Soooo, I'm really enjoying looking at everyone's beautiful koi, and now that i'm in the process of upgrading, i'm wondering if adding one or two of them is possible, or if it is a horrible idea.
Post-upgrade, my lower pond (where the fish are) will be around 1700 gallons. Right now I have 10 goldies/shubbies. I've had 8 of them for the past 4 years and have never, ever been over-run with babies (in fact, i've never even seen any). This may be a function of them having been overcrowded in a 120 gallon preform, or it may just be that they aren't particularly frisky, all the same sex, or they just eat their young.
I do not feed my fish except on the rare occaision -- maybe once every few weeks.
The new, 1700 gallon pond has a submersible Laguna 2900. I'll be placing it in a makeshift skimmer box chock full of various layers of matala matting for some biological filtration. This water then feeds a small bog (around 5x4), waterfalls into a middle pond chock full of lilies and marginals, and then waterfalls back into the main pond.
The new pond will not have a bottom drain. I may be adding an additional waterfall at some point and if I do, will get a different pump that is closer to the bottom to feed it and that will provide more biological filtration opportunities. But that likely won't be happening this year.
Sooooo, given all the extra room (new pond will be around 9 x 14 and irregularly shaped, 3 feet deep throughout except near the waterfall, where it may end up being a smidge shallower), is it a bad idea to even consider adding a koi or two? Not really interested in feeding them multiple times per day (or with any regularity for that matter) or being a hardcore, purist koi keeper. But, I also want them to be happy and not suffer.
Note that the new pond will have some marginals tucked behind stone edging. And I do have water lilies which I understand may or may not get destroyed with some precautions. Assuming my goldies continue to play cleanup crew for the majority of eggs that may happen along, and I keep on top of water parameters (how hard will this be?), is a koi or two a non-starter? Do koi need to be fed daily? I just feel like they would be a nice contrast to the goldies and shubbies.
I'd be really interested to hear from any casual koi-goldie-shubbie-keepers (is there such a thing?) out there about their setup and experiences.
Thanks for letting me ramble!
Michey
Post-upgrade, my lower pond (where the fish are) will be around 1700 gallons. Right now I have 10 goldies/shubbies. I've had 8 of them for the past 4 years and have never, ever been over-run with babies (in fact, i've never even seen any). This may be a function of them having been overcrowded in a 120 gallon preform, or it may just be that they aren't particularly frisky, all the same sex, or they just eat their young.
I do not feed my fish except on the rare occaision -- maybe once every few weeks.
The new, 1700 gallon pond has a submersible Laguna 2900. I'll be placing it in a makeshift skimmer box chock full of various layers of matala matting for some biological filtration. This water then feeds a small bog (around 5x4), waterfalls into a middle pond chock full of lilies and marginals, and then waterfalls back into the main pond.
The new pond will not have a bottom drain. I may be adding an additional waterfall at some point and if I do, will get a different pump that is closer to the bottom to feed it and that will provide more biological filtration opportunities. But that likely won't be happening this year.
Sooooo, given all the extra room (new pond will be around 9 x 14 and irregularly shaped, 3 feet deep throughout except near the waterfall, where it may end up being a smidge shallower), is it a bad idea to even consider adding a koi or two? Not really interested in feeding them multiple times per day (or with any regularity for that matter) or being a hardcore, purist koi keeper. But, I also want them to be happy and not suffer.
Note that the new pond will have some marginals tucked behind stone edging. And I do have water lilies which I understand may or may not get destroyed with some precautions. Assuming my goldies continue to play cleanup crew for the majority of eggs that may happen along, and I keep on top of water parameters (how hard will this be?), is a koi or two a non-starter? Do koi need to be fed daily? I just feel like they would be a nice contrast to the goldies and shubbies.
I'd be really interested to hear from any casual koi-goldie-shubbie-keepers (is there such a thing?) out there about their setup and experiences.
Thanks for letting me ramble!
Michey