Hello From England

[Stu74]

Hello everyone,
I have a small kidney shaped pond with 12 gold fish and am planning on expanding the size of the pond this year.
I hope this forum will be useful to ask advice etc.

 

[sissy]

Welcome and yep we love to give our 2 cents worth and it is fun watching some one else work .But the joy after is worth all the pain

 

[j.w]

stu74

 

[addy1]

to our group!

 

[Mmathis]

Welcome! How big is your pond and what kinds of plans have you made so far for your expansion? We really do like to see lots of pictures

 

[Stu74]

Thanks for the welcome everyone.
My pond is only small.I cant remember exactly but off the top of my head i would guess it is around 4.5 ft long x 3ft wide at the widest part and about 10inches at the narrowest.It is less than 2 ft deep at its deepest.My plan is to make the pond slightly bigger so it can home atleast 4 koi aswell as my 12 goldfish.I have been succesful so far in the 5 years i have had my goldfish but i am a total begginer with koi.
I will start a new thread soon asking for advice on the size of pond etc that i will need to keep koi.

PS TurtleMommy i will get some pictures of my fish and pond on here soon.

 

[addy1]

Keep in mind, with koi you need lots of water, they get large sometimes over 2 feet, like great filtration (they poop a lot) and need room and water to stay healthy. I stuck with gf and shubunkins.

 

[Becky]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

 

[Stu74]

Thanks Becky.
Addy1 i am wanting to extend my pond as much as i possibly can but i am limited for space.Hopefully i can make it big enough otherwise like you say i will stick with goldfish.
The weather was nice when i got up this morning but as soon as i went out to start measuring up and mark out the outline of where to dig the pond, the heavens opened.Typical british summer.At a guess i think the maximum length of the pond will be 9 ft by 4 and a half ft at its widest point.I am not sure if this will be big enough for koi.

 

[ididntdoit99]

9X4.5X 4 feet deep will get you about 1,200 gallons, not optimal for koi, but you could keep a couple, just make sure that you have someone to give or sell them to if they get too big. I'd probably stick with only one or two also instead of 4.

 

[Mmathis]

If you can, add to the depth, too.

 

[Stu74]

The pond at the moment is only about 22" deep at the deepest point so I am going to dig it 4 foot.
Your calculation of 1200 gallons i presume is worked out as a 9 x 4.5 rectangle shaped pond.My pond is going to be a sort of kidney shape with a narrow bit of probably less than 2 ft wide because of the limited space in my garden.I will have to try and calculate as accurate as i can how many gallons of water will be in the pond but its not looking like i can make it big enough for koi.
Thanks for your input guys.It is much apreciated.

 

[ididntdoit99]

Oh yes, I went with a rectangle that size, you could go even deeper to get the volume you need to keep a koi or two. Like I said, you could have even more, if you accept the fact that once they get bigger, you may have to give them up.

I actually had 6 Koi in my 1200 gallon pond last year, the biggest one was only like 10 inches long at that point, and I already had plans for an expansion, so it was fine to have that many in there while they were still small.

 

[Stu74]

I dont really want to go much deeper than 4 ft i dont think my back could take all the digging.
As for finding a home for any koi that get to big i could ask a guy i know if he would be willing to take my koi if they get to big.He has a few big ponds on his land.

 

[ididntdoit99]

That would work, if you can get yourself around 1000 gallons, and keep feeding to just a few times per week, you could easily keep 2 koi for a few years before they would get too big for the pond. In, fact, at 1000 gallons, with the proper filtration, you may be able to keep 2 full size koi, definitely one for sure.