The first thing to consider when starting out with koi is the habitat.  Koi grow very large – much larger than most people will realize.  This video, from  youtube, gives the best sense of the real size koi grow to that I’ve seen:

Koi can grow to 3 feet long (just under 1 meter), as you can see in the video above. These fish require large volumes of water to live a healthy life. The general rule of thumb is 1000 gallons of water for the first koi, and 200 to 500 gallons per each additional fish. This makes koi too large for nearly all aquarium tanks – and inappropriate for residential aquariums. Koi do well in outdoor ponds, even during winter. Koi are cold water fish, and can survive in freezing temperatures, so long as the water is not permitted to completely freeze over. This need drives an important, but often ignored dimension of koi ponds – depth. For most climates, 4 to 5 feet deep is sufficient to keep water from freezing. A pond this deep will also help protect koi from predators – birds, raccoons, and the like.

The next important requirement for koi ponds is water circulation. Either a waterfall or a sprayer will do, but the important thing is to keep the water moving.

So far, these suggestions have been pretty standard and not surprising, but here are three more that have saved me a lot of problems:

1. Growing plants in the pond will absorb toxins from the water, such as nitrate. They also look very nice, too.  Here is a picture of a flower from one of the plants growing in my pond:

2. My next trick is using a UV light in the filter/pump box.   UV filters kill microbes, including algae, parasites, bacteria and viruses.  UV lights will often get rid of brown or green murky water, which is caused by algae blooms.  Of course, this will almost certainly lead to an abundance of some other type of algae, such as slime algae, unless there are plants to out compete such algae.  UV filters also serve to minimize infection from bacteria, viruses, or parasites, such as ich, which find their way into the pond.

3. My final suggestion is minnows.  I keep a stock of about 50 rosy red minnows in my 3000 gallon pond.  They add some life to the pond, but they serve a much more important purpose – they are sacrificial fish for birds and other predators.  The minnows are brightly colored and generally swim at the top of the water, and so are easy targets for such predators, leaving the koi alone.  Minnows are available at Petsmart near me, for about $0.12 each.  I will generally need to restock minnows once or twice during  the summer.

Now for a special treat: the Koi Pearl

Note that I do not have one, and have never seen one in person, but they sure do look cool!

Post from: Tropical Fish Central

Koi Ponds

I thought for a while about the best way to do this.  It seemed to me that a hose siphoning into a bucket would be the most effective – simply vacuuming up the gravel, leaving a bare bottom and sucking up any nasty chemicals that may have built up along with it.  After thinking about it more, that seemed like a lot of work.  So, here’s what I did instead:

Phase 1: Removing the gravel

I got my handy 5G Home Depot bucket and my largest fish net (about 6 inches across).  I started at one end of the tank and scooped up as much gravel as I could, dumping it in the bucket as I went.  This was pretty fast and effective, but there was quite a bit of gravel left in the tank that I simply could not get with the net.

Phase 2: Cleaning up the mess

I took my “Python no-spill” water changer and removed the gravel vacuum head (the clear plastic tub part) by unscrewing it behind the valve.  I attached the python to my sink, and took my large net and placed it directly under the python’s discharge, to catch gravel that came through, so it would not go down my drain.  I turned the water on high to get the most suction.

At the tank, I used the bare of of the python hose like a vacuum, sucking up every last bit of gravel and waste left, leaving a very clean tank bottom.  All of the gravel I vacuumed up ended up in the net in the bottom of my sink.  I simply dumped the net into the bucket and had cleanly transferred all of the gravel from the tank to the bucket.

Phase 3: Rinsing the Sand

I rinsed 2 20 pound bags of argonite sand very well to remove the fine sediment that would could the water using a bucket in my kitchen sink.  This took a looong time.

Phase 4: Sand in the tank

I scooped the sand into a cup, and then lowered the cup into the tank, until I had transferred all of the sand.  Much to my dismay, the water was still turned milky-white, despite my rinsing efforts.

Phase 5: Water changes

I reconnected my python’s gravel vac and performed 3 75% back-to-back water changes to get rid of the cloudiness.  This was pretty effective.

Phase 6: Finishing touches

I had some drift wood in the tank previously, and arranged it to provide a bunch of hiding spots.  I also bought a few pieces of rock, and used some stones to create a few other hiding areas.

Here is the result:

Post from: Tropical Fish Central

Converting My Tank From Gravel To Sand

You don’t want to flush him, but what do you do?

There are a few primary options:

1. If the fish was purchased recently, check with the shop to see if you can return the fish for a refund.
2. Contact local aquarium shops to see if they will accept the fish.
3. Advertise the fish as available for free to a good home on Craigslist.
4. Post the fish as available for free to a good home on aquarium forums.
   1. http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/forum/113-classified-section/
   2. http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15
   3. http://www.fishforums.com/forum/want-sell.html
   4. http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/buy-sell-trade/

Post from: Tropical Fish Central

What To Do With Unwanted Fish?

Update:

Two Fish Guyz was apparently bought out by Discus Hans USA.  It appears that they won’t be offering dwarf cichlids any longer.

Post from: Tropical Fish Central

RIP TwoFishGuyz.com