Evolution of a Koi Keeper

By

Steve Childers

Well, let's just go to the garden center and build a koi pond! Most koi keepers start out as water gardeners; buy one of those books from the local garden center that says building a pond is easier than it looks. Lie number 1. It isn't easy. Digging cubic yards from the ground and wheel barrowing it around is tough work. Hauling in rock for the edging is just as tough.

After a trip to the ER for cuts and back strain(s) you have a nice little pond, complete with shelves for pretty plants. Now we attempt to add an electrical outlet (more digging for the trench and we use buriable cable). Now we drop in the submersible and bucket filter and plug it in. The waterfall isn't what we pictured in our minds, not enough flow even though the "expert" at the garden center said the pump was perfect for what we told him we wanted.

Oh well, time to go back to the garden center for some plants anyway. Back home with 3 lilies, another pump and bucket filter and some marginal plants, oh and a couple of gold fish and a funny little 6" fish with whiskers. In they all go and it looks great, enough water over the waterfall, pretty plants and fish to feed and look at.

Inside we go to get cleaned up. Just think, just over a couple of weeks and we have a pond! After cleaning up we go outside to feed our fish. Oh no! All 3 are "belly up"! We scoop up the 3 dead fish and place them in a bag and head back to the garden center. The "expert" at the garden center asks if we "de-chlorinated" the water? Huh, de-chlorinate? He sells us some powdery stuff and 3 more fish (2 gold fish and one of those 6" fish with "whiskers" labeled as "coy". Home we go, throw in some of that powdery stuff and place the fish in the pond.

Next weekend we decide to do some planting around the pond. The first shovel of dirt and the waterfall quits. Oops, should have used conduit to bury that electrical line! 3 more dead fish because no one told us to use a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI). Back to the garden center (Am I enjoying Koi keeping yet?).

After a couple of weeks the water turns green and the new fish are nowhere to be seen. Back to the garden center. Another cash outlay and I have this magical concoction that the "expert" says will clear the pond up in a jiffy. The next day its semi clear and I can see the fish.... a little. Another week and its green again. After about 6 more weeks and 4 more trips to the garden center for more of that magical concoction, the water mystically clears over night. But now the water over the waterfall has slowed to a trickle. Looking at the bottom of the pond, I see all of this "gunk" on the bottom and on the filter pads. The pads are easy to clean after we finally get the buckets out of the pond.

Back to the garden center to find out how to get all of that "pond pudding" out of the bottom. The expert says to drain the pond and scoop it out. We drain the pond, and catch the fish and put them in a bucket. We scoop out the nasty smelling pond pudding (are we enjoying the pond yet?). After scrubbing all of that green stuff off of the sides (got to make sure its really clean) we refill the pond. Oh, don't forget that de-chlor stuff.

Another couple of weeks and the pond goes pea green again, back to the garden center for that clarifier stuff. Another 4 to six weeks and that clarifier stuff finally kicks in and the water is clear. Now we can see little things hanging from the sides and dorsals of the fish and that 6” fish with whiskers is now 10” with a huge hole in its side. Back to the garden center to talk to the “expert”. He sells some medicated food and some medicine to put in the pond that will kill the parasites. A few weeks go by and the gold fish are fine but the cute little fish with whiskers has died from the infection caused by the parasites. Back to the garden center for another one of those cute little fish with whiskers called “coy”.

Fall is setting in and its time to clean the pond again…another 5 inches of pond pudding has built up in the bottom and the filters and pumps are clogged solid.

The fish sit on the bottom all winter and when spring begins to warm things a little we start feeding, not knowing that the water temp is only 40 degrees still. A few weeks go by and that cute little “coy” puffs up like a balloon and then dies. Taking it back to the garden center the “expert” (it’s a new expert because the previous one went back to school the previous spring). The new expert asks if the “coy” had been fed recently and what the water temp was. After the answer, he explains that the “coy” couldn’t digest the food in that cold of water and it died from an internal infection. Luckily a new shipment of “coy” have just arrived….from Japan! Although the price is 5 times that of the previous “coy” (which have all died) it is much prettier and out comes the charge card.

After a few weeks, the water warms and turns that terrible pea green color again. Back to the garden center for that clarifier stuff. This time another customer asks why that stuff is being used. “To clear up the water, Duh”! With a chuckle the other customer explains the filtering cycle time is about 6 weeks…time for the good bacteria to grow and deal with the ammonia and nitrites/nitrates. He further explains the benefit of a UV light. Out comes the charge card again!

After replumbing the pond for the UV light its time to plug it in. The pumps shut down and the UV light doesn’t come on. After checking the breakers, its determined that the breaker is only 15 amps and the 2 pumps and UV exceed that amount. Off to the hardware store for a 20 amp GFCI breaker. The assistant there stops to see if help is needed. Its determined that the wire size for the circuit isn’t big enough for a 20-amp circuit so new wire (and conduit this time) are needed. Out comes the charge card again. Another weekend spent running new electrical lines. Are we enjoying the pond yet?

Finally, a clear pond! Time for some more of those cute Japanese fish with whiskers called “coy”. But first, time to clean the filter pads and the pond pudding from the bottom again. What a stinky mess perhaps there is something at the garden center to vacuum this gunk up with. Back to the garden center and sure enough, there is a pond vac and as long as we’re here, a few more of those cute little Japanese “coy” with whiskers.

Summer sets in and all of these “coy” are growing like weeds and its time to expand the pond. Back to the garden center for a bigger liner. While we’re there the expert sells us on a “bead filter and a swimming pool pump, explaining that they are easier to clean. A couple of months of digging plumbing and re-landscaping go by. After a day or two, the bead filter clogs and its time to backwash. Backwashing becomes a daily chore through the summer and the pond bottom still has to be vacuumed once a month to keep the pond pudding at bay.

The next time at the garden center there is a flyer about a “Koi Show” sponsored by the local “Koi club”. The “expert” is asked what a “Koi” is and we feel stupid that they are the same as “coy”. The “expert” suggests a couple of books to read, “Tetra Koi Encyclopedia, for $24.95 and “Koi Kichi” for $110. We opt for the cheaper one and are thrilled reading it cover to cover.

A couple more weeks of backflushing the filter everyday and it’s time to go see a koi show. We are awed at the beauty of the fish, just like the ones in the book. Vendors are there and we opt for a couple more koi…of course, more expensive, out comes the charge card. Information is obtained on the Koi club and we pay our membership, determined to get to the next meeting in 2 weeks.

About a week goes by and the new fish look sick and are “itching” on the bottom. The older fish are starting to do the same. By the time of the Koi club meeting they all have sores and appear to be on deaths door. Arriving at the club meeting at a member’s house, we see a beautiful pond, about the same size as ours except much deeper….. 4 – 6’ compared to our 2 ½’. Although our water is clear, its nowhere near as clear as this pond we stand in aw over it. We ask the owner how he keeps his water so clear and he shows us his filters, a simple square sediment chamber, additional chambers with matting, then a pump. After looking intently the question arises, “How does the water get to the sediment chamber”? He looks puzzled and says, “from the bottom drain”. “Huh, bottom drain, what’s that” we ask. We go back to the pond and see in the bottom of the pond a dome and he produces that expensive book “ Koi Kichi” from his library and shows me a diagram of his filtration system. We explain our fish problems and being very kind he offers to come and see the fish and pond the next day.

Being very polite upon his arrival, he asks for a net to catch the fish with. We don’t have one but offer to drain the pond to catch them for him. He produces a net from his truck and another large plastic storage box. We catch the fish and he sedates them one by one and gives them injections, pointing out that 2 are beyond any hope and offers to put them to sleep permanently. He also takes some scrapes and looks under the microscope that he has with him and identifies “gill flukes” as being the culprit. He turns my pond purple with something … Potassium per……….ate and says that should do the trick. If not he has some other more expensive stuff. He again recommends that expensive book. Are we enjoying the pond yet?

Later that day (after backflushing the filter), its back to the garden center for that expensive book, “Koi Kichi”. We realize then, that we do not have a “Koi” pond, and also realize why we have killed so many fish in just 2 short summers. Gee, have we enjoyed the pond yet?

Let’s see, for a start, if we had spent the extra money on a good Koi book instead of the cheap book on how to build a pond that said “Its easier than you think”, we could have had bottom drain(s), settlement chambers (vortex), bio chambers and an efficiency pool style pump. We could have dug it to a proper depth (at least 4’, preferably at least 6’), we wouldn’t have had to expand it and made it bigger. We wouldn’t have ever had to clean the pond pudding off of the bottom or spent countless hours cleaning filter pads. We also wouldn’t have had to backflush filters everyday through the summer, but simply open a valve to discharge the vortex and all of the sediment. We wouldn’t have wasted our money on clarifiers that didn’t do anything. We would still have all the money we wasted on all of the fish we killed. The hours spent could have been spent “enjoying the Koi pond”.

If a person wants a water garden, great. Fill it with plants and their pots that can scrape the sides of Koi. They breed bacteria and parasites, just waiting to attack Koi. They are too shallow for Koi and the lack of bottom drains just multiply all the rest of their the problems for Koi. If someone wants a Koi pond, then read a good book, Koi Kichi being the best, plan on making the pond twice as large as what you think you want because if you don’t you will wish you had and its cheaper to do it right the first time. When someone of knowledge makes a suggestion for you, listen and learn. Don’t try and justify keeping Koi in a bad pond, just remember what you learn and promise to do it right the next time, because eventually you’ll want to ENJOY YOUR POND instead of laboring over it

Steve

Note: The examples stated above are only a portion of the true horror stories compiled over the last 10 years from friends and myself..