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Tips For Keeping Koi
Koi, the traditional pond fish are beautiful as well as intelligent. When properly cared for they can live over 25 years and can become very tame during that time. But just like with any fish, the flashiest Koi have special needs that make them a bit more difficult to keep than your ordinary average carp.
If you are planning on keeping Koi in your pond, you’ll need to be sure to have a very good quality filtration system as these fish need a lot of oxygen. The best type of filtration system for your Koi pond is a biological filtration system. This type of filtration processes all of the waste in the pond keeping the water clean. Keeping good quality water will ensure that your Koi can live for decades.
Koi can grow to be rather large so you will need a big sized pond to allow them to grow to full size. A good size is about 500 gallons with a depth of at least 2 feet. In colder climates where the water may freeze be sure that the depth is below the frost line so that your fish will have somewhere to go in winter. Birds and other wildlife are a major threat to your pond Koi so you want to make sure that your pond has some protection from predators.
Just like the fish in a fish tank, stress is a major cause for disease in Koi. You want to take precautionary measures to prevent your Koi from getting sick and the most important thing you can do is make sure that the pond water is of good quality. In order to do this you’ll need a test kit and test the water every week to make sure that the ammonia nitrates and nitrites are at the appropriate levels.
The PH balance of your pond is also important as the wrong PH could affect the oxygen levels in the water. The proper PH for a Koi pond is 7.2 to 7.4. If you need to lower your PH you can use water softener that is formulated specifically for this use. To raise the PH you should probably change out some of the water.
In addition, a high PH will cause out of balance ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels to be more toxic to your fish. in order to keep the water clear you’ll also want to maintain the surface of the pond with a surface skimmer. You want to be sure that the surface Is free from debris so that enough oxygen can pass through the water. Also you want to remove any thing that happens to fall into your pond which doesn’t belong.
One of the main benefits of having a Koi pond is that you can feed these wonderful creatures by hand. Oftentimes the Koi become so tame they will swim right over when they see you and wait for their food. Koi are omnivores and they will be both plants and animals. coolie even enjoy eating fruit and like watermelon, lemons and oranges in particular. If you want to see fruit you coy picture that you wash them thoroughly so that no traces of pesticides are left then cut the fruit into pieces and remove any seeds. Also be sure to remove any leftover fruit or skins when the Koi are done. Cooley also enjoy Trout Chow, peas, bread, catfish chow, fresh shrimp, lettuce, earthworms and krill. Feeding them all these different foods will ensure they get the nutrients they need which may not be available in a packaged Koi food.
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