Hi to all. I'm Al. Nice to meet you all. Glad to find this group.
I inherited my koi pond when I bought our house in 2004. It's 3500
gallons and I have 7 Koi and a few commets. It's been a great learning
experience. I've experienced much success and challenges from snakes
to herons. I've built from scratch a skippy style homemade filter with
a prefilter that work great. Water quality is great and clear; well
oxygenated. And for safety a float switch. I'm constantly looking for
ways to improve my pond and improve ways to enjoy it. I'm currently
designing a secondary smaller pond for Shubunkins and fancy gold fish.

Hi Al,

We are off to the West of you (Jackson, MS), but are glad that you
have joined us here on rpm. I hope you will get some replies from
people closer to you.

Sounds like you have worked hard on your pond and had great success.
Sounds as well as tho the pond bug has hit you...a NEW pond. Will it
be lined or cement or...?

An observation: Our shbunkins do fine in the MS winter. the fancies
tend to die. We have had a hard time getting them through the winter
outside.

Welcome and Good luck

Keep us posted!

Jim.

"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message
ups.com...
An observation: Our shbunkins do fine in the MS winter. the fancies
tend to die. We have had a hard time getting them through the winter
outside.
==========================
I'm here in north central TN, zone 6.... so it can get pretty cold in the
winter. Our fancy goldfish sail right through winter outside in unheated,
non-plastic covered above ground ponds/tanks. This winter the ice was 2"
thick for a week.... not one goldie died. These are lionheads, water-bubble
eyes, moors, orandas and pearlscales. I just set up another 150g pool to
move the rest of the pearlscales outside. I'm seriously considering move
all the fancies out there as they do so much better under more natural
conditions then in the 55g tanks in my sunroom.

Your fancies didn't have to compete with koi or common GF for food did they?
If so that may have been at least part of the reason they died.
--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
ISP: Hughes.net
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

I am impressed by your success. Our fancies were always in a seperate
pond (veggie filter on the berm) so competition was not an issue.
Maybe we should try again! Our black moor got to 8" and lasted 3
seasons. Died the fourth winter. Bubble eyes did very poorly.

Jim

"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message
ups.com...
I am impressed by your success. Our fancies were always in a seperate
pond (veggie filter on the berm) so competition was not an issue.

Then I would look elsewhere. I will assume the PH is above 7 and partial
water changes were done at least monthly. That leaves parasites (some are
not obvious), food - type and amount (some people feed too lightly), stray
electricity (killed my stepdaughters fish), suffocation (any aeration
running?), and or possibly going into winter too thin (I lost koi fry due to
this "food" related problem). I feel my fish all they can eat twice a day,
fry 3 times a day when possible. I like to see them go into winter with
some "fat" reserves.

Maybe we should try again! Our black moor got to 8" and lasted 3
seasons. Died the fourth winter. Bubble eyes did very poorly.

Water bubble eyes don't thrive indoors either. At least not for me. While
the others thrive they often sicken, linger and die. The two outside are
doing fine. Two of the four I had indoors died over the winter. These last
two are going out into the large 720g GF pool as soon as the water
temperature rises a little more. Moors thrive outside.
--

RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
ISP: Hughes.net
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:37:36 CST, Al wrote:

Hi to all. I'm Al. Nice to meet you all. Glad to find this group.
I inherited my koi pond when I bought our house in 2004. It's 3500
gallons and I have 7 Koi and a few commets. It's been a great learning
experience. I've experienced much success and challenges from snakes
to herons. I've built from scratch a skippy style homemade filter with
a prefilter that work great. Water quality is great and clear; well
oxygenated. And for safety a float switch. I'm constantly looking for
ways to improve my pond and improve ways to enjoy it. I'm currently
designing a secondary smaller pond for Shubunkins and fancy gold fish.

Hi Al, welcome to the group. Do you have any pictures on the web by chance?
~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

tell us about your float switch. BTW, now is the time to find a Melnor
hoodgie that you set it to deliver X gallons and then it shuts off so we
wont be hearing about "I forgot left the water on all my fish are dead".
http://www.amazon.com/Melnor-Inc-P-1.../dp/B00004SDVZ


"Al" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi to all. I'm Al. Nice to meet you all. Glad to find this group.
I inherited my koi pond when I bought our house in 2004. It's 3500
gallons and I have 7 Koi and a few commets. It's been a great learning
experience. I've experienced much success and challenges from snakes
to herons. I've built from scratch a skippy style homemade filter with
a prefilter that work great. Water quality is great and clear; well
oxygenated. And for safety a float switch. I'm constantly looking for
ways to improve my pond and improve ways to enjoy it. I'm currently
designing a secondary smaller pond for Shubunkins and fancy gold fish.

On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:37:36 CST, Al wrote:

Hi to all. I'm Al. Nice to meet you all. Glad to find this group.
I inherited my koi pond when I bought our house in 2004. It's 3500
gallons and I have 7 Koi and a few commets. It's been a great learning
experience. I've experienced much success and challenges from snakes
to herons. I've built from scratch a skippy style homemade filter with
a prefilter that work great. Water quality is great and clear; well
oxygenated. And for safety a float switch. I'm constantly looking for
ways to improve my pond and improve ways to enjoy it. I'm currently
designing a secondary smaller pond for Shubunkins and fancy gold fish.

Hi Al, I lived in the Decatur, area some years ago, but I escaped.
Now I'm retired and live in Warner Robins and it is becoming
overpopulated too.

I like shubunkin too, but I don't have room for another pond and am
considering giving them up to make room for more koi this year. Some
of the shubunkin are hearty critters, I can't keep them out of the
filter barrels, but they are the ones that grow much faster than
others.
I wish you well with your new pond.

Regards,

Hal