General Concerns

[Hiro]

Hi I’m new here and to pond maintenance. I began taking care of my family pond last year and am still relatively new to care.

My koi, Hiro, has always stayed under the pond waterfall as his little secret spot. Given he is the biggest he gets dibs on the area. Recently I reinstalled the waterfall to have water flow down and he’s been staying on the surface under the rock, but where he still gets splashed.

I had a bad scare last year where the pond was severely depleted with oxygen, but this doesn’t seem to be the case since none of the other goldies are surfacing and Hiro isn’t surfacing in the middle of the pond like he had before

My friend told me that it doesn’t seem like anything is wrong with him, since he’s eating well and physically looks fine. Should I test the water? I recently added Pond Shock for the bio filter, but also some Aquarium salt and Stress Coat slime for their health.
We can’t get plants in until next week since it’s been too cold

(Attached pic below for context)

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

How big is the pond and how many koi?

In general, we don’t advocate the use of any chemicals.

 

[j.w]

and welcome @Hiro
So do you have both koi and goldfish? Most of us here do not use any of those treatments to our ponds. You are asking for trouble. How old is this pond and the fish? Do you have a test kit? If so yes test the water. How do you know the oxygen was depleted?

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum! Maybe it just likes the water flowing.

 

[mrsclem]

Oxygen depletion kills off the largest fish first.

 

[GBBUDD]

love that waterfall boulder makes me think you have a heck of a pond over there

 

[Hiro]

Hello and welcome!

How big is the pond and how many koi?

In general, we don’t advocate the use of any chemicals.

 

[Hiro]

Hello!

The pond I estimated around 500 gallons but I’m not 100% sure since the house never listed the total volume.

As for the fish, we only have one Koi (Hiro) and the rest are goldfish( about 9 ). We got them by accident after our neighbor dumped them in our pond when I was around 14.

 

[Hiro]

View attachment 150768and welcome @Hiro
So do you have both koi and goldfish? Most of us here do not use any of those treatments to our ponds. You are asking for trouble. How old is this pond and the fish? Do you have a test kit? If so yes test the water. How do you know the oxygen was depleted?

The fish are around 5 years old and the pond came with the house when we moved in about a decade ago, so I’m not sure since it never came with the listing.
I don’t have a test kit but I’ll be sure to purchase one. As for how I knew about the oxygen depletion last year, our filter broke during a a particularly bad heat wave and no moving water was present. And the fish started gasping at the water surface until I was able to go to Lowes and repair the filter and get water flowing again.

This doesn’t seem like the case this time since Hiro isn’t really gasping but just vibing under the waterfall

 

[GBBUDD]

A 500 gallon pond is a bit like a 5x9 cell. For a 5 plus year old koi.

 

[Lisak1]

500 gallons? Oh my. Can you give us measurements - how wide, how long, how deep - and we can calculate more closely for you. But if it is 500 gallons - or even close to that - your koi has probably outgrown the pond. As someone already mentioned, low oxygen affects the biggest fish first.

 

[Hiro]

500 gallons? Oh my. Can you give us measurements - how wide, how long, how deep - and we can calculate more closely for you. But if it is 500 gallons - or even close to that - your koi has probably outgrown the pond. As someone already mentioned, low oxygen affects the biggest fish first.

Unfortunately at this moment I can’t. But I can when I get home.
I hope he hasn’t outgrown it since he hasn’t been surfacing since I’ve installed more plants

But if he does do you think I’ll need to find him a new home?

(I’ll give the measurements as soon as I get back on Saturday thank you!)

 

[Hiro]

View attachment 150768and welcome @Hiro
So do you have both koi and goldfish? Most of us here do not use any of those treatments to our ponds. You are asking for trouble. How old is this pond and the fish? Do you have a test kit? If so yes test the water. How do you know the oxygen was depleted?

I got more plants since your post and an aerator is coming in soon. Thank you for mentioning the disuse of chemicals, through that I’ve been looking into more natural options like more plants :>

 

[GBBUDD]

I had string algae all through out the pond this spring as i was only running a small bog with 30 koi some up to 24 " but now with the matrix bog running again the hair algae has disappeared all on its own as did the pea soup in 3 weeks time the water is crystal clear again and the algae is long gone. but the bog is what many newbies would call very heavily planted

 

[Hiro]

So just stock up on plants and become a plant mom? Got it :>