I'm buying a new house and the current owners have installed a koi pond, complete with waterfall. I'm clueless about caring for these fish, so am curious if anyone else on these boards has experience with koi.

Right now there are 3 koi: 2 adults and a baby, and there are also about 1/2 dozen gold fish too.

If you know of any good web sites, or books, I'd appreciate the insight. I'd also like to hear about how much work it takes to keep the pond running, fish healthy, etc. Just curious.

Thanks

 

My father in-law has an outdoor koi pond. They are labor intensive because they are outside. You will want to ensure that you do some kind of anti algae treatment or you will find yourself scrubbing the hell out of in in a month or two. Obviously, ensure that whatever you dump in the pond isn't going to burn/harm the fish.

Also, beware of predators, cranes love to eat koi.

The koi themselves seem pretty hardy. You can leave them out there in the winter too. Don't worry about the pond freezing and killing them. They will survive the winter.

 

A properly balanced pond isn't labor-intensive at all. The key is to have sufficient plants and not to overfeed the fish, especially in the spring/fall when the beneficial bacteria is dormant. When the water temp hits around 50 degrees, the bacteria will start converting the fish waste (ammonia) into nitrites and then nitrates. Plants feed on the nitrates. If you don't have enough plants, algae will take over and do the job, turning the water green. The moss algae on the sides of the pond is a good thing. String algae often forms in the winter and is easily removed with a stick. It's the suspended algae that can form and turn the water into pea soup that's the real problem, but that's pretty common in early spring and usually goes away by itself

Talk to the current owner about how he maintains it. Other than cleaning out my skimmer once a week, I only touch mine twice a year. Once in the late fall to clean out accumulated dead leaves from the pond bottom and in the spring to clean out the muck out of the biofilter. I did that last weekend using a shop vac.

BTW, eBay is a great place to buy plants and pond supplies. You should be able to pick up some good books at your local library. The Ortho books sold Home Depot and Lowes aren't bad and will give you the basics.