Tropical Fish Forums

[filcoreKOI]

I'm a new koi keeper. I started 2 months ago. and I'm located in philippones.

I really need to know the basics. though the local pet shop attendant tells me what to do for I'm a beginer koi keeper... I need a help from an experienced koi keeper or hobbiest.

tnx aquahooy. more power and tnx to the members...

another thing is... I'm a newbe here in this community of aquahobby.
am I welcome? hehehe. anyways... I'm gratefull I knew this community.

more power and goodluck to us
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Newbie koi keeper... seeking for help

[Jacko]

You're plenty welcome here! Don't worry! Though if you could use a bit better grammar it would make helping you a bit easier.

Well, Koi can become quite large fish, 3-4 feet and need large, well circulated ponds. They can live for decades, some for nearly a hundred years or more, so when you get a koi, you get a lifelong pet. I'd recomend at least a 3,000 gallon pond for them, it doesn't need to deep, but plenty wide to accomodate their size. They start off small but grow steadily, I bought a 1.5 inch butterfly 2 years ago and this year he is about 8 inches. Feed them on Summer diet foods in the summer and fall and spring diet foods in the fall and spring, that's the best I've discovered since those foods are specially formulated for how their systems act during those times.

There's plenty to know about them, are you just looking into keeping them or do you plan on breeding them? The key thing is koi pond size, without a proper sized pond they will stunt and that'll horribly affect their health.

Alex
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[filcoreKOI]

I'm planning to breed. but not now, I don't have enough knowledge to breed. for now I just have to collect and collect.

I'm planning to build a pond 2x6-8 ft size. I do have 80 gallon aquarium and have 24 koi's in it and the koi's are on different sizes. after I finish building my pond I'll transfer the big koi's in the pond and the small koi's I'll keep them in the aquarium until they grow 5-6" and transfer them in the pond.

I'm in the philippines, no winter here. though koi's are cold water fish... their environment should be warm, right? it would be my advantage if its true? I'm not obligated to put some uv light on them. heheheh.

tnx jacko
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Newbie koi keeper... seeking for help

[diademhill]

Is that 2'x 6 or eight feet?
You aren't thinking big enough - 12' x 8 feet x 4 feet deep would house half your fish.

You need to get them out of the tank asap a 200g pond would be an improvement but only for weeks.

[filcoreKOI]

yup 2 feet by 6 or 8 feet with 4 feet deep.is the size I'm going to build. I still don't have money to buy things to build for it.

I only have 10 6-inches size...4 4-inches size and 16 are about 2-inches.

for now, they're on my 3ft x 2ft x 2ft aquarium. though I know they're crowded on it. I don't see unusualities on them. I'll build the pond maybe this weekend or 1st week of december.

diademhill... what other advices can you give me to be a good koi keeper?anyway, 2 x 8 x 4 ft deep pond because, I only have limited space our space. and what equipments am I going to put on the pond so that the koi's will be healthy?

TNX DIADEMHILL
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Newbie koi keeper... seeking for help

[diademhill]

that pond is just not big enough for Koi.
A minimum width of four feet is needed for fish that can reach 3' long and an 8'x4'x4' pond only holds about 850 US gallons. The generally agreed size required to keep Koi is 1000g for the first fish and 100 gallons for each extra fish.
30 koi need 4000 gallons or eight times what you are building.

Koi keeping is about water quality & space. Get the water right (good filtration) and give the fish enough space and they will thrive. Cramp them or let the water quality drop and you will have problems.

[filcoreKOI]

OK. tnx diademhill. I learn a lot. I'm going to look for a larger space here to build larger pond for my koi.

another question is... is the OHF with 4-way filtration(mechanical,biological,chemical filtration) is really effective to be used?
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Newbie koi keeper... seeking for help

[diademhill]

Koi are messy fish so you need good mechanical filtration so that the biological filter doesn't get clogged too quickly.
Chemical filtration is not routinely needed but it is handy to have space in the filter box to add a section if it is ever needed.

I would have a filter of at least 60 gallons volume and it can be apart from the pond and piped. Pump from the pond to the filter and return via gravity if possible. A sump drain on the filter makes maintainance easier.
Here is a site that might help.

[filcoreKOI]

diademhill... thank you very much. the site is GREAT for newbie, like me. can I still ask for your opinion if I have something to clarify about what I'm going to improve for my koi's? Tnx man.
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Newbie koi keeper... seeking for help

[ZUROBI3]

I read this and right now my husband is rebuilding a pond exactly what you said, only things is just 3" less to make 8' so I guess it won't hurt. Right now we have 10 small koi and we keep it in a inflatable pool, cause a week ago 3 otters went inside thru the waterfall and ate all the koi we use to have like 15 and they're big, I almost kill on my mind those otters, now he's rebuilding and the cover this time goes with clamps, lock and everything and we try to do the waterfall in other way so it won't be no holes for anything to goes inside. Also I heard that when you build a pond you should keep @ least 4 or 5 koi carps, sorry to ask but I really don't know what's that can someone help me on that and also, what's a breeder I think I have an idea but want to be sure. And also give me some tips for koi, we really start a year ago this april and look what happend to us with that otter experience, someone suggest me put a small fence with electricity or get a scarecrow but that's water and those animals are from water, I hope with the clamps and lock that otter or other predator can go in, cause the problem was the waterfall hole and we never think on that since was almost a year and no problem @ all. hope someone can help me and give me some tips.