Yes Addy you are so right. My oldest goldfish has been with me 12 years.I agree they do deserve a good life! I’m not sorry though I ventured into Koi from goldfish. I have expanded my knowledge learning how to keep a more challenging pond. I would have never built a bog if I didn’t try keeping Koi.
Thanks Cas. I think I’m over my initial impulse to continue getting more fish. I’m going to try to avoid looking at any websites selling Koi for at least now. I totally agree on spring being the roughest time. This year I’m thinking of letting my biofilter run all winter. It’s in my garage and it never goes below 32 degrees there. I know the bb will die but I’m thinking it might not hurt to have it up and going already in the spring. I loved going to Japan. You would find little ponds in some of the most surprising places. I went to a little coffee shop in a temple district in Kyoto. They had the cutest pond. You could see It through large windows that were facing an old wall. Even thought it was a little hard to communicate she explained that the garden was over 100 years old. I showed her pictures of my pond and we had a nice exchange. For some reason whenever you ask about Koi there the average person always responds “ you mean carp?”You have some pretty nice koi right now, Keith. My suggestion is to wait until next spring. See if all your fish survive the winter and spring start up. Those times are usually the most dangerous for an over stocked pond. And if you can wait until next spring, maybe you can wait.... period...
Oh, and I want to add that I was watching a thread a couple years ago of someone going to Japan and buying fish. Loved to watch the process. Then he started selling some small ones at prices I could afford. I came sooooo close to buying one. I had to stop watching because it was too tempting.
Thanks Tula it was the same brand so I’m assuming it’s the same food? I bought the medium size pellets. Thats something I need to think about rehoming some fish. I just don’t know how easy it would be to find other people near me that could take good care of them. Our pond takes up about 1/3 rd of our yard. I know my wife would not be on board with any more expansion projects!Because Spring is a tricky time of year for fish, I lower my pond water and catch the babies in Sept.......leaving Spring as a time to restart things gradually.
If you have your heart set on another jumbo tosai, If I were you, I'd lower the pond water and catch many goldfish to rehome before cold weather comes. I plan in advance where mine are going.....some years I've been lucky to give them to friends with ponds and other years I release them in a natural pond on the grounds of one of our favorite plant nurseries......with their permission of course. This is a large pond, filled with lotus, lilies, turtle, frogs and a variety of fish.....I know they may become a meal for a predator, but at least they have a chance.
Lots of serious koi keepers get new fish, but they are constantly rehoming their stock.....I personally am too emotionally attached to mine. I don't know how big mine are....somewhere between 2-3 feet. Three of mine are just "pond mutts" from the fish hatchery and one is from a breeder.
I've seen that food on Amazon for less too, however Tom told me theirs is specially formulated......whatever, I'm sure they're basically the same thing. Ayway, I've been buying from him for years now....BTW I buy the medium sized pellets. I've used large pellets also, but they seem to prefer the medium sized ones.
PSKoi is located outside of Indianapolis, having relocated from California due to the high cost of doing business there. I believe he flies his koi into O'Hara .
Another option would be to re-home some fish now and dream all winter of a new tosai for next year
Hi Tula. I got that food yesterday. It’s kind of interestingly... I never had green food before! So far the fish like it. I bought the medium size but they seem pretty small. My goldfish really like it because of the size. I took a few pictures from my porch the other day. Last month we finished the underside by installing planks and painting them black. Also we got a shade to block the sun in the late afternoon. I’m attaching a few pics and the view from the porch slightly enlarged. We are starting a front porch project now too. Last year we reroofed it and put on a new deck. Now we are building a covering for it.Because Spring is a tricky time of year for fish, I lower my pond water and catch the babies in Sept.......leaving Spring as a time to restart things gradually.
If you have your heart set on another jumbo tosai, If I were you, I'd lower the pond water and catch many goldfish to rehome before cold weather comes. I plan in advance where mine are going.....some years I've been lucky to give them to friends with ponds and other years I release them in a natural pond on the grounds of one of our favorite plant nurseries......with their permission of course. This is a large pond, filled with lotus, lilies, turtle, frogs and a variety of fish.....I know they may become a meal for a predator, but at least they have a chance.
Lots of serious koi keepers get new fish, but they are constantly rehoming their stock.....I personally am too emotionally attached to mine. I don't know how big mine are....somewhere between 2-3 feet. Three of mine are just "pond mutts" from the fish hatchery and one is from a breeder.
I've seen that food on Amazon for less too, however Tom told me theirs is specially formulated......whatever, I'm sure they're basically the same thing. Ayway, I've been buying from him for years now....BTW I buy the medium sized pellets. I've used large pellets also, but they seem to prefer the medium sized ones.
PSKoi is located outside of Indianapolis, having relocated from California due to the high cost of doing business there. I believe he flies his koi into O'Hara .
Another option would be to re-home some fish now and dream all winter of a new tosai for next year
Thank you! I wonder if I got the small one by mistake? Anyway the fish like it. Amazon has a generic Koi food that’s pretty reasonably priced. I wonder if anyone has tried to and if their fish like it. This is a picture of how we are building the front porch roof. When it’s done it will be covered totally. Right now you can see the structural framing that will support everything. We are on the 2nd and 3rd floor so this covering will give us a little shade in the summer. We are only covering half of it so the sun will still come in our front living room windows.
Tula. I checked my order and it said medium and they show it as green. Here are a few pics from the web site. What do you think? Did I get the wrong one? It says Seaside Aquatics. I noticed it says all season. Is that why it’s different?
I always thought wheat germ should only be fed for cool weather, but the man I bought it from and other members of that koi forum, all say it's a very good year round food. Ironically I don't feed for growth either - LOL ! I feed them once per day, but they love this food so I stick with it.
Thanks Tula. It was originally a 2 flat. We have two rentals and we added a floor to the building so we have two floors to live on. It was a good pre-retirement move for us because the rentals covers all the building expenses and even provides a little income. Most of our friends were surprised we were giving up a sf home to have a rental building but I have managed a lot of rentals over the years and didn't have any concerns about doing it. Also we love the location as we are close to a lot of nice amenities the city has to offer. We were able to take a 10-15 minute walk from our house this morning with our grandson to the beach so that was a lot of fun! We have been lucky with all our tenants and everyone helps bring in mail, packages etc when someone is gone to help each other out. There are 5 properties in a row just like ours. All have done some modifications since they were built 100 years ago. The properties on each side of us were turned into single family houses. We came from a large house and wanted to downsize so the space is perfect for us, but we did have to get rid of a lot of stuff to fit in! Fortunately the pond didn't downsize! I more than quadrupled the size of my pond from my last property when we did the renovation work. That was part of the deal with my wife for us moving!
Give us a count when done!
Will do. I'm hoping it's lower as Cha Cha spawned on a net plant bag, which I was able to lift from the pond, thus hoping less eggs hatched !
Wow. Good luck!