters, as some fishing lakes have them, but also heard horror stories about a certain type of koi that can leave your pond in a right mess, think they are called didi koi?
Got a pond now circa 45000 litres, all koi bar two sturgeon one of which is circa 1.2m largest koi 90cm.
All apart from sturgeon feed from hand, about 35 fish in all, some lovely ones a few not so lovely.
Will post pictures later.
To make matters worse, for us - not the fish who'd already reach their nadir, our car broke down just a few miles into our journey and we had to be towed from Carmarthen to Southend. Naturally after such a long journey we invited the recovery bloke in to use the facilities. The one time he entered our house, it stank like a sewer. I can't imagine why he never hung around for a cup of tea. So embarrassing.
Haven't added any fish for some time and they all seem pretty happy and healthy. Got a couple of fairly large mirror carp that I bought about 15 years ago that whilst they're not great for the water quality, really don't want to get rid of them.
Other than that, have a grass carp and a handful of goldfish/comets.
We're having a raised pond built when we have the patios done, roughly 7k litres.
Would love to run a set up like some mentioned on here but space and finances prevent this - think I'd still have kept the indoor swimming pool though!
All was going well and the fish growing on nicely until last month, when I'm sure one of the numerous cats that the neighbour's downstairs must keep apparently seems to have perfected his fishing technique so I've lost a couple recently.
I've been using an sonic deterrent, which seemed to be working well until now. I may need to resort to something else now but would like to see the little feckers try to take on a full grown koi like those above.
I don't like cats...
Have a look on YouTube for 'Wrighty' he has some interesting filtration systems, pond set up etc.
Viewing windows look great, not cheap but worth it, love one myself maybe next time,
My son is considering setting up a business selling them sometime soon.
Filter wise.You could go the Japanese mat filtration route albeit its not ideal, and a bit oudated. Drum filters seem to be the way forward (as Im learning myself still) but didn't suit my swimming pool set up and plumbing. I have two large swimming pool filters with a blower and filled with biomdedia running off of two 2 speed swimming pool pumps and two huge UV lights.
The other alternative is buy something like an Oase Pressure filter or a cheaper knock off version. This way you have a built in uv light. Ive got an Oase 30000 pressure filter on the small pond. Its adequate but not ideal. Also, these can be buried up to the neck so you don't need to see the filter.
I will post some photos of my set ups tomorrow.
What did she do?
My brother has lost several fish to herons in the Bromley area. Has now resorted to netting over the pond.
Luckily didn't get my mirror carp, they were either too big or couldn't be seen due to their dark colour.
Similar to otters; one of my friends has lost a few 50 and 60 pounders, as well as smaller fish, to otter. All they seem to eat is the small gland behind the gill, leaving the rest of the fish untouched. I've helped the bailif remove a couple of bigguns over the years.
More likely a cormorant around here but since I've caught the furry little feckers downstairs even hooking my pond plants out and dragging them off they remain my prime suspect. Might have to resort to netting if it continues.