Actually, I made a mistake. I forgot to address the region's requirement. In
this case, I don't think it's good for poster to have any fish since his pond
might freeze without other equipment.

As for people in warmer climate like me in Southern California, 200 gallons is
ok. When set up with a decent filter and diligent in minimal feeding, the Koi
would be ok. Since there is little water, as compared to 1000 gallons, to buffer
any changes in water chemistry, the pond has to be pretty clean and has to have
plenty of oxygen. The difference between a big pond and a small pond is the time
of death of their inhabitants. Bad management will kill them. The ones in
smaller pond die faster.

Koi aficionados don't recommend putting Koi in such a small pond because it
detracts from the main purpose of raising Koi, to see the graceful form of
swimming Koi. Most of us here are ponders. We are guilty of having more plants
then fish in our ponds. We won't have a problem with 2 Koi in our ponds.
Actually, we do have a problem with them destroying plants.

I'm digging a pond atm. My biggest dilemma is how to integrate floating water
plants like WH and duckweed, so that the Koi won't destroy them.



Nedra wrote:

But Sean ... I think you are kidding when you say you would
put Two koi in a 202.5 gallon pond? As Barbara said:
You will need 1,000 gallons of water for the first koi and
about 100+ gallons of water for any additional koi. The rest
of what she posts is also true for koi ...
You were kidding, right?

Sean Dinh wrote:

I'm digging a pond atm. My biggest dilemma is how to integrate floating water
plants like WH and duckweed, so that the Koi won't destroy them.

Maybe a floating ring with black bird netting under it to keep the
fish away from the roots? Needs a lot of plants to hide the float and
it would not work with duckweed. Though, you might be able to make an
asset of a necessity by finding a way to make the floating ring
attractive.

You might get the same effect with a bird bath like "island" in the
middle of the pond? That would mean you could use other plants and put
small lights under the plants to illuminate the fish as they are
swimming around. I think that would be really pretty. The wiring might
be a bit dicey, but a solar charged walkway light might be adapted.

A few years ago, a local store threw away something that would have
been perfect. It was a clear plastic display stand, shaped a bit like
a martini glass made of flat sheets. Probably cost a fortune to make
with the thicker plexiglass needed in stores. There's thinner, and
less expensive, around.

|_______|
| |
-----

Side view
(fixed width font)

____|
| |
|---
The support was shaped like this (top view) to make a smaller base,
but provide support for the upper "deck".

Nice, I didn't think of WH covering the pvc divider. Having a row of WH around the
duckweed could possibly cover hide the divider.

My tentative idea atm is to put back the dirt to build a wider plant shelf. Plant a
row each of horsetail and umbrella plants to block off the big fish. Put in a
floating wiggled pvc divider to block off a corner for duckweed. Put WH and WL
between the divider and the horsetail/umbrella plants.

Since some beer is involved with this planning, is there any flaw in this?

Offbreed wrote:

Maybe a floating ring with black bird netting under it to keep the
fish away from the roots? Needs a lot of plants to hide the float and
it would not work with duckweed. Though, you might be able to make an
asset of a necessity by finding a way to make the floating ring
attractive.

Xref: kermit rec.ponds:142432

Sean Dinh wrote:

Nice, I didn't think of WH covering the pvc divider. Having a row of WH around the
duckweed could possibly cover hide the divider.

My tentative idea atm is to put back the dirt to build a wider plant shelf. Plant a
row each of horsetail and umbrella plants to block off the big fish. Put in a
floating wiggled pvc divider to block off a corner for duckweed. Put WH and WL
between the divider and the horsetail/umbrella plants.

Since some beer is involved with this planning, is there any flaw in this?

Zero experience. I sortof remember some stuff from a county fair
(mumble) years ago and a couple pictures of some real fancy restaurants.

I've seen carp and black bass blast through some real heavy
vegetation, if you are going to use horsetail as a picket fence, you
might add some reinforcement.

Sean, have you tried butterfly koi? These do much better in small swallow
ponds and are better around plants then their stubby finned relatives. The
key is to buy small, whichever type you get. ~ jan

On Sat, 10 Apr 2004 13:33:29 -0700, Sean Dinh wrote:

Actually, I made a mistake. I forgot to address the region's requirement. In
this case, I don't think it's good for poster to have any fish since his pond
might freeze without other equipment.

As for people in warmer climate like me in Southern California, 200 gallons is
ok. When set up with a decent filter and diligent in minimal feeding, the Koi
would be ok. Since there is little water, as compared to 1000 gallons, to buffer
any changes in water chemistry, the pond has to be pretty clean and has to have
plenty of oxygen. The difference between a big pond and a small pond is the time
of death of their inhabitants. Bad management will kill them. The ones in
smaller pond die faster.

Koi aficionados don't recommend putting Koi in such a small pond because it
detracts from the main purpose of raising Koi, to see the graceful form of
swimming Koi. Most of us here are ponders. We are guilty of having more plants
then fish in our ponds. We won't have a problem with 2 Koi in our ponds.
Actually, we do have a problem with them destroying plants.

I'm digging a pond atm. My biggest dilemma is how to integrate floating water
plants like WH and duckweed, so that the Koi won't destroy them.



Nedra wrote:

But Sean ... I think you are kidding when you say you would
put Two koi in a 202.5 gallon pond? As Barbara said:
You will need 1,000 gallons of water for the first koi and
about 100+ gallons of water for any additional koi. The rest
of what she posts is also true for koi ...
You were kidding, right?

~ jan (Do you know where your water quality is?)

Well, I like variety. I'll get one later. I've to refrain from buying any more fish
at the moment.

"~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote:

Sean, have you tried butterfly koi? These do much better in small swallow
ponds and are better around plants then their stubby finned relatives. The
key is to buy small, whichever type you get. ~ jan