mixing fish, size & type

[lugger007]

I have roughly a 1000 gallon pond behind my pool with 7 gold fish, 3 Shubumkins (sp) and 1 baby.

Most of the fish are about 2" - 4" long.

A friend of a friend has 3 Koi; 6", 8" & 10" long that he wants to sell.

My questions being, would I be able to introduce 3 koi of that size in to my pond and not have a problem with them fighting or the larger fish going after the others?

I like the smaller gold fish, but though it would be neat to also have some larger fish in the mix.

Thanks for all the help.

Brian

 

[koikeepr]

i think in the previous message you mentioned that your pond was only 1000 gallons or less, and that is not enough for koi. They get to be 18-24 inches lickety split. Stick with your goldfish, that's all you need for your sized pond.

Koi needs lots of room to swim, and you pond it too small. I have a 3,000 gallon pond now, and it's too small-ish for koi. I'm building a 5,000 gallon pond now, and even that's kinda small-ish still for these fish. Remember, they are river fish!

Stick to the fish you have unless you plan on upsizing the pond. Let your friend sell to someone else. Don't be tempted.

 

[DrDave]

Before I enlarged my ponds, I had Koi in my 750 gallon pond for years. You just have to watch the water quality and make sure you have good circulation and filtration.

I just rescued 12 Koi that a guy had in a 125 gallon stock stank. The guy had 2 Fluval 404 filters going and the water was very clear and clean. They looked like sardines in there. The person realized that his baby koi were not going to last much longer if he didn't do something. Some of these were 10".

Ironically, they were in good shape and are loving their new larger home. I will eventually post their photos on my web page.

 

[koikeepr]

that may be fine, DrD, but that is far from ideal for koi. Yes, you can have them survive in small quarters with meticulous cleaning, but that doesn't make the fish happy if they don't have plenty of room to swim around.

I wouldn't stick a horse in a dog pen and assume he's happy about that despite my keeping everything clean.

But, of course, to each his own.

 

[lugger007]

Thank you for the words of wisdom. I will wait till I build a larger pond to get Koi then. For the time being I will get a bunch more of gold fish and the likes. Thanks

 

[Waterbug]

Two words, fish load. Adding a bunch more goldfish can create the same issue as adding Koi. The surface area of a pond can support a given amount of fish flesh. Exceed that and filters are need or the fish die. Doesn't matter what the fish is.

 

[lugger007]

Is there anyway to figure out roughly how many fish your pond can sustain depending on the size and equipment you have?