Hey Mario what is your problem ???
Like you I served my country in the Royal Navy unlike some folks I dont google my information but use knowledge gained over the last 26 years of keeping koi .
You say your koi are of Japanese bloodline ok so which bloodline do they come from and which prefecture in Japan that way at least I'll know what fish your talking about.
What I dont understand is your hostility to people on this site , do you think your country owes you something ???
Veterans like ourselves should be proud of what they have done we had the balls to stand up and defend our countrys but you dont go about shouting people down all it serves to do is to put peoples backs up.
Koi are bottom feeders yes I'm not going to argue about that, as they are pests in countrys like New Zealand because of the crap they kick up in their never ending quest for food this in turn kills off native species.
Bloodline koi have one major hang up as their immune system is impaired because of the rather small gene pool.....
As such you have to be on the ball with them at all times, leaving them to get on with it just isnt done in the koi world.
Even in the Japanese mud ponds they are constantly checked and during the winter they come indoors, I dont know what your winters are like but in some places in the US it can get very cold which in turn if not monitored can again cost you koi, this is the reason many of us choose to heat our ponds in the UK it also alllows us round the year feeding..
I'm at the moment doing a bit of maintenance cleaning out my vortex and doig a 30% waterchange using the trickle method so as not to loose the heat of the pond, if done correctly you wont even see a dip in temperature..........
The Japanese have tried extending the gene pool but as of yet the koi's colours just wont cut it with the koi they already have.
I have two koi who have been with my partner Val and I for all the 26 years weve been keeping koi , you do this by constant monitoring of you ponds conditions we use various naturally occuring products to keep the water as we want it and regular maintenance with 30% water changes helps keep our koi hail and hearty.
But your claiming to be hands off yes ?
Ok so what do you do when you have say a parasite problem or bacterial , because something like those would decimate your entire pond if not treated .
Algae blooms yes but its also a double edged sword in that it delpetes a pond of oxygen during the night , you have to remember its a gigantic plant "small yes" but as a whole huge, you can also get toxic blooms again costing you your entire stock so as koi keepes we employ our UV-C's to rid ourselves of this problem.
Do you have any farms near your pond because even we suffer high nitrate during the muck spreading/ Fertilzer which can and does get into our water system via our resovours another thng you have to be on the ball over .
The only algea I see are around th sides and bottom of my pond , it is cropped by my koi and as such remains short and not a problem.
My pond and its filters are formerly a koi deaerships QT ponds built for large numbers of koi but I keep the stocking leavel to around 20 koi.
My knowledge comes from the Koi health Library built up over the last 26 years as I previously said alott of what is out on the net is somethines wrong and dangerous if followed (at least we agree on something) and I tend to look at folk who constantly quote this or that link as Google heads.
But if you get the right sites thats a different story as they can be a mine of information but books as I said are my font of knowledge.
Yes some of it gets old but there are always new and better Authors than say Dr Axlerod (who has had his day me thinks)!!!!.....
But I digress if your japanese bloodline koi are allowed to breed naturally you end up with what are quite frankly fish that aint worth a dime and if they were dogs they would be termed mongerals.
The koi you see in the Japanese koi growing prefectures are culled to get what they want out of a koi and you only see the best
Your koi unless culled must be by now a mess .
So I politely suggest your way of doing things is totally wrong and eventually it will all end in tears for you, so instead of being hostile perhaps youd do better to listen to folks then, just then you may learn something about koi .
I run a website called koi keeper Unleashed it was set up to teach people all about koi, and for an exchange of ideas between different countries such as the US, Canada, India, South Africa , Australia and the UK you are more than welcome to come along however we dont look kindly on people who try to shout ofthers down so a ban would quickly follow perhaps you might learn something who knows
rgrds
Dave
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at least my 3 different avitars will be here for a while...