Tristan wrote:


Well I just got rid of a clown fish and if it wa just a tad bit bigger
it woul dhave become a fish stick a it was nothing but trouble. I do
not have any clown loaches though.

clown loaches are the king of any freshwater tropical however this is a
little off-topic for a pond group....go over to rafm and then post
asking why we all love our clown loaches and you will get swamped in
replies I'm sure....

I had given some thought into
making a few smaller ponds allconnected tothe larger ones that use
water piped into and flowed from the larger pond. Idea being that
serious koi folks could "rent" space in these ponds and keep their koi
in them like say over the winter. Mud ponds actually do a kois color a
justice, more than can be done in prisitine waters and adding koi
clay, which is abundant in this areas soils naturally......But being
responsible for those high dollar fish is not something I woul dlike
to take responsibility for. There is a fellow in Virginia thsat houses
and keeps high dollar koi for foks that show in a totally fenced in
and enclosed natural mud pond, and when they decide to show the fish,
he pulls the pond, gets their fish, packs it up and ships it tothe
show. After the show is over the fish gets shipped back to his mud
pond.
Now the one thing that springs to my mind with this is how in the world
would you ever know what Koi belong to who?.....or does it become pot
luck....or do you need an individual area for each Koi you are looking
after....too much like hard work...and then could you get sued if you
accidentally gave back a duff Koi to someone who had bred their pride
and joy down the lines.....



Well I am not a"voyuer" of fish but with the wife and her multitude
of water featuyres that range form single 20 gal half barrels to 6
half barrels to 225 gal preforms that she has all around, and knowing
they are all to small for koi, not wanting to build a larger liner
pond tohave koi since we have large mud ponds with koi, we had
considered Goldies, but there is more money in tropicals than goldies
in this region, and considering we can keep most all tropicals in a
heavilly panated water feature outside here for about 9 months most
years its a natural thing to do. I can sell all the tropicals I can
breed. Its a lot neater IMHO to see a planted half barrel with yellow
cichlids in it or a 225 gal preform full of gourami than the same
device qwith half a dozen goldies. Tropicals do fantastic here since
water in smaller features get hotter than goldies really like. I
rarely ever feed them when outside, they look and grow much better,
and it has really eliminated most mosquito problems a well. So for 2
or 3 months I bring in the brood stock and house em inthe barn inthe
banks of tanks we have setup. The banks of tanks came from a Petco
store that remodeld and they wanted the tanks, lights stand pumps etc
etc ect all hauled off and gone.

We do not have the climate here to sustain anything other than goldies
or Koi out of doors....it would be quite amazing to keep tropicals
outdoors - it is great that your wife shares your interest....



Sort of like a PICO or NANO compared toa larger setup. But outside
smaller bodies of water are a biug hassle whenit comes to heat / cold
and evaporation, and just a little bit of stirring up makes a muddy
mess.......so far ewven though those 700+ koi are all looking around
for food, and eating submerged grasses etc that were covered over when
it filled up muddying of thew water has not been a problem. I get more
muddy water from rain in some spokjts that are not grown iun as heavy
with ground cover, but even that settles out in a few hours time.

some of us have the little choice than to go the small pond
route.....IMO it is great that even the most humble of set ups can allow
us to get the joy and pleasure from keeping our fish in the best
conditions possible.....I'm sure many if not all envy the ability to do
it on such a scale as you, Jim and Phyllis and Gary can (sorry if I
forgot anyone)....



Well if a person fertilizes a natural pond it gorws all organisms in
the food chain. However fertilizer adds to algae blooms but there is
stil a large percentage of "live " stuff that is going to occur
without fertilizer, so the key is not to exceed the source quanity.
Koi all love live foods, and those live things incklude may flys and a
multitude of aquatic stuff. I only supplement with man made stuff.
Even in my other ponds sometimes it hartd toget koi to come up for
food I throw in as they are too busy getting the good natural stuff.
So once this pond matures suplemental feeding is all that they wil get
for the most part. ONce they start to spawn, I will add some 3/4 to 1
pound sized florida hybrid bass to handle the population control. I
may commit to allowing koi to spawn in one of the other ponds at a
later date but for now I think the 700 plus is more than enough and
I'll just have to see what kind of predation and mortality rates I
have.......

Well I guess it comes down to whether you want to sell them on or just
have the pleasure of keeping them....to me it sounds right now it is
just for the pleasure of having them for both of you, even if you only
admit to the wife right now....good luck and enjoy :-) and keep us
updated on the progress, successes and pitfalls.....

Gill