I suck at this..

[jjdurrant]

The fish died after a few days (one koi and 4 GF int he lower section)!! Argh. Any ideas why? Tips?

Here is my pond when we first installed it (water is clear now) LOL.

 

[Oldhead]

Well from what i can see in the picture you need to get or build a filter. Do a search here for a bio filter. Did you use water with clorine in it to fill the pond? or did you use well water? You need to declorinate the water if you use city water. Buy a test kit and make sure the water is within limits of keeping fish. Last, browse the forums and read read read you will learn plenty of do's and don'ts on this site.

 

[jjdurrant]

Thanks.. I am using city water.

What should I test for other than pH? How many fish would you recommend?

 

[jjdurrant]

Also, what filter should I get?

 

[koiguy1969]

a 5 gallon bucket.. skippy style upflow filter should do you o.k. look for the 55 gallon biofilter thread in the equiopment threads just do that downsized; or a rubber made tote container 10 gallon size.

 

[Oldhead]

Test for the basics
Nitrite
Nitrate
amonia
ph

 

[DrDave]

Your pond is too small for safely keeping fish.

 

[lfreem]

Aside from lacking filtration, I second Dr. Dave in that your "pond" is not big enough for koi. There is just no way that any koi will survive in that.

I wouldn't recommend anything more than some comet goldfish for your situation. You can buy the feeder goldfish for 29 cents at a place like Petsmart or other such places.

I would not add any fish to this pond until you straighten the filtration situation first, or those fish will die as well. Google SKIPPY FILTER and you'll see several design options.

The last option is to just not have any fish in your water garden and put some interesting plants in it and it will attract some frogs hopefully.

 

[BBK]

Aside from lacking filtration, I second Dr. Dave in that your "pond" is not big enough for koi. There is just no way that any koi will survive in that.

I wouldn't recommend anything more than some comet goldfish for your situation. You can buy the feeder goldfish for 29 cents at a place like Petsmart or other such places.

I would not add any fish to this pond until you straighten the filtration situation first, or those fish will die as well. Google SKIPPY FILTER and you'll see several design options.

The last option is to just not have any fish in your water garden and put some interesting plants in it and it will attract some frogs hopefully.

I think you forgot that comet (and common) get to over 2ft long.

That pond isn't suitable for anything other than mosquito fish.

 

[lfreem]

I think you forgot that comet (and common) get to over 2ft long.

That pond isn't suitable for anything other than mosquito fish.

LOL! That is ultimately true, but he can adopt 'em out at that point. And unlike koi, goldfish adapt a bit more to the size of their surroundings in terms of growth.