Koi attacking plants

[WaterGardener]

To me, the wire mesh looks too large. I cover mine with mesh that is no larger than 1", possibly smaller. The leaves have no trouble coming up through that and the fish have no chance of getting to the tubers. I think your fish could reach into those large holes with their noses and still do some damage.

I agree that you have too many fish in there. From what I have read, the smallest number of gallons per koi should be around 250 gallons. Some say 500, others 1,000 gallons. But 250 for each fish seems to be the minimum recommended.

 

[JohnM2001]

.....Do you see your fish spawning ever? If so, they are probably eating all the eggs before they can hatch.

No, haven't noticed that, but if they do, I hope they eat them all, as last time it was a nightmare getting rid of all the fry. They've been rather quiet the last few days, hanging down the bottom, so maybe they are spawning, as they haven't been too interested in food. The good news is that the newly caged plant survived the night unmolested!

 

[JohnM2001]

Just an update. Found a local ponder who needed additional fish, so he came and took 4 of my 12 koi. The biggest one and 3 other large ones. The difference was seen almost immediately: cleaner water, less aggression.

Made a floating circular net for the water hyacinths, they have doubled in size in 10 days, with roots protected. Will try leaving one outside the net, see if they nibble the roots.

The repotted water lily with cage over the top doesn't seem much better, even after adding an couple of aquatic plant feeding tablets in the soil. And now, not many water garden plants available at shops nearby,

 

[GBBUDD]

You people need to discipline your fish. A simple time out now and again would be useful.

ok now i have a beef with you @Lisak1 YOU MADE ME SMILE AND LOL AT THE SAME TIME that hasn't happened in 20 years ....

 

[Jhn]

Just an update. Found a local ponder who needed additional fish, so he came and took 4 of my 12 koi. The biggest one and 3 other large ones. The difference was seen almost immediately: cleaner water, less aggression.

Made a floating circular net for the water hyacinths, they have doubled in size in 10 days, with roots protected. Will try leaving one outside the net, see if they nibble the roots.

The repotted water lily with cage over the top doesn't seem much better, even after adding an couple of aquatic plant feeding tablets in the soil. And now, not many water garden plants available at shops nearby,

May take awhile for the lily to recover from the koi playing with it, it could be putting energy into establishing its root system.

My pond is loaded with plants and koi. What I ended up doing is adding plants before fish. The first fish (koi and goldfish) I added were all small like under 4” small, they were all rescues from a pond we demoed out and filled in. My plants had a good 2-3 year head start before the fish got big, didn’t feed them a whole lot. Heron was helping with that too.

Anyhow point is my fish leave alone my water lilies for the most part, what they are distracted by is all the water celery and forgetmenot growing between the rocks around my pond edge. The do their best to eat all the can, but those plants grow so fast they have trouble keeping up.Also the gigantic stand of pickerel rush in my pond gives them something to root around in.

I realize most do things the other way around adding the fish first or at the same time as plants, but just what has worked for me. I do notice any new plants I throw in the pond with koi at this point are fair game and get uprooted.

 

[Lisak1]

ok now i have a beef with you @Lisak1 YOU MADE ME SMILE AND LOL AT THE SAME TIME that hasn't happened in 20 years ....

ha! I crack myself up ALL THE TIME. My husband tells me “you’re one of the funniest people you know aren’t you?” Yup!