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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 |
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 :~) |
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 |
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 |
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~ |
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 |
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~ |
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 |
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~ |
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 |
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. |
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 |
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 |
How old is your oldest fish?
That is amazingly old! Jim has never had a pleco last that long.
Phyllis |
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 |
How old is your oldest fish?
On May 9, 11:52 am, Olde Hippee wrote:
Hi All, I don't think I've ever seen this asked before. 3 clown loaches purchased May 1991, and still going strong in a planted aquarium. I'm still dreaming about a pond but the summer season's really too short to make it practical here. d. |
How old is your oldest fish?
wrote in message oups.com... On May 9, 11:52 am, Olde Hippee wrote: Hi All, I don't think I've ever seen this asked before. 3 clown loaches purchased May 1991, and still going strong in a planted aquarium. I'm still dreaming about a pond but the summer season's really too short to make it practical here. d. ================================== Eeeeek! Do you live in Alaska? -- 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 |
How old is your oldest fish?
On May 20, 2:30 pm, "Reel McKoi" wrote:
Do you live in Alaska? I'm in northeastern Canada and would rather be in Tennesee as far as climate goes. Heck, upstate NY would be a climatic improvement. BTW there was an AKCarol posting on another group last year, purporting to be from Alaska. An ummmmm, acquaintance of yours?? d. |
How old is your oldest fish?
Coming from zone 5, having lived in zone 3-4 for 11 years, and lived
in zone 7 (I think) I can tell you that the shorter your summers, the MORE you need a pond. But not just any pond, you need one inside at minimum a wind barrier, better yet one inside a greenhouse of some sort. greenhouses DO NOT need to be glass or "hardware", they can be plastic or even made of ripstop nylon on the sides as long as the top is plastic to let in the sun. I put a plastic cover over my pond, drop in a tank heater and my fish are active nearly all winter even tho my pond is partially above ground. Most months the temp is above 50 and I feed lightly. I am now in the process of constructing an outdoor room around the pond so we can enjoy sitting out there all year long. A big part of my design is a cheap ceiling mounted combo halogen light and quartz heater. It is infrared which means where I am sitting can be warmed nicely without heating the whole thing. Ingrid On Sun, 20 May 2007 10:38:27 CST, wrote: I'm still dreaming about a pond but the summer season's really too short to make it practical here. d. |
How old is your oldest fish?
On May 21, 10:01 am, wrote:
Coming from zone 5, having lived in zone 3-4 for 11 years, and lived in zone 7 (I think) I can tell you that the shorter your summers, the MORE you need a pond. But not just any pond, you need one inside at minimum a wind barrier, better yet one inside a greenhouse of some sort. greenhouses DO NOT need to be glass or "hardware", they can be plastic or even made of ripstop nylon on the sides as long as the top is plastic to let in the sun. Good advice, thank you. It's a friendly group you have here. Does anyone here keep small aquarium fish - danios etc - in ponds for the summer? I'm in the colder part of zone 4a close to zone 3 - if Canada uses same system as the United States for plant hardiness zones. The boreal forest - think Russian taiga - is a 40 minute drive to the north, and our lakes get thick ice that leaves in mid-late April. Any normal garden pond would freeze to the bottom, and fish would need to come in for the winter. A greenhouse (pond house?) would certainly work, but instead I have a handful of aquariums. I still look at the "Laguna" pond kits in the store, and imagine setting up a small pond for plants and my zebra danios and platies - we'll see. The kits are sold in my town, and relatives in warmer parts of Canada certainly have kept goldfish ponds. d. |
How old is your oldest fish?
Phyllis and Jim wrote:
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 Phylliss Sorry for late reply. The issue of pheromones is well documented (I've seen many references since I started to keep fish and I was also into marines - seahorses, in particular - for a long time). I was a member of British Koi Keepers and British Marine Aquarists, read all the magazines available over here, in the UK, and also tried to get as much as possible from the USA. I also attended the UK trade association for a couple of years as a representative of the Seahorse group I set up. Koi not generating pheromones when they reach adulthood was common knowledge (and is why koi kept in a koi only system only stop growing when they reach their natural limit or the size dictated by the conditions, e.g. pond size or, more exactly, depth), but all (or most) other fish do (used for sex changes in some marine fish). It was "common knowledge" (in other words - I can't remember the exact source, but there many!) in the 1970s/1980s that although koi did not generate pheromones they react to other fish (particularly goldfish since these are from the same family of fish) and there were several references to orfe, as well. My own experience supports this. Peter -- Peter & Elizabeth Corser Leighton Buzzard, UK |
How old is your oldest fish?
I am not sure what you mean by "normal pond", but if you have lakes
with fish, then you can have a pond with fish outside. we had a person in the group from some Scandinavian country and their solution is to wait until the ice freezes and then they draw down the water leaving an insulating air gap. the water doesnt freeze. another person in Canada had an indoor pond. this is actually something I am planning if my outside setup does not satisfy pond needs. Ingrid On Mon, 21 May 2007 09:02:11 CST, wrote: Any normal garden pond would freeze to the bottom, and fish would need to come in for the winter. A greenhouse (pond house?) would certainly work, but instead I have a handful of aquariums. I still look at the "Laguna" pond kits in the store, and imagine setting up a small pond for plants and my zebra danios and platies - we'll see. The kits are sold in my town, and relatives in warmer parts of Canada certainly have kept goldfish ponds. d. |
How old is your oldest fish?
On May 22, 10:47 am, wrote:
I am not sure what you mean by "normal pond", but if you have lakes with fish, then you can have a pond with fish outside. By normal pond I mean 3 feet deep or something. A pond that will not require a swimming pool fence :) . There are many lakes around here; indeed they're everywhere. A popular winter pastime is ice fishing - sitting in a little heated shack drinking grog while waiting for the fish to bite. d. |
How old is your oldest fish?
On May 22, 9:42 pm, wrote:
By normal pond I mean 3 feet deep or something. A pond that will not require a swimming pool fence :) . There are many lakes around here; indeed they're everywhere. A popular winter pastime is ice fishing - sitting in a little heated shack drinking grog while waiting for the fish to bite. d. I live in Gravenhurst ON, Z3 and have a 15' x 21' x 3/3.5' pond that gets a good layer of ice on it every winter and I always have fish & fry that winter over from 2-8" in length. I know of others who have smaller ponds and notice that depth seems to be the deciding factor as much as width & length. I know from talking to one of the pet store owners here that she has a preform KOI pond that she overwinters every year , as opposed to bringing in, and some of her koi are now huge. As for ice fishing have never really enjoyed that, heated hut is nice, but warm crackling fire is much better. Elaine |
How old is your oldest fish?
On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:58:13 CST, earhtmother
wrote: I live in Gravenhurst ON, Z3 and have a 15' x 21' x 3/3.5' pond that gets a good layer of ice on it every winter and I always have fish & fry that winter over from 2-8" in length. I know of others who have smaller ponds and notice that depth seems to be the deciding factor as much as width & length. I know from talking to one of the pet store owners here that she has a preform KOI pond that she overwinters every year , as opposed to bringing in, and some of her koi are now huge. As for ice fishing have never really enjoyed that, heated hut is nice, but warm crackling fire is much better. Elaine Hi Elaine, :-) What do you do to keep an opening in the ice for gas/O2 exchange? ~ jan ------------ Zone 7a, SE Washington State Ponds: www.jjspond.us |
How old is your oldest fish?
On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:58:13 CST, earhtmother wrote: I live in Gravenhurst ON, Z3 and have a 15' x 21' x 3/3.5' pond that gets a good layer of ice on it every winter On Jun 11, 2:06 pm, ~ jan wrote: What do you do to keep an opening in the ice for gas/O2 exchange? ~ jan We have a Laguna fountain in the middle that we just take the first section of pipe & head off. This works well as long as you keep an eye on the ice volcano that grows up around it and try to keep the top open , although this year actually knocked the whole thing sideways into the pond and still only lost 2-3 of the larger goldies. There still LOTS of fry and at least 20 6-8" goldies so am not tooo worried about it now. We also have a "sump' pump that pumps the ground water that accumulates under the liner back into the pond so until that freezes it is going as well. DH liked the look of the fountain without it's sprayhead so much that we actually have npot put it back together just left it to "jet" up as oppossed to the mushroom shape it usually is. On a side note what is the plant your frog is hiding out in, it looks like a rhipsalis but I am not sure. I have become addicted to all things rhipsalis and am always looking for new (to me) varieties. Elaine |
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