koi pond

nancy237 · #1 03/03/12, 09:06 PM

If all goes as planned I am moving to a house in a few months with a large koi pond & waterfall. Huge koi.. Does anyone have tips on there care.

The agents like to keep the buyers & sellers apart so I may not have a chance
to get help from the current owners.

Pops2 · #2 03/03/12, 09:18 PM

when it looks like the deal will go through have your agent ask for the information. at that point they may let you talk to each other if you keep asking questions about that subject.

Natural Beauty Farm · #3 03/03/12, 09:19 PM

Ask away. Owned a huge landscaping co in GA and we specialized in backyard ponds.

Do you have pictures?
How many gallons?
What type of filtration system does it have?
What types of fish..... is it just Koi or do they have bottom feeders...catfish also?
They are pretty easy to take care of if everything is set up right.... if not the market for large Koi is pretty good. I use to raise fry til they were 18" and sell for $500 to $3000

nancy237 · #4 03/03/12, 11:04 PM

Wow , Natural Beauty Farm..I had no idea they cost that much.

I hope they plan to leave the fish..I just assumed..

All I know right now is that they are big & beautiful. There is a waterfall that
pours into the pond. I will try to post a picture.

RedDirt Cowgirl · #5 03/03/12, 11:35 PM

Koi can become pets, you might try to broach the subject sooner than later.

Maura · #6 03/04/12, 12:16 AM

We had a koi and goldfish pond. There is undoubledly some sort of filtration system. Some people have fancy equipment, we used lava rock and an underwater pump. They were not hard to take care of.

7thswan · #7 03/04/12, 06:29 AM

Are you sure you are getting the Koi in your contract. They can be worth alot of $,even more $ than you are paying for the house.

BarbadosSheep · #8 03/04/12, 06:03 PM

I have been involved in the koi hobby for many years. I show koi and designed and built all of my own ponds. I am also a certified koi health advisor.

First of all, most koi are not valuable. You can kind of think of them the same way you do dogs. A few dogs are show quality and may be worth thousands, but most dogs are just dogs.wobbly worth much except to their owners. Koi are the same way. A few are worth a lot, but the vast majority of koi are what's known as "pond grade" and may only be worth a couple hundred bucks at the most, no matter how big they get. If you can get more info on the pond size, filtration details, etc I can steer you in the right direction. if the owners are leaving the koi behind, or offering them to you for sale, don't agree to anything without getting photos and sizes. Post them here or pm me and I'll give you an idea of worth.

Joshie · #9 03/04/12, 06:52 PM

Are you sure they're leaving the fish? I cannot imagine leaving that much money at a house I was selling. If the pond is deep enough you can over winter them. They will reproduce. My mom used to put feeder goldfish in her 1930s concrete heart shaped pond. We'd find extra fish from time to time.

nancy237 · #10 03/04/12, 06:58 PM

No, I do not know if they plan to leave the fish.

I don't want them to know it is an option if they don't already know.
The ad said Koi Pond..doesn't mean fish are part of that..
Asking may let them know they have a choice. There is nothing I can do if they
take them. As the closing gets closer I will ask if they mind reviewing their care with me.

I will try to post a picture if i figure out how

nancy237 · #11 03/04/12, 07:24 PM

they seemed bigger before..maybe there are big ones mixed in

koi pond - Homesteading Questions

nancy237 · #12 03/04/12, 07:30 PM

Whole pond
koi pond - Homesteading Questions

nancy237 · #13 03/04/12, 07:30 PM

I tried hard to reduce the picture size ..Sorry!!!

pancho · #14 03/04/12, 07:44 PM

Great looking. I would like to have one just like it.

ronbre · #15 03/04/12, 07:47 PM

Koi are generally like pets, most people would take them with them..or at least their largest ones..they are also very valuable

HilltopDaisy · #16 03/04/12, 11:53 PM

Wow, that sure is pretty!

nancy237 · #17 03/05/12, 12:04 AM

For you that raised them, how long did it take for them to grow to
12 inches or 18 inches.

barnyardgal · #18 03/05/12, 04:47 AM

Nice~~I would like to have one of these but am afraid they would be to much work....

BarbadosSheep · #19 03/05/12, 05:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nancy237

For you that raised them, how long did it take for them to grow to
12 inches or 18 inches.

Koi can be raised to 12" pretty quickly, usually in their first year of life. Many koi reach 24" by their second year. they slow down after that. But these are koi raised under proper conditions. Most garden ponds, while beautiful, are not environments that encourage growth. The koi survive, but do not thrive and therefore do not reach their optimum growth potential. Koi need a bare minimum of 250 to 300 gallons each. Most koi hobbyists (those who focus on the well being of the fish) will give their fish 500 gallons each with many of the higher-end show fish getting over 1000 gallons each. Your new pond is lovely but I noticed one really nasty feature. The bottom is loaded with rocks. These rocks trap fish poop where it decays and harbors bad bacteria (not the good kind that aids in filtration) and parasites. As this sludge decays, it forms hydrogen sulfide gas, which can be deadly if it ever gets released into the pond. A rock bottom pond must be drained and all of the sludge removed every single year which is very labor intensive and expensive. A much cleaner, safer pond is one with no rocks, and which has a bottom drain that leads directly to the filter. Many pond builders will tell you that these rocks are necessary so you can create a "natural ecosystem" but I'll tell you now that there is nothing you can do to replicate nature in a liner pond. We can get more into that once you move in and see what you have in the way of filtration. If you want to do some reading up on koi, check out thepondforum.com. There are some very knowledgeable koi keepers there that can guide you along this journey. I am not far from you either, in South Carolina. If you would like to talk koi, you are welcome to visit.

BarbadosSheep · #20 03/05/12, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barnyardgal

Nice~~I would like to have one of these but am afraid they would be to much work....

A properly designed koi pond really isn't much work. One with rocks in the bottom like this one, can be a huge amount of work due to the cleaning that 's necessary. With a bottom drain in a koi pond, all of the fish waste does directly to the skimmer. You only need to net out leaves if the skimmer can't keep up.