***The Pond Discussion Thread****

The heat has cause the fish to be really hungry too and much more active!

The green water is part blessing in that the fish can go deeper to get out of the sun. Next year I hope to have Lilly pads providing some shade.

Good to hear the little fella has it's appetite back.
 
The sun bleached the colour out of some of my koi, so last year I built a pergola over the top and I put some fine mesh across the top of it to semi-shade most of the pond.
Seems to have worked, the colour on the fish is now brighter than ever.
I also added lots of pots with plants around the side and x3 floating baskets, so they do get plenty of shade / places to hide.

Contemplating removing the net that I threw over it last autumn when I had a problem with a heron.
Not seen it in ages so hoping it has moved on permanently.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
Read about shelled peas but not sure what else to do for him.
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Hard to tell from the picture but unfortunately nothing can be done generally once a fish gets to this state, the bloated body means theyve lost osmotic regulation and eventually will lead to kidney failure and death.

Kindest thing to do is get some fish anesthetic / oil of cloves and send it out peacefully.
 
Thanks :(

He seems happy enough to eat and still motors about, just looks like he's swimming at right angles with his head lower than his tail when he gets going.

Got another fish that's of a similar size but he's been that size for at least 7 years, his tail's straight though.
 
Yup looks bacterial or an internal tumour. She could also be egg bound - normally they can reabsorbs eggs but if the eggs aren't reabsorbed and not expelled then they can rot causing internal damage and killing the fish.
 
I found one of my fish on the floor outside the pond dead this afternoon. It had a clear puncture mark behind the gills right where the heart would be. The hole smooth and wider than any of the magpies that have been hanging around. So I think a heron tried but was too large or dropped it. Net up across the pond.

I have seen two (sushi the female and the larger chagoi male) but I think this was the smaller nonchar/grass male. They've been acting very skittish over the last couple of days running around the place but I thought that was possibly the heat. Now it makes sense having a predator around that possibly has tried already.
 
I had heron trouble at the beginning of the year, so I netted over the whole pond.
It has been on ever since, I am now contemplating taking the net back off, as not seen the heron for months.
Hopefully it has moved on, but with my luck it will be back again :-(
 
father-ted said:
I had heron trouble at the beginning of the year, so I netted over the whole pond.
It has been on ever since, I am now contemplating taking the net back off, as not seen the heron for months.
Hopefully it has moved on, but with my luck it will be back again :-(
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Current weather has dried out waterways etc so they probably have less to eat.
 
My fish have been swimming around happily for the last few months. I never figured out what led to the issues in my initial post, however, I lost 3 of the 6 smaller (shubunkin?) fish at the time. I never found them but once the fish started happily swimming around again, there were only 3 small plus the larger ghost carp. I’ve seen heron hanging around in the past so potentially the same issue here!
 
Saw all three remaining fish today at the window looking for food. Sushi (f), the charge (m) and the grass/chargoi (m).

EDIT: Today (next day) I saw a flight feather stuck in the back area of the netting. Not a magpie and too large for one of the pigeons we have around here.

I think it's back again (early morning visitor), got caught up in the net. I'll probably reposition the net again once the heatwave is over but for now it's doing it's job.
 
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Looks like I came out ok with my Heron Problem too, not seen him and I still have fish.

Planting coming along well, still needs more on the verges', but all in all looking ok.

Looks like when I was asking about what type of fish I hadlast year I now have an answer lol.

Artificial grass has to stay as this is a supported living property we own though our business, its just easier to mantain and gives an area to sit and watch the fish etc. Large pieces have been removed and planted from my original posts.

Had to contend with the dreaded earlier in the year, time and effort and money all gone :). Milky water was treatment.


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Post heatwave update. I cleaned the algae off the window today using a razor blade.


The bloom naturally cleared. So no UVC, no chemicals :) I still have the heron net over after loosing that fish.
 
So i have a blockage - i suspected as much as the flow rate had dropped.
I put in some blanket weed powder to reduce the algae that i believe is blocking the bottom drain. I switched off the skimmer and left the system running full bore through just the bottom drain to shift it.

Sure enough this morning the bypassed drum (to increase flow to max) showed some debris and leaves in the outgoing bio filter.

Some clearing stuff has gone in so i can then see the extent of the issue and give the bottom a brush. Then it’s in with some sludge disolver.

It’s been clear all summer but as this the first year I’m still learning it’s quirks and when it needs cleaning.
 
Was thinking this morning about adding new koi this sprint/summer. There may be a couple of options - (a) a mate+mrs are getting divorced so his koi may end up on the bay.. but without provenance they could be anything (b) get some small Japanese koi to grow on. Probably slightly more expensive but they will be better suited for my pond.

I know Gatwick Koi are good - they even heat cycle the fish to detect against the very deadly KHV virus but their starting prices are around £240/fish! They also have had KHV, declared and culled the pond, so they are both trustworthy and likely to get good fish). There's other koi sellers that have smaller but around £20-90/fish which is more my price bracket (£20 is good for me!).

I have some ideas of the types of koi I'm after, or specifically one's I'm not after - I have a Chargoi (they get fat and hog the food), a grass carp, along with a kawarimono but all are small gene'd as they're not massive for the fact they are at least 10 years old. I don't want Orgons or really any plain colours this time. Just set of year olds that are happy and have good colouring. They don't have to be show winners. If they're a year old and have one winter then their immune systems will be better given I have some mature older koi.

Thinking - overall this would be about the max in my pond with the three fish I have:
* Asagi - small diamond scales with blips of red.
* Shusui - scaled top, blue and red.
* (Taisho) Sanke (got to have one!)
* Orchiba (if it's more blue/orange-red pattern)
* Tancho (that's the white with the red dot on it's head)
* Doitsu
 
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A couple of years back I bought half a dozen small koi with lovely colours and grew them on over winter in a heated tank in my shed, adding them to my pond when the weather warmed at the end of spring.
The next summer I had heron trouble and lost 3 of them (gutted, had to put a large net over the pond for a few months, the heron has not been seen for a while so I may take it off again soon).
I much prefer buying small fish and growing them myself.
I did buy a few larger koi when I first built the pond, £300 was the max I paid.
 
father-ted said:
A couple of years back I bought half a dozen small koi with lovely colours and grew them on over winter in a heated tank in my shed, adding them to my pond when the weather warmed at the end of spring.
The next summer I had heron trouble and lost 3 of them (gutted, had to put a large net over the pond for a few months, the heron has not been seen for a while so I may take it off again soon).
I much prefer buying small fish and growing them myself.
I did buy a few larger koi when I first built the pond, £300 was the max I paid.
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Agreed - I would like year olds (simply because they are not small enough to be eaten by the fish, and they have a winter to weed out the unhealthy ones too.

The issue for most places is that they either don't quarantine them (garden centres etc) or they have already graded so you can't find any gems.
 
NickK said:
The issue for most places is that they either don't quarantine them (garden centres etc) or they have already graded so you can't find any gems.
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Most Garden centres will also be Israeli origin koi, which depending on your beliefs of their vaccine program may cause problems down the line.
 
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