Image via Wikipedia
Step 1- Set up the Ideal Pond Environment
Your koi pond is to be the perfect ecosystem for your koi to grow and breed. It should be aesthetically beautiful and able to sustain koi life at the same time. As such there are some important factors to take into consideration. The first is location. Location does affect water temperature which in turn affects your koi. As far as possible, have your pond located in a shady area but not where lots of leaves can fall into it.
The second factor to consider is your pond’s size. For koi ponds, the bigger is always better. Koi have a habit of growing rather fast, so you have to consider pond size at the same time you as you consider how many koi you are going to put into it. Overcrowding your koi pond with too many fish (some people breed other types of fishes with their koi) is a bad idea. Overcrowding will stress your koi and lead to illness and eventually death in some cases.
The final thing to consider is the type of koi pond you wish to have. There are basically four types of ponds – concrete, rigid plastic, fiberglass and flexible pond liners. Each has its pros and cons. You can either engage a professional koi pond builder or try to install and build your pond by yourself.
Unless you experienced in outdoor landscaping, fish keeping and pond construction, it may be a good idea to leave the pond building to a professional. Trying to save money by building it yourself may actually waste money if things go wrong. Besides that, if your pond is not properly setup, you may not even be able to keep your koi alive.
However, when you hire a professional, you ultimately call the shots. Therefore, you should not blame them if your pond fails due to location, size or other factors. When choosing which builder to engage, beware of extremely cheap quotes as they may cut corners that could potentially cause you problems later. While quotes will differ, there should not be a very huge difference between them.
Finally, you must have the proper filtration systems in place to ensure a healthy pond environment for you koi..
Step 2- Choose Good Koi
Once you have created the perfect environment, you will need to start looking into buying your koi fish. It is important to remember never to purchase too many Koi because they will grow rather large, and they breed almost yearly. Overpopulating your Koi pond will cause serious problems in the future.
Always choose your koi based on how healthy they look, how gracefully they swim, how deep the colors are on their bodies and whether their bodies are stable when not swimming. All these factors indicate good and strong koi.
Step 3- Properly Care for Koi
Learn as much as you possibly can about koi keeping before starting this exciting hobby.
It is important to learn the information yourself rather then relying on other sources. People such as your pet shop owner and pond builder will have limited knowledge but should not be trusted for a reliable source, as they are selling the koi and may be bias. Furthermore, once you are at home with your Koi, they are not available to help you in the event of a problem.
Once you have bought your first koi, you need to feed your koi daily. You should check with your local pet store or Koi dealer when it comes to the amount and types of food that you should be feeding your fish. Koi feeding patterns change with season and temperature. The staple diet of adult koi would normally be koi pellets that you can buy from pet shops. But make sure the size of pellets is small enough for the smallest koi to feed on. Also I recommend you buy those that float rather than those that sink to the bottom. This makes it easier to remove left over pellets from the surface of your pond.
Koi can be fed treats such as fruit, veggies, bread etc. They can also be trained to eat directly from your hand. This is one of the most gratifying things about keeping koi.
Step 4- Prevent Common Koi Pond Problems
You can prevent certain types of Koi pond problems by following simple prevention steps.
Always quarantine new fish before introducing them to your current koi population. Koi can have certain illnesses and viruses, such as KHV or Koi Herpes Virus, with little or no showing symptoms. By quarantining, you will greatly reduce the risk of exposing your population to potentially deadly situations.
Do water tests at least on a weekly basis. This will allow you to notice discrepancies in the test results long before your pond starts showing symptoms of stress. This iwill potentially save not only your pond, but your fish as well.
Finding good and current information on keeping koi can be difficult at times.
One of the best resources we have found where you can sign up for a FREE 10 day mini course is The Ultimate Guide to Keeping Koi.
Article Source
Related articles
- Building Koi Ponds and Maintaining the pH of Koi Ponds (brighthub.com)
- Desert Modernism (With Koi) (online.wsj.com)
Tags:fish keeping,flexible pond liners,koi food,koi ponds,pond builder,types of fishes
