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Hal[_1_] · 08-05-2008, 12:15 AM posted to rec.ponds.moderated

On Tue, 6 May 2008 13:59:34 EDT, wrote:

A lot of aquarium fish simply stay small in a smaller tank, ie. large
tank - large fish, small tank - small fish

Is this the same with the Koi?

Can't say for sure. Lots of people have opinions, but few have enough
tanks and do controlled experiments to prove their opinions. I did
see the 5 koi (One died shortly after arriving.) and 35 shubunkin I
got in a box grow nicely, the 4 koi that survived in the 1500 gallon
pond were all slightly different sizes. The female (not the biggest
of the 4.) produced some that grew almost a large as she in what
seemed like a shorter time than it took the original 4 to reach that
size. Another thing mine were long fin or butterfly koi and short fin
seem to grow bigger. I boarded a couple short fins for a guy working
on his pond, he said was 600 gallons and they were bigger than any of
my long fins living in 1500 gallons.

"My guess" is the amount of feed available and genes has as much to do
with koi size as tank size within reason. Reason being 1000+100
gallons for each additional koi and/or adequate filtering as a start.

Ten of the biggest I've seen more than once were in what George (the
owner) said was about 800 gallons of gin clear water with adequate
filtering. George was a former aquarium keeper too and he spent a lot
of time tinkering with his filters. I'm sure you will get a handle on
things and find your own way, just hang in.
--
Hal Middle Georgia, Zone 8
http://tinyurl.com/2fxzcb