New project, will take a long time
- Thread starter Yanbbrox
- Start date
Here's a prime example of growth verses conditions and food. Kelvin has arrived and took over the pond, the tancho we got from Nigel the other week is now the second largest fish after big Kel, and loves the new addition, always swimming next to it. Now the tancho is one year old compared to Kelvin who is guessed at 15-18 years old. My dad thinks he saw it come up and feed twice last year(visability in that pond is about 2cm). I've fed three times since the fish arrived and it's fed off the top 3 times in a row, at this rate I'm going to need a lot more food, very hungry fish.
Also I've netted the pond today, the idea is to rig up a pully system to the fence to raise and lower it, this is to prevent any heron's in the area eating all the fish, plus there are a lot of cats in the neighbourhood
I know it looks terrible but it will do a job when I'm not in.
Little Vic, supervised:
Also I've netted the pond today, the idea is to rig up a pully system to the fence to raise and lower it, this is to prevent any heron's in the area eating all the fish, plus there are a lot of cats in the neighbourhood
I know it looks terrible but it will do a job when I'm not in.Little Vic, supervised:
funny lookin Catfish you got there... Love the pics of the gang... I'm betting that Kelvin is going to explode in growth if he's been eating like that now... prob couldn't see the food before and now he can see the whole pond... look out!
Too true, it's weird this growth rate condition thing, when his fish came in they came in three sizes, small medium and large, the small and medium were the same age one year(the tancho is a medium). The only difference is that the medium were grown indoors and the small were grown outdoors the difference is amazing. They hand pick the best ones to grow on indoors the rest go out to the ponds.basslover34;3127110; said:
The large are hand picked from the medium and grown on indoors and came in at three years old. These fish are at least 3 times the size of Kelvin.
Well we are a couple of days in and the fish after taking the odd pellet at feeding time before is slowly becoming an aquatic feeding machine, unlike the tancho that will only accept the hikari wheat germ that it raised on, Kelvin is not that fussed about brands, happily eats anything, and lots of it.basslover34;3127110; said:
I've just fed them and sat and watched for 30 minutes or so, they seem to be getting a bit more friendly, I'll try and get a video up.
if your after any more koi, a mate of mine sells a few nice pieces
he's in manchester also so might be worth giving him a call to see what he's got
link to a recent add of his if your interested
http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/php/detail99_129428.php
he's in manchester also so might be worth giving him a call to see what he's got
link to a recent add of his if your interested
http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/php/detail99_129428.php
The Koi I had indoors for the winter are 2x larger than the Koi I had out doors. Also the koi I put in my sisters pond (200g) are very much smaller than the ones I had in 650g on the patio...Yanbbrox;3127181; said:
I know for fact Koi have no stomach just alot of intestines, so when it is cold their metabolism slows way down and that's when they hardly eat anything and you switch to wheat based feed. (easier to digest) When it warms up they go to high protien and feed and grow like weeds...
My Indoor Koi never got below 68 degrees and ate like pigs...
All of them were from a generic batch at the LSF bought all on the same day...
Sorry I've not updated for a bit, been cramming in the work whilst we're still open.
My word, the pond looks crap. The second course of the blanket weed treatment went in yesterday, 'may cloud the water' apparently. The first course you could tell it wasn't gin clear any more but it wasn't cloudy. Now it's odd I can see the bottom and the fish but the fish aren't clear at all.
It's been Zennzzo weather around here this week and this fish have been going wild, last night I was feeding them every 30 minutes or so and they'd never stop eating. The white and orange ghosts are starting to get bigger by the day.
It's been a month so since I've mentioned the filters and I have still checked them at everyday, the K1 is getting super matured which proves it's working, I've just added another 20 litres of unmatured to help with the large bio load whilst they are on a feeding frenzy.
Today I took the matting out and gave it a rinse. It took ages to clean with all the dead blanket weed they are filtering out. I don't expect this to be a monthly task long term but until the pond matures fully it's going to be a pain, but I've bought another pump to drain the chambers so it's not that big of a task.
I hoping that if the weather holds for the next few days, I'll get the rest done:
Short term(i.e. done):
Relay the flags so the pond can be filled to maximum and it will look a lot better with no liner showing.
Lay the small patio next the pond.
Finish the filter covers.
Job done
Long term, I'm thinking of adding another two chambers between one and two, full of jap matting in 2.3 and static k1 in 2.7. That will need more digging
and removing the deck for the plumbing, should be interesting. House them both in the old pond, the plumbing wouldn't be easy but it is possible to do.
Anyway I'll get some pictures up soon
My word, the pond looks crap. The second course of the blanket weed treatment went in yesterday, 'may cloud the water' apparently. The first course you could tell it wasn't gin clear any more but it wasn't cloudy. Now it's odd I can see the bottom and the fish but the fish aren't clear at all.
It's been Zennzzo weather around here this week and this fish have been going wild, last night I was feeding them every 30 minutes or so and they'd never stop eating. The white and orange ghosts are starting to get bigger by the day.
It's been a month so since I've mentioned the filters and I have still checked them at everyday, the K1 is getting super matured which proves it's working, I've just added another 20 litres of unmatured to help with the large bio load whilst they are on a feeding frenzy.
Today I took the matting out and gave it a rinse. It took ages to clean with all the dead blanket weed they are filtering out. I don't expect this to be a monthly task long term but until the pond matures fully it's going to be a pain, but I've bought another pump to drain the chambers so it's not that big of a task.
I hoping that if the weather holds for the next few days, I'll get the rest done:
Short term(i.e. done):
Relay the flags so the pond can be filled to maximum and it will look a lot better with no liner showing.
Lay the small patio next the pond.
Finish the filter covers.
Job done
Long term, I'm thinking of adding another two chambers between one and two, full of jap matting in 2.3 and static k1 in 2.7. That will need more digging
and removing the deck for the plumbing, should be interesting. House them both in the old pond, the plumbing wouldn't be easy but it is possible to do.Anyway I'll get some pictures up soon
I sometimes wonder if you just like finding the hardest things to do and choose that as what you are going to do next. I'll be watching