On 21 Jan 2007 15:14:40 -0800, "Phyllis and Jim"
wrote:


Tristan,

700 is amazing to me! They certainly won't be crowded. I am sure the
bass will help thin them out when they reproduce. Will you have
structure for them to hide in?
IN and around th epier piles, as well as the two mock (osage orange)
trees I have as bottom structure. Eventually there wil be lilys and
iris planted as one section (were yu can see the light white colored
substrate on north side, is considerably much shallower. Thay is so I
can plant certain non invasive aquatic plants like iris and lilys and
PIckerel Reed and Thalium or alligator rush.

I am interested in your local food at $8 for 50#. That is cheaper than
catfish food over here in MS. What is is called?

Its made at the local feed mill down the road from me all to spec as
laid out by Auburn University, so it meets requirements of ornamental
fish. Koi ponds as well as 4 ponds in the city of Montgomery as well
as the Zoo have substantial koi ponds, so this feed mill went with
making this feed as they have a market for it, and its cheaper than
buying from large sources like Purina or Nutrina and haivng it shipped
in. The feed mill has all the equipment and ingredieints, and the same
equipment used to make layer pellets for chickens or feed pellets for
cows is used to make pelleted feed for fish be it catfish or the
ornamental feed...its only a matter of switching over ingredieints for
what ever feed they are gonna run. Sometimes they run out other times
I can get it while its still warm in the bag.......Earlier it was
higher due to fuel prices as they use gas to fuel the mill as well as
for turcks etc to transport the ingredients. This past summer the feed
was 10 and 12 bucks a bag, now its down to 8 bucks, but I ususpect
that is because its better to sell it off at a lower price than have
it go stale or have ingredieints go stale until weather changes out
and folks start to feed again a in summer, but even at $10-12 a 50#
bag its still cheaper than even a 3# bag of food as sold in garden
centers.

You know, my sons would probably prefer to catch your bass than to eat
your koi...tho they would eat either, I suspect.

I intend to hold off as long as possible with adding any bass, but I
can get bass from the hatchery here (bout 20 miles away) in just
about any size I want to pay for. They wil sell a couple of nice 3 to
5 pounders or a truck load of fingerlings or a dozen 3/4-1 pounders. I
also have a freind that bass fishes every chance he gets and I have to
just about fight with him as he always wants to dump his catch in one
of my ponds. I figure if I let the koi alone until I start to notice
young fingerlings, I can then add the bass in the 3/4 pound size or
so, and they should keep the numbers in reason. None of the larger koi
owuld be harmed by them and there will more than l ikely always be a
couple of fingerlings that get to grow up past the point of becoming
food. They wil make up for any mortaility from predators etc. Anyway
700 fish is a lot of koi to have to go through so other than a few
bass probably next year or so, I should be in decent shape. I use a
cast net to catch any fish I go for as fishing is not one of my
desireable things to do unless its sal****er related.

Jim



-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!