10 years!

[hp]

A couple of my other Showa seen partially in other shots. The large kindai female I think I bought in the second year which would make it 9 years ago. The hi Utsuri at the top of the photo is the third of my original 3 koi. He is a trooper. He was wounded by a heron - twice. The first time with two deep pincer wounds in his back and the second time on the head. Still has scars. He must have won since the heron never came back. A few platinum ogons in the picture are actually pretty good quality but look a little off color perhaps due to depth in the water.
Attachment 605310

Thanks for sharing. All the fish are so nice. The close up showa is one of my favorite one!!

hp.

[Spartan]

How many dead koi in 10 year???
Thankfully not too many. No matter how good you are and how carefully you plan (back up generator, underwater camera, winter cover and heating, etc, etc, etc.) things do happen. My most tragic loss was my 34" dainichi kohaku. I'll have to dig up a picture of her. Over the winter that year my aerator line froze; of course this happened while I was out of town. The lack of oxygen killed her. Everyone else fortunately made it.
I have to say I really do miss her.

[Spartan]

Here she is... RIP old friend. I am lucky to have some very nice koi but this one by far got the most attention and affection.

[Danny2fresh]

Saw your build and looks great. Question tho - how did you deal with the freezing temps with a raised/in ground pond? A d did you go deeper then 3ft? Reason I ask is that i’m building a similar pond and debating insulation or no.

[Spartan]

Hi Danny-
I do recommend insulation. I can say this confidently because I did not include it and wish I did!
Even so most of the heat loss occurs from the water surface so a cover is vital no matter what you do. My cover consists of a wood frame with layer of styrofoam building insulation and then a sheet of pvc for resilience. I have some photos of it in an old thread. It holds up great even in high wind and with more than a foot of snow on it but the trade off is it is heavy.
With all of that it is still necessary to heat the pond. A 1000 watt heater is able to keep the temp in the low 50s with my set up. Something I should share - I use a Won brothers titanium heater that comes with a thermostat. It is designed for large salt water aquariums (my other hobby) but is much more cost effective, more precise and most importantly much safer than those bucket heaters that some folks use.

One other bit of advice: think carefully about how you plumb it. Everything that can freeze, will freeze. Plan for worst case scenarios of , for example, a week of sustained unusually low temperatures and what that might do to your system. So be able to purge your exposed plumbing lines and use heating cables where you need to. Fernco joints will end up a better option than pvc, but these must be inspected regularly.

Hope this helps!

[Danny2fresh]

Thanks for the reply. Another question - how did you install the rocks in the pond? I have an area that I would like to put a rock or two at two make it look more natural.

[Spartan]

The rocks are fiberglass. They float with black noodle type styrofoam tubes attached underneath which also serve to cover the sharp edges. They are tethered to a brick by a semi rigid plastic line which keeps them in about the same place.

[Danny2fresh]

The rocks are fiberglass. They float with black noodle type styrofoam tubes attached underneath which also serve to cover the sharp edges. They are tethered to a brick by a semi rigid plastic line which keeps them in about the same place.

Thats a hood idea. Koi probably like it as well for cover.

[TX_Koi]

Nice pond. Love the ‘bukis!

Any pics of the rest of your system?

[Spartan]

Haven’t posted in a while … Year 14!
Lots of biomass in this pond, which requires a fair amount of rigor and overengineering to maintain, but it’s an absolute joy. Now have 5 koi around 32” and a few more at around 30. It takes forever to reach that size where I live. Of my original 3 koi, still have 2 - the ochiba and hi utsuri. They are 15 years old, since when purchased they were tosai. The third was a male kohaku that was muji. Practicality eventually won out over sentimentality, so I finally rehomed him. You’ll see the vast majority of the koi from the start of this particular thread are still with me. One very promising dainichi kohaku and my chagoi I lost to an illness that I still can’t explain, a couple other rehomed as well. The Karashi are new and do grow amazingly fast.

[delbert]

Beautiful Koi

[Matt24]

Congratulations on such good growth for a rather cold climate and for keeping most of them healthy for so long. A very beautiful group!

[Spartan]

Evening with the moon out.

[Noahsnana]

Way to go They look great!

[Spartan]

Some of my big girls -