My goldfish pond

[addy1]

Hey keith....you want me to change your thread name to goldfish/koi pond?

Your pond looks great !

 

[CometKeith]

Covid has come and gone. Thanks for asking , like any illness it wasn't a lot of fun, but I did loose 20 pounds , temporarily.
BEAD FILTER AS IN A NEXUS ? or pressurized.

It’s an Ultima II 4000. It’s definitely pressurized. I use a pretty strong external motor with it. 7000 GPH. I also have a blower fan to break up the media when I do a backflush. I usually backflush out 30 gallons every time I backflush it. It takes about 15 minutes to do. I just recently bought the pump and oversized it because I am planning to get a larger filter.

 

[YShahar]

Your pond looks so lush and vibrant! I like the way you've integrated it into the landscape and surrounding plantings. At 3,500 gallons, I think our ponds are about the same size, which makes me a bit less leary of introducing koi into the pond. Good thing too, as I just rescued a koi from a backyard pond in our community! My initial thought was to rescue it from a bad situation and rehome it as soon as possible, but we'll see. I don't have anything like the kind of filtration you have, as the bog has yet to be set up, so that will be the first priority of this guy is going to stay with us for any length of time.

 

[GBBUDD]

ANY FILTER CAN WORK if the Stewart is good and remembers size of fish to how much food is given . a proper diet and not over feeding or feeding junk food . kOI can easily be kept in 3500 gallons. And not all koi are created equal i have a handful of fish over 5 years old and they are barely 8" long while others are 20"

I couple choice koi a couple quality gold fish / shubunkins maybe and some minnows of some kind and you have a family that will keep you entertained for years

 

[Tula]

@GBBUDD I agree any filter can work, with dedication. Our pond is only 1700 gallons and we had 4 adult koi, but it took a good amount of work to keep the water.

 

[CometKeith]

Your pond looks so lush and vibrant! I like the way you've integrated it into the landscape and surrounding plantings. At 3,500 gallons, I think our ponds are about the same size, which makes me a bit less leary of introducing koi into the pond. Good thing too, as I just rescued a koi from a backyard pond in our community! My initial thought was to rescue it from a bad situation and rehome it as soon as possible, but we'll see. I don't have anything like the kind of filtration you have, as the bog has yet to be set up, so that will be the first priority of this guy is going to stay with us for any length of time.

Hi YShahar. My original pond was exclusively goldfish. I had that about 8 years until I moved. I decided to have Koi in this pond because we are on the second floor and Koi would be easier to see from our typical viewing spot on our back porch. My biggest fear with adding Koi was I was worried about possible babies with mixed Koi and Goldfish heritage. That has not happened at all. In fact none of my Koi have had babies and I’m guessing they might be all male! I would say to start slowly and see how the one Koi works for you and see if there is any difficulty maintaining the pond with it. One thing I might mention is to pick your Koi carefully because you will have it a long time and it may grow large. If it’s not pretty you may regret having picked it later on!! I know that’s difficult with a rescue Koi but it’s something to consider. I personally lean towards Goshanke which are either Sanke, Showa, or Utsuri but there are very many attractive Koi types. I guess I should add if other people read this is that it’s much easier maintaining a pond with just “ goldfish” and can be just as enjoyable as having Koi. I feel too many new “ ponders” start with Koi because of their perceived status and regret that decision because of the extra maintenance required which may lead to other problems like disease and fish loss because of an unhealthy pond environment. I gave keeping Koi a lot of thought before I jumped in and had 8 years pond experience before I tried it.

 

[CometKeith]

@GBBUDD I agree any filter can work, with dedication. Our pond is only 1700 gallons and we had 4 adult koi, but it took a good amount of work to keep the water.

Hi Tula. Just wondering will you have a chance to visit any of the Koi you gave away? I’m sure that must be hard having had them so long.

 

[CometKeith]

Oh it’s not a big deal but I just hit my 12 year point on GPF. I‘m not the most frequent poster but it’s been enjoyable being on here and it’s been fantastic with all the great stuff I have learned through this forum, not to mention all the nice people I have talked to over the years!

 

[YShahar]

Hi YShahar. My original pond was exclusively goldfish. I had that about 8 years until I moved. I decided to have Koi in this pond because we are on the second floor and Koi would be easier to see from our typical viewing spot on our back porch. My biggest fear with adding Koi was I was worried about possible babies with mixed Koi and Goldfish heritage. That has not happened at all. In fact none of my Koi have had babies and I’m guessing they might be all male! I would say to start slowly and see how the one Koi works for you and see if there is any difficulty maintaining the pond with it. One thing I might mention is to pick your Koi carefully because you will have it a long time and it may grow large. If it’s not pretty you may regret having picked it later on!! I know that’s difficult with a rescue Koi but it’s something to consider. I personally lean towards Goshanke which are either Sanke, Showa, or Utsuri but there are very many attractive Koi types. I guess I should add if other people read this is that it’s much easier maintaining a pond with just “ goldfish” and can be just as enjoyable as having Koi. I feel too many new “ ponders” start with Koi because of their perceived status and regret that decision because of the extra maintenance required which may lead to other problems like disease and fish loss because of an unhealthy pond environment. I gave keeping Koi a lot of thought before I jumped in and had 8 years pond experience before I tried it.

Getting all male koi has got to be an amazing stroke of luck!

But yes, I was very reluctant to take even one koi, and was happy enough with our large goldfish and shubunkins. His Honor the Chef has wanted koi from the beginning, but that's partly because he has fond memories of them from his years living in Hong Kong. Had this one koi not been in such desperate straights, I would have held off. And truthfully I'm not totally sure he'll make it, after having been in such an awful situation, but at least we'll give him a fighting chance.

And he (or she) is actually quite a handsome critter, in a color scheme that I believe is called kikokuryu. With the large scales along his back, he looks positively Jurassic! Here is one pic from earlier today with two of our largest sarassa goldfish:

For size comparison, the new koi is about 30 cm in length, and Fancy Fin, the large red sarassa in the picture is just over 30 cm, including his impressively long tail. In this photo, the two sarassas look larger in comparison to the koi only because they're closer.

 

[Tula]

@CometKeith , Yes I absolutely plan on visiting my koi in their new home. I'm wondering if it would be best to wait till next Spring for a couple reasons, the weather and maybe I won't be missing them so much by then. The man who has them is great about sending me videos and updates, but I don't want to bug him too often - ha ha!

 

[CountryEscape]

Getting all male koi has got to be an amazing stroke of luck!

But yes, I was very reluctant to take even one koi, and was happy enough with our large goldfish and shubunkins. His Honor the Chef has wanted koi from the beginning, but that's partly because he has fond memories of them from his years living in Hong Kong. Had this one koi not been in such desperate straights, I would have held off. And truthfully I'm not totally sure he'll make it, after having been in such an awful situation, but at least we'll give him a fighting chance.

And he (or she) is actually quite a handsome critter, in a color scheme that I believe is called kikokuryu. With the large scales along his back, he looks positively Jurassic! Here is one pic from earlier today with two of our largest sarassa goldfish:

View attachment 155109


For size comparison, the new koi is about 30 cm in length, and Fancy Fin, the large red sarassa in the picture is just over 30 cm, including his impressively long tail. In this photo, the two sarassas look larger in comparison to the koi only because they're closer.

Actually, the koi looks bigger since it’s closer to the camera! And it appears to be standard fin, not butterfly, but maybe it’s because the tail fin is not easily seen. I LOVE the white fins, though!!!
We have a baby koi that is 2 years old that we kept that looks almost identical. We call him Skelator because it’s like you can see the Skelton. Wish I could find a photo of him easily.

 

[YShahar]

Actually, the koi looks bigger since it’s closer to the camera! And it appears to be standard fin, not butterfly, but maybe it’s because the tail fin is not easily seen. I LOVE the white fins, though!!!
We have a baby koi that is 2 years old that we kept that looks almost identical. We call him Skelator because it’s like you can see the Skelton. Wish I could find a photo of him easily.

My larger half sent a couple of pictures (including the one below) to some koi experts. He was told that this koi is mostly likely a kumonryu, and that s/he needs fattening up! He (the koi, not my husband) now goes by the name "Pepper". Definitely not a butterfly koi, in any case.

He (or she) is actually about 10 cm longer than Fancy Fin, who appears in the lower left looking toward the camera. Correction to my previous post: Fancy Fin measures just about 20 cm in length. I measured the new guy at just a tad over 30 cm long (was hard to measure as he wasn't happy about holding still).

Pepper is also more massively-built than the sarrasas and a lot more active. Those white fins are actually somewhat translucent--almost seashell like--and very pretty!

 

[CountryEscape]

It’s a really pretty koi!
Finally found a video showing my koi that looks similar. I did a screenshot of him in the video. I circled him

 

[GBBUDD]

We call him Skelator because it’s like you can see the Skelton

We have one we flirted with calling skelator as well . But settled on Tank

 

[YShahar]

It’s a really pretty koi!
Finally found a video showing my koi that looks similar. I did a screenshot of him in the video. I circled him

Cool! Very similar in markings. Supposedly these koi change their markings quite drastically. Has that been your experience?