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Olde Hippee 09-05-2007 04:52 PM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
Hi All, I don't think I've ever seen this asked before.
When we first were going to create a pond we were at Lowes and
checking on possible liner materials. The clerk asked us if we were
building a koi pond. I said, that is one possibility, and.........came
home and looked up Koi. Had never heard the word before. We decided
on Koi as the books said goldfish usually only live an average of 6
years and koi can go 60 years or longer.

We still have one of the 2 first koi we bought....at Agway, in 1992.
He turned out to be a doitsu, or leather skinned, not scaled. He is
orange with black markings along his back. And his name is Cherrybomb
because he had a black mark on his head that looked like a cherrybomb
firecracker....the mark is gone for many years now, tho. He is about
20 inches long Our next oldest is a year or so younger, and we have 2
or 3 more that are at least 10 years old, all in the 20 - 25 inch
range. Short span in Koi years.

Interestingly enough all of the 'good' fish we have bought, some over
$100 only lived a short time. I suspect since we bought them at shows
that they were mishandled in transit to the shows. It is common for
mishandled fish to live six mos or so then mysteriously die, so I'm
told by experts. And what a shame, some of them were beauties.

Tell us about some of your babies.
Nanzi


G Pearce 09-05-2007 07:51 PM

How old is your oldest fish?
 

Hi All, I don't think I've ever seen this asked before.
When we first were going to create a pond we were at Lowes and
checking on possible liner materials. The clerk asked us if we were
building a koi pond. I said, that is one possibility, and.........came
home and looked up Koi. Had never heard the word before. We decided
on Koi as the books said goldfish usually only live an average of 6
years and koi can go 60 years or longer.


While Koi supposedly CAN live that long, my personal experience has been in
the ~6 yr range - they seem to be more finicky about water parameters than
GF, which to me seem to be bullet proof compared to koi - I currently have 2
BF Koi, one 4 yrs old (16") and one 2 yrs old (5"). What you feed koi (I use
a mid-grade koi/GF food ) might also have a lot to do with their life span
as well as the proper sized pond (depth)
Gale :~)


Phyllis and Jim 09-05-2007 08:23 PM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
Our oldest fish are koi, now aged 11 years. We have hadn no deaths in
their cohort. They have fed on whatever they could get plus the
catfish food Jim gives them. They swim in our 2,900 gal main pond
that is 2' deep except in the 3 x 5 deep well, where it is 7' deep.

Phyllis


Reel McKoi[_11_] 10-05-2007 01:01 AM

How old is your oldest fish?
 

"Olde Hippee" wrote in message
oups.com...

Brevity snips

Tell us about some of your babies.
Nanzi

===========================
My oldest koi was bought as a yearling in 1998 or 99. The first koi I
bought in 97 died in that contageous ulcer epidemic. The shop replaced them
all. Of the replacements, most were lost to preditors. We netted the ponds
and bought more. Only one of those died one winter, a female loaded with
eggs (eggbound?).

So I would say Goldie, a yellow female is the oldest as she survived all the
preditors. She would have been born in 1997 or 98.

BTW I feed my koi both trout and catfish chow from Tractor Supply Company.
They also have access to plenty of plants, occasional orange slices, bugs,
worms..... and whatever else falls in. They also get treats of whole wheat
bread and kitten chow. The fry, too small to eat pellets, now get canned
mackerel and dog food, goldfish flakes, orange slices and duckweed. They
also have access to plants and whatever falls in. They've gained a lot of
weight since I added the canned food. :-))) I had some problems using
only expensive koi pellets last season.
--
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


Nick Cramer 10-05-2007 01:02 AM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
Phyllis and Jim wrote:
Our oldest fish are koi, now aged 11 years. We have hadn no deaths in
their cohort. They have fed on whatever they could get plus the
catfish food Jim gives them. They swim in our 2,900 gal main pond
that is 2' deep except in the 3 x 5 deep well, where it is 7' deep.


My two Koi, who were accidentally poisoned by the termite exterminators, a
Gohon and a Kohaku, were 15 years old. The 'survivor' was a 15 yo GF.

BTW I'm really happy to see the way this group has come together and the
fine work by the moderators. I'd contribute more, but I'm out of active
ponding for the nonce. I do check it every day and read selected threads
(like this one).

--
Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their families!

Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops. You are not forgotten. Thanks ! ! !
~Semper Fi~


~ jan[_3_] 10-05-2007 05:39 AM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
On Wed, 9 May 2007 18:02:57 CST, Nick Cramer
wrote:

BTW I'm really happy to see the way this group has come together and the
fine work by the moderators. I'd contribute more, but I'm out of active
ponding for the nonce. I do check it every day and read selected threads
(like this one).


Nick, this is called cyber ponding. ;-)

I have 4 that are ~ 12-13 yo, a year older than the ponds building in 1995.
1 purchased from the koi show as (I assume) a yearling in 2000, 4 that were
born in the pond, now 3 years old, and last 3 new ones purchased last
summer. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us


Nick Cramer 10-05-2007 12:35 PM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
~ jan wrote:
On Wed, 9 May 2007 18:02:57 CST, Nick Cramer

BTW I'm really happy to see the way this group has come together and the
fine work by the moderators. I'd contribute more, but I'm out of active
ponding for the nonce. I do check it every day and read selected threads
(like this one).


Nick, this is called cyber ponding. ;-)

I have 4 that are ~ 12-13 yo, a year older than the ponds building in
1995. 1 purchased from the koi show as (I assume) a yearling in 2000, 4
that were born in the pond, now 3 years old, and last 3 new ones
purchased last summer. ~ jan


I bought all of mine at Asahi Koi in Gardena, CA, about a 30 or 40 mile
drive. Their fish are strong, healthy, pretty and reasonably priced. I
would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone. They also carry lots of
pond related stuff. I bought my UV setup and some dried krill from them,
among other things.

--
Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their families!

Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops. You are not forgotten. Thanks ! ! !
~Semper Fi~


Phyllis and Jim 10-05-2007 02:19 PM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
Hi Nick,

I share your pleasure at having the group up and running! It feels
increasingly like the community that many of us enjoyed before. And
thanks for the nice words about the moderators.

I hope you can rejoin the ranks of active ponders in due season.
Meanwhile, I am glad for your constructive input.

Jim


Nick Cramer 10-05-2007 04:40 PM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
Phyllis and Jim wrote:
Hi Nick,

I share your pleasure at having the group up and running! It feels
increasingly like the community that many of us enjoyed before. And
thanks for the nice words about the moderators.

I hope you can rejoin the ranks of active ponders in due season.
Meanwhile, I am glad for your constructive input.


My NewsReader shows 1148 posts here since the group opened!

--
Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their families!

Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops. You are not forgotten. Thanks ! ! !
~Semper Fi~


Steve Wolstenholme 10-05-2007 06:25 PM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
It's not a Koi but my oldest fish was a Pleco bought as a present for
my kid brother when he was 10. It died when he was 46. As it was about
six inch long when I bought it I reckon it was over 40 when it died.

Steve

--
Steve Wolstenholme Neural Planner Software Ltd

EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.

http://www.easynn.com


Derek Broughton 11-05-2007 01:45 AM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
Steve Wolstenholme wrote:

It's not a Koi but my oldest fish was a Pleco bought as a present for
my kid brother when he was 10. It died when he was 46. As it was about
six inch long when I bought it I reckon it was over 40 when it died.


Not necessarily - a pleco can easily put on 6" in its first year in a pond.
But even a 35 year old pleco is pretty impressive :-) My best plecos have
been around 5-7.
--
derek
- Unless otherwise noted, I speak for myself, not rec.ponds.moderated
moderators.


Henry & Carolyn 11-05-2007 03:57 PM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
Not sure exactly, but I think our pond is over 10 years old, and we still
have some of the original goldfish! They were supposed to be feeder
goldfish that my dad bought at a petshop, but many turned out to be
beautiful fantails and their colour is a deep red-orange. We also had a
black moor for about 6 years, and it only died because it got itself stuck
in the pump :-( Can't remember how old our koi are.

"Olde Hippee" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi All, I don't think I've ever seen this asked before.
When we first were going to create a pond we were at Lowes and
checking on possible liner materials. The clerk asked us if we were
building a koi pond. I said, that is one possibility, and.........came
home and looked up Koi. Had never heard the word before. We decided
on Koi as the books said goldfish usually only live an average of 6
years and koi can go 60 years or longer.

We still have one of the 2 first koi we bought....at Agway, in 1992.
He turned out to be a doitsu, or leather skinned, not scaled. He is
orange with black markings along his back. And his name is Cherrybomb
because he had a black mark on his head that looked like a cherrybomb
firecracker....the mark is gone for many years now, tho. He is about
20 inches long Our next oldest is a year or so younger, and we have 2
or 3 more that are at least 10 years old, all in the 20 - 25 inch
range. Short span in Koi years.

Interestingly enough all of the 'good' fish we have bought, some over
$100 only lived a short time. I suspect since we bought them at shows
that they were mishandled in transit to the shows. It is common for
mishandled fish to live six mos or so then mysteriously die, so I'm
told by experts. And what a shame, some of them were beauties.

Tell us about some of your babies.
Nanzi



Peter Corser 19-05-2007 01:52 PM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
Olde Hippee wrote:
Hi All, I don't think I've ever seen this asked before.
When we first were going to create a pond we were at Lowes and
checking on possible liner materials. The clerk asked us if we were
building a koi pond. I said, that is one possibility, and.........came
home and looked up Koi. Had never heard the word before. We decided
on Koi as the books said goldfish usually only live an average of 6
years and koi can go 60 years or longer.

We still have one of the 2 first koi we bought....at Agway, in 1992.
He turned out to be a doitsu, or leather skinned, not scaled. He is
orange with black markings along his back. And his name is Cherrybomb
because he had a black mark on his head that looked like a cherrybomb
firecracker....the mark is gone for many years now, tho. He is about
20 inches long Our next oldest is a year or so younger, and we have 2
or 3 more that are at least 10 years old, all in the 20 - 25 inch
range. Short span in Koi years.

Interestingly enough all of the 'good' fish we have bought, some over
$100 only lived a short time. I suspect since we bought them at shows
that they were mishandled in transit to the shows. It is common for
mishandled fish to live six mos or so then mysteriously die, so I'm
told by experts. And what a shame, some of them were beauties.

Tell us about some of your babies.
Nanzi


Oldest koi is around 25 years old, but pond is now 29 years old and we also
put 40 tiny baby Golden Orfe in several batches over the first two years and
we still have about a dozen of them (they are huge and it's not worth
putting any more koi in whilst they are there since the koi respond to the
adult orfe pheromones and now don't grow!!)

Peter
--
Peter & Elizabeth Corser
Leighton Buzzard, UK


Phyllis and Jim 19-05-2007 08:36 PM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
That is amazingly old! Jim has never had a pleco last that long.

Phyllis


Phyllis and Jim 19-05-2007 08:36 PM

How old is your oldest fish?
 
Oldest koi is around 25 years old, but pond is now 29 years old and we also
put 40 tiny baby Golden Orfe in several batches over the first two years and
we still have about a dozen of them (they are huge and it's not worth
putting any more koi in whilst they are there since the koi respond to the
adult orfe pheromones and now don't grow!!)



We have not added orfes. How did you learn about the pheromone
influence of orfes on koi?

Phyllis



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