Technical > Home Improvement > Added some kois in my pond but how do i know what kind and s

Added some kois in my pond but how do i know what kind and s

Personally I don't think it makes a difference. If they provide the look you want and you thought the price you paid for that was reasonable what difference does it make?

reply to Mont
Well i bought them for 10$ each which is a good price since they grew big after a few months the big one is already around 9 inch . If i want to know it's because female can act different when spawning and by knowing the gender i would not worry when the fish act strange.

reply to Mont
Unlike goldfish, koi have yet to be developed into exceptional shapes, though they have much stronger colours; Koi variety is based on their coloration and scale pattern. You might have to get a good Koi book if you want the exact names; there is a very precise nomenclature for koi.

Sexing them might be sort of hard especially if your fish are young, females should be less sleek, more rounded, with smaller roundish fins, males are sleeker, with slightly sharper more pointed fins. That said it’s still a subjective way of telling them apart. Part of the fun is guessing.

Nice fish though, if well kept and of good stock they could live for a very long time, with winter coming I hope your pond has a very deep area or you plan on wintering them inside.

reply to Mont
Thanks , well the 2 big koi are wild koi something that seem to be rare in pet shop's so i guess they must be hardier than koi that are breeded by a breeder , the other comet goldfishes (red and white one) which i started with 4 ( 2 red and 2 white) 6 years ago that was when i stopped bringing them inside the house and decided to leave them in pond and said to myself will see if they survive and they did so since then i always left them in the pond. I guess the fact that i cover the pond for the winter help's the water from freezing too much.

The pond is about 15 inch deep , in the last 6 year there was 5 reds and 1 white babies fishes which grew (as you can see in the pictures) , then this year i bought 2 koi's and 2 shubunkins so i redid the pond and remove some rock at the bottom and was able to gain 4 inch of depth so now the depth is around 17 inch with some places at 19 inches.

Thane , last month i decided to extend the pond to have a deep place for the koi's and also because the black and red shubunkin (top left in the first picture) that i bought in april had babies.

The extension is around 5 feet by 4 feet and 26 inch deep which i guess should be good , i also plan to put a de-icer which will help greatly.

As far as knowing their gender i was able to identify all of the fishes beside the koi so that's why im asking.

Your pond is too small for Koi.

reply to Mont
General rule of thumb is 100 gallons per Koi for the pond size ... the can grow to 20-30" in length ... your pond looks like a nice goldfish pond, kio needs something more like a shallow swimming pool in size

reply to Mont
How can you tell how big his pond is?

And when they hit that 9-12" range watch for herons! I lost two to a heron last year. Then lost the rest to some catastrophic failure last winter. Couldn't figure out what happened. Probably a PH crash. I replaced them but only put in 4 this time. My pond is about 1200 gallons.

reply to Mont

reply to z aXis
I can when I get home from work.

reply to Mont

reply to Jon

reply to Mont

Re: Added some koi

reply to z aXis

Re: Added some kois in my pond but how do i know what kind and s

reply to Mont
By looking at the pictures given I would have to say the first two koi are Females and the koi in the last pic is either to young to tell or a male. You have to look at the body shape. If the koi fattens up a bit just behind the gills it is a female, if the koi stays slim and has the shape of a torpedo it is a male.

As for the variety of koi you have it looks like you have some very nice looking Domestic Koi. In other words they are obviously not pure bread Japanese koi. They are breed state side and have no pure lines. The best way to explain this is a Japanese koi is like a pure breed dog and a Domestic Koi is a Mutt! But this doesn’t take away from the beauty of your koi they are just not worth much.

Lastly your pond is way too small for koi. Koi should not be in anything less then a 1,000 gallons (with your measurements given I calculated 300) and only one koi per 200 gallons. Koi are a very muscular fish. If they do not have the proper amount of room to move around and exercise their muscles will slowly deteriorate and eventually their organs all start to shut down as well. This happens slowly as the fish overgrows their environment (they do not grow to the size of the pond).

reply to Mont
I almost forgot! Your pond is very well done! I love all the plant life you incorporated into the pond!

reply to Mont
Thanks Pond Gal , with the calculation i have since it's raining outside and can't go and measure the exact measure im at 582 Gallons for all of the pond , im really not sure though since when i measured the size of the original pond this spring my calculations (L 10 x W 4 x D 1.5 x 7.5) gave me around 450 Gallons so tommorow il go back and measure all of it since the extension even without the exact measure im sure contain at least 200 Gallons.

Il have to wait next year and see but il probably just wait for the koi to spawns and probably give it away or sell it but i do have a stretch of 10 feet long in the old pond and from the new one to the old one there's around another 11 feet which im sure will help the koi in maintaining his health at least for few years more (correct me though if im wrong in thinking like that) and with the climate we have here in Montreal i don't think it will get more than 18 inch.