Tropical Fish Forums

[Marcos Avila]

In my recent trip to Brazil for the holidays, one of the first things we did was revisit the family's beach house at Praia Preta (portuguese for Black Beach) and consequently the old koi pond that I started there about 20 years ago!

Unfortunately the lower floor of the house is going through reconstruction, but I could still take some nice shots. The pond is rectangular and holds about 16000 liters. It's filled by running water - we simply dammed the natural spring water from the mountain behind the house before it pours into the sea in front of the house.


A little before I left Brazil I made this wall of native plants by pulling a pipe full of holes to the top of the wall, letting the water sprinkle down over it, then went up the mountain to collect ferns and other native species to stick into crevices between the rocks. I never imagined they would like the idea so much and grow so well!


The pond is "overstocked" with koi (at least 30 I believe) and the oldest ones are now about 60-70 cm long and at least 15 years old. They breed at will in the pond and this net stays put most of the time to help protect the young from predatory birds that come by to feast on them.


This is one of the oldest and prettiest koi:


The good thing about running water ponds is that they can take overstocking, overfeeding, and can be left under the care of almost anyone


Nowadays it's the housekeeper who basically takes care of it, under the supervision of an uncle of mine who introduced some questionable "improvements" such as this fountain with a peeing boy, and a bird cage to the right side.


To finish, a "Zoom Out" sequence from the pond to the terrain:






Hope you liked it!
_________________

Success with a fish/tank is measured in YEARS, not months or weeks...

[truestar]

Absolutely breathtaking Marcos! I loved the pictures. I really love the wall covering in the native plants. I did find the fountain took away from the beauty of it a little, but I have just never been a fan of statues of peeing boys. However, the pond is great. Does it even have a filter or does it even need it with the running water? I'm assuming it doesn't need it, but was wondering if it has one.

[LR]

Wow nice koi, they looked great!

[Jacko]

I love the fountain Marcos. Great looking pond!

Do you know what type of koi that is in the 3rd picture that is deep orange with just a little black on it?
_________________

[Barchef]

You have no idea how lucky you are to have a running water pond.

Also you have no idea how unlucky you are to have an uncle who puts statues of peeing boys in the middle of awsome ponds.
_________________
This sig is now severly outdated and will remain like this until I find something worthy to put here. Sorry.

[MackEmmons]

Absolutely stunning.
_________________
The Gymnogeophagus Study Group

[Marcos Avila]

Thanks everyone.

There's no filtration whatsoever in the pond, just the running water and maybe once in a while the floor gets vacuumed.

These are just average-quality koi, I doubt they even bother to name color patterns like these.

Maybe if I can come up with a very tactful strategy I can get rid of the peeing boy, or at least get it moved to a corner...
_________________

Success with a fish/tank is measured in YEARS, not months or weeks...

[Barchef]

Convince an old woman to become your neighbor.
_________________
This sig is now severly outdated and will remain like this until I find something worthy to put here. Sorry.

[ernie]

Very charming pond you've got there Marcos I really like the idea of the plant wall background!

Cheers, Ernie
_________________