Can we just put something to bed please?
Regards size of ponds not being large enough for Koi, what exactly are the implications for having too small a pond say 1800 gallons and too many Koi????
Help please.
- Thread starter Magicno1
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Regards size of ponds not being large enough for Koi, what exactly are the implications for having too small a pond say 1800 gallons and too many Koi????
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Koi just eat and poop a lot, and they get big, and then eat and poop even more, so you need enough water for the nutrients they put out to not negatively impact the water quality, or really intense filtration to process all the nutrients koi put into the water. They also need room to swim around comfortably when they're bigger.
Mmathis
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It has to do with water quality. Koi produce a lot of waste. They also grow very large — they need a lot of room. Room to swim, turn around, dive, have fun doing fishy things. As far as the waste goes, it doesn’t take long (or too many koi) for the filtration system to become overwhelmed. If the filtration (biological) is inadequate, the waste products will build up, becoming toxic. From there, you get into stress and illness.
I always tell people to look at the science involved. Learn about the nitrogen cycle. Remember that the water is the same as the air we breathe. If the air is dirty and unhealthy, our bodies become sick.
@Magicno1, @Mmathis gave great advice, the bottom line is eventually in no uncertain terms you will know when your pond can’t handle the fish load anymore. The fish get sick and start dying. Could 1800 gallons handle 1-2 large koi, sure ……issue is adding 10 koi at once and a bunch of goldfish in the short term overwhelmed the biological filter causing the water quality to drop, causing the issues you saw. In the long term those koi along with the goldfish are going to overwhelm the biological filter again even on a mature system, keep in mind overcrowding will stress the fish as well even with good water quality, causing health issues eventually leading to their death.
I’ve seen lots of Koi in smaller ponds than mine. I’ve just recalculated the size it’s 2200 gallons with the bog filter. I’m also adding a separate Cockney Koi filter which will help mechanically and biologically.
If and when they get larger I’ll move some on perhaps.
Just done a water change and good old hoover out the bottom so over the weekend I’ll re test see if anything changes.
No more losses as of today thankfully
Let me try this .EVERY river in this country has the municipalities for the cities and most of the towns along its bank . Take their treated sewerage water and dump it into the river. They are capable of handling the known population . However when we get a huge rain in these areas they have no choice as they get over loaded to dump raw sewerage into the rivers before its time.
Same concept for to many koi in a known space. It can handle a slight overload or rain but once you jit the tipping point its not pretty. 2200 gallons may sound like a lot. In a aquarium it's pretty big. But outside with pond and river fish it's waýyyyyy small compared to the millions of gallons they ate use to. Koi by far are NOT the most durable fish out there by any means .
Same concept for to many koi in a known space. It can handle a slight overload or rain but once you jit the tipping point its not pretty. 2200 gallons may sound like a lot. In a aquarium it's pretty big. But outside with pond and river fish it's waýyyyyy small compared to the millions of gallons they ate use to. Koi by far are NOT the most durable fish out there by any means .
Simple answer - dead fish.
@Magicno1 have you lost any more fish?
If I understand, you have 20, 6" fish in 2,200 US gallons, is that correct? If that is the case, I don't think the problem is over crowding. And your water parameters are good - at the moment. I wonder if the fish issues started when you first introduced them to the new pond. Maybe the water parameters (ammonia) were not good prior and that is when the fish issues started.
If I understand, you have 20, 6" fish in 2,200 US gallons, is that correct? If that is the case, I don't think the problem is over crowding. And your water parameters are good - at the moment. I wonder if the fish issues started when you first introduced them to the new pond. Maybe the water parameters (ammonia) were not good prior and that is when the fish issues started.
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