koi

[nota]

after deciding the pool was little used and a pain to maintain now that the kids are grown

we put some feeder goldfish in it
mostly to eat the mosquitoes wigglers
they quickly grew huge and are spawning
without being fed anything but the bugs in the pool + frog eggs and tadpoles

so we got 10 Koi from a neighbor 4'' to 8''
the first day they were fine
but the next morning the Koi are all up on the surface air gasping
so we rigged up the pump to air spray [fountain]
but I find it hard to believe they sucked up all the O2 that fast
this is a 37' x 17' by 8' deep pool +30k gallons

any one else here have koi ?

[skunked]

have the water tested at the local fish/pet store.

[flipper35]

Ours keep getting eaten by the racoons so we stopped having them in the pond, but when we had them we didn't run the pump for the warerfall very often and they were fine for the several weeks they were in the small pond.

[vash]

big pond!! bad ass.

i think the O2 breaks up in strata. when you fired up the pumps, all was fine?

[red-beard]

Maybe you should switch to Salmon

[Bill Douglas]

I think dolphins have been sneaking in at night and chasing them.

[vash]

water's capacity to hold O2 is related to water temp. is it warm now?

[john70t]

I've seen koi "on the surface air gasping" at Japanese national buildings.
It might be part of their nature....

Cleaning the bottom, feeding the right diet in the right amount, and providing shade and/or the right ph environment will always help. Florida is hot. Maybe some cleaner fish will help.

Other than that, I don't know more.

[stevej37]

Have you used any algaecide or herbicide lately? Other fish can usually tolerate pond chemicals, if used as directed, but Koi are different.

[crustychief]

Any news on the pool pond?

[nota]

this morning they were swimming normally
no surface gasping

I dumped about 20% of the water
and replaced with new well water
and fountained it in to get the O2 up

this is south fla it is always warm to HOT here

so far they are all looking good

[crustychief]

Cool! I add a little salt to the water to improve oxygen saturation when it gets warm. You might not want to do that if you have metal fittings in your pool.

[vash]

pics?

i would love a koi pond! racoons would too. effers.

i've heard you need one (only) one black koi in the group. i think you want an overall number of fish to be an odd number. some ancient chinese koi - good luck thing..just in case.

[crustychief]

Sorry about the low quality pics, it is overcast ( marine layer ) here.
The pond is 2100 gallons, 4 feet deep.

[Kraqus]

Is the water moving at all?




Benny

[Bill Douglas]

Umm, we have wild Koi here in NZ and they kill off other species of fish. The Conservation Department ask us to shoot them if we see them. THe bow and arrow guys nail them then reel them in. Over here they are big things 2 or 3 feet long.

[vash]

bottomline, it's just a carp.

[tharbert]

Carp love to roll and "gobble" at the surface. My guess is that was natual behavior.

[nota]

Originally Posted by crustychief

Cool! I add a little salt to the water to improve oxygen saturation when it gets warm. You might not want to do that if you have metal fittings in your pool.

kind of afraid of salt my deep drain pipe is 50's galvanized iron
upper pipes are all PVC replacements as are the pump and filter

with 30k gal that is a lot of salt too to get 0.3%

[crustychief]

Yeah, maybe a wheelbarrow load, I was surprised at the quantity the first time I did it.