Not on the main topic of how to clean a koi pond but something that is highly important especially for beginners to understand is the koi herpes virus.
Just like the human herpes virus this is something that is actually contagious and can be spread to your other fish. If you don't want this to happen then are various precautions that you are going to have to take in place to make sure that it doesn't spread. The main thing you will want to do is quarantine any new fish that you get.
Quarantining your fish
When you buy a new fish you will want to separate them from your others to make sure that if they have the virus it doesn't spread.
The recommended time to wait is about 15 days as this can show whether any symptoms are arising but also note even if there are no symptoms your fish can still be a carrier!
In these 15 days you will want to keep them away from your other fish and this means strictly separate! At no point should anything you use on a quarantined fish come into contact with your other koi.
Separate water, food, cleaning tools are going to have to be used for this and you will also want to thoroughly wash your hands if you are handling the both of them. This will minimise the contact and chances of spreading around the virus.
After the 15 days are over you can go onto mixing the two of them.
The koi herpes virus is something to look for to make sure that you don't go onto harming your other fish.
Wednesday 21 August 2013
Wednesday 14 August 2013
Koi Fish Pond - When Purchasing Koi
So how do you know what koi to purchase for your koi fish pond?
There are various fish out there with different colours due to breeding, there are thousands of varieties of colours and patterns out there so it it going to be hard to decide what koi you want to have.
There are various pet shops that you can use to get your koi from but there is also the chance that if they don't have any you can order the fish online. This gives you the chance to pick from the variety of colours but this also means that you won't actually get to see your purchase before it.
You should have your pond built before this and the size of your pond should be based on how many fish you want. If you haven't built the pond yet then look into how many fish that you want and build around this. If you buy more than you planned on this can lead to overstocking and this could lead to the death of some of your koi.
If you are looking to partner up your koi with goldfish or other types of fish then this is something that you can actually do. Koi have no teeth and are non-aggressive which means they will gladly share a pond without harming other fish.
The only problem that you're going to have to consider to this is the fact that your koi are larger and will eat more food than your smaller ones so you may need to add some extra food to ensure they are all well fed.
Koi are omnivorous fish, which means they will eat both meat and plants. This means that their diets are very versatile. Koi will eat pretty much anything that you put in the pond with them, no matter if it is good for them or not. Since Koi do not have a sense of what is bad and good for them, as their owner you must control their diet.
Koi are also known to live for about 30 years on average however there are records of those which have lived for over 100 which shows that they are friends for life and something you are going to want to take pride in when choosing for your koi fish pond.
There are various fish out there with different colours due to breeding, there are thousands of varieties of colours and patterns out there so it it going to be hard to decide what koi you want to have.
There are various pet shops that you can use to get your koi from but there is also the chance that if they don't have any you can order the fish online. This gives you the chance to pick from the variety of colours but this also means that you won't actually get to see your purchase before it.
You should have your pond built before this and the size of your pond should be based on how many fish you want. If you haven't built the pond yet then look into how many fish that you want and build around this. If you buy more than you planned on this can lead to overstocking and this could lead to the death of some of your koi.
If you are looking to partner up your koi with goldfish or other types of fish then this is something that you can actually do. Koi have no teeth and are non-aggressive which means they will gladly share a pond without harming other fish.
The only problem that you're going to have to consider to this is the fact that your koi are larger and will eat more food than your smaller ones so you may need to add some extra food to ensure they are all well fed.
Koi are omnivorous fish, which means they will eat both meat and plants. This means that their diets are very versatile. Koi will eat pretty much anything that you put in the pond with them, no matter if it is good for them or not. Since Koi do not have a sense of what is bad and good for them, as their owner you must control their diet.
Koi are also known to live for about 30 years on average however there are records of those which have lived for over 100 which shows that they are friends for life and something you are going to want to take pride in when choosing for your koi fish pond.
Wednesday 7 August 2013
How To Build A Koi Pond - Choosing The Plants
Once you have managed to build a koi fish pond the next thing that you're going to have to do is choose what plants that you want to decorate it with.
Your pond is going to the pride and joy so you want to decorate it and the best thing is some plants can be beneficial by keeping algae at bay or providing more oxygen into the water or biological life (biological life helps maintain your pool by doing what they would do in nature).
The only problem with these plants is that they can;t thrive in the winter, so if you are in an area where the temperature drops below 65 Fahrenheit. The best way to keep them alive during winter months if the weather dips below this you will need to put them somewhere like a greenhouse or indoors if that is the other option.
These are simple and don't require soil or planting, all you need to do is spend a few seconds to anchor them down into the water so they don't float around too much but apart from that all you have to do is throw them in.
The downside to these is that if allowed to grow they can spread a lot all over the pond and not only that but if your pond is near the fence they can grow up and over as well which is why you're going to have to control them.
However, the benefits of these plants is that they will help fight off the algae that you will find in pond.
These are two of the various plants that you're going to have to use when you build a koi fish pond but these are just an example of two.
Your pond is going to the pride and joy so you want to decorate it and the best thing is some plants can be beneficial by keeping algae at bay or providing more oxygen into the water or biological life (biological life helps maintain your pool by doing what they would do in nature).
- Lotus Plants
The only problem with these plants is that they can;t thrive in the winter, so if you are in an area where the temperature drops below 65 Fahrenheit. The best way to keep them alive during winter months if the weather dips below this you will need to put them somewhere like a greenhouse or indoors if that is the other option.
- Water Hyacinths
These are simple and don't require soil or planting, all you need to do is spend a few seconds to anchor them down into the water so they don't float around too much but apart from that all you have to do is throw them in.
The downside to these is that if allowed to grow they can spread a lot all over the pond and not only that but if your pond is near the fence they can grow up and over as well which is why you're going to have to control them.
However, the benefits of these plants is that they will help fight off the algae that you will find in pond.
These are two of the various plants that you're going to have to use when you build a koi fish pond but these are just an example of two.
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