Clear water

[Kurtkoinut]

I built my pond march of 2020. This spring I added a 1000 gallon bog, to attempt to keep up with my koi and shubunkin population. Not including the bog, the fish area of the pond is just shy of 4000 gallons. Sounds like a great balance until I mention the 30 shubunkin and 14 small koi. Well the bog has done great, my water looks very nice. The fish have consumed 3 water lilies I had. This has me begin to worry about food sources. Theres nothing growing in the fish area of the pond. I used to only feed the fish when I wanted to show them to visitors, but now I wonder if I need to constantly feed. The only visible plant life in the fish area, are that tiny layer of algae that grows on everything. Will this sustain the fish between my "treats" I give them a couple times a week?

BTW I am working on population reduction. I know I am FAR over what should be in this little pond.

 

[brokensword]

you could plant some marginals that overhang into the water, for extra green food for them. Goldfish can do fine on the algae that grows on the sides but koi tend to demand more. A conundrum, to be sure. You could also get some oxygenating plants as a secondary plant/food source. I have a lot of overhanging plants but tend to still feed them once a day, maybe 5 days a week in the summer. Just enough that they all get some pellets. And if your bog is up and doing well, if you don't feed too much, your herd won't get 'huge' and it may work out for you. I have 32 koi, only 3 larger than 14" so far, and 100+ gf in 7K gallons.