Tropical Fish Forums

[WaterDragon]

About a month or so ago we moved into a lovely new home in the country which had a nicely sized pond on it. Currently it houses many frogs(and tadpoles)along with a very, very large what I believe to be a goldfish(WE call him Frank =3)and three small feeder goldfish I've just released into the pond. But my dad wants something else to put in there, something that will keep the bugs at bay and would be interesting to watch. Naturally I want Koi, but my dad wants something a bit more unique(he wants like trout or something Oo;; ). Any suggestions?
OH and we also live up in northern WA state, to give you an idea of climate...
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[nes999]

koi can be very interesting went I went to japan it was the most beutiful thing in the world. I liekd it the most when I saw one jump out of the water to get a fly. I liked it because I though it couldnt happen.

how big is this pond?
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WHY doesn't my flying fish fly?

[Jacko]

I'd avoid trout or that type, they need pretty good oxygen and don't do well in the more stagnant type pond (if you've got a lot of surface agitation and current going, I don't see why not) but personally I love koi, they're wonderful and you can train them to eat from your hands, even pick them up when bigger. Depending on how deep the pond is that is, I know up there in the cold near canada it can get pretty dang cold in the winter.

I know a lot of people say 2 feet is the minimum for koi to survive the winter, but when they get to be 1 foot in height when they're a lot bigger they really need more space than that IMO.

The only problem I see with your getting koi would be predators, if you get them, get them young and the cheapest you can find them untill you find a foolproof method to keeping the predators away indefininately. You don't want to spend 40 bucks on an 8 inch fish to see it get carried away by a heron.
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[diademhill]

Here in the UK four feet is the recommended depth for over-wintering Koi and we don't get as cold in Winter as your region.

One thing about stocking such a pond: Don't use feeders.
The fish you put in will become foundation stock so you need to think quality so choose well formed comets or shubunkins rathet thaan the mass produced second rate fish from the feeder tanks. Small fish of decent quality are still cheap and probably healtier.

Gold rosy reds are good mozzie eaters and visible from above.

Just how big is the pond?

[WaterDragon]

Thank you all for the responses

I'm not worried about depth for the pond, I'm about 5'2" and there are places where I'm sure I might be totally submersed if I were to step into it. Its a VERY large pond, not sure about the detentions exactly. Also, its not a typical manmade pond, its more natural....heres a picture.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/DragonPanda/IMGP1823.jpg

I'll see if I can get a few more pics/ask my dad for the detentions or measure it myself....

Edit: Alright, my dad gave me a rough estimate for the dimensions. 30'x30' and the depth ranging from 5'6" to 2'