Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Fly Fishing & Other Fish Species Holy Carp!

So I tossed some little 4" Koi and butterfly Koi into the pond about the start of July or so. Darned things are at least double in size and starting to pass up the perch as they feed together. I had no idea they grew so fast! Two of the initial 3 survived, and I just put in another 3. Luckily a survivor was a butterfly solid bright orange, and boy is he pretty!

From a $10 fish to a $100 fish in about a month... has me thinking a little business.

They are indeed pretty! They are also a pretty version of common carp and reproduce almost as fast as they grow. Hopefully something in the pond will control offspring if muddy water is a concern.

My neighbor put a few Koi in her perch pond and they grew huge but never reproduced. She didn't know why, maybe she got all of the same sex? or something ate all the eggs?

I like Koi but not their barbels. I wouldn't mind adding a couple of common gold fish if I could guarantee they were the same sex. I wouldn't want them to be lonely , Wikipedia says they are social animals that prefer living in groups and they have a memory span of at least three months, lol. They can recognize familiar people and aren't too afraid once they get bigger. Common goldfish have a natural long lifespan (as do KOI, see below), they can live several decades. "The longest lived goldfish on record lived to age 43".

"There are reports of kois that have achieved ages of 100–200 years.[13] One famous scarlet koi, named "Hanako," was owned by several individuals, the last of whom was Dr. Komei Koshihara. In July 1974, a study of the growth rings of one of the koi's scales reported that Hanako was 225 years old.[14] The greatest authoritatively accepted age for the species is little more than 50 years.[15][16]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koi

I have read up on koi in natural ponds, and without competition they do breed like crazy. Apparently their offspring rarely if ever make it when competing with our native fish though. I hope that is true! I dont want a muddy pond, but I did want something that would clean up the food left over from feeding the perch. I was starting to see some issues in the area where I feed them, and I dont like catfish.

Eek a lot of controversy about koi in larger ponds competing with other fish in reproduction rates. Ran some more searches and coming up with some hair raising results! All of the non reproducing stories are first hand, but the reproducing scary stories are from experts speculating via experience. It is hard to root out what I may experience.

I should have stuck with the 2, but they were so much fun! Grass carp were my other option, but boring. I am an idiot and can not leave it alone, I always have to tinker and experiment.

The darned things are fast, so getting them out may be tough. At least they are easy to see. I have a garden pond they can go in if I can get them out safely, it just needs some clean up.

I need to find some expert carp fishers ASAP before these reproduce, several guys around here like that.

In process of trying to get them out. Almost had all three new 3" additions this morning, but didn't want to risk trying until I was 100% sure of capture, I wasn't really ready and was surprised to find them so fast.

I am putting down the throw/pull net with bait over the top, but they were not too concerned with AquaMax 500. Going to pick up some creamed corn and do the job right, then move them into the garden pond. I don't want to scare them off by a botched attempt and make it that much harder on myself if I miss. Probably put the creamed corn into something to hold it in the middle of the net to increase odds.

I am going to take my time, get them trained on cream corn in the evening, then get as many out as I can. I may leave the one butterfly Koi in there, awesome fish. I can deal with one or two and the little mess they would make, just not 100+ fish. I may be fine, but I am not going to take the chance. Easier to catch when they are little and hovering near shore. When they get larger, they are fearless and move out into open water.

Based on how many baby BCP and YP I saw while trying to find the Koi, I am guessing I wont have a problem either way. The YP are a little more then 3" now!

If I utterly fail at the pull net (which is a good possibility), I may try setting up a small electroshock area where they feed. I need to read up on the legality and requirements of this, but I really want to nip this in the bud.

I am going to blame this on my over-enthusiasm for garden ponds. I was never able to have Koi because our garden pond was too small, and I was scared off by cost and effort to keep Koi happy.

Trap them..

How? I have a minnow trap, but I think the openings are too small. Just a larger minnow trap?

They are still little, so I have options.

Allot of the high end Koi are sterilized with UV lights before they are sold. This prevents people from just starting up a business and competing sales. When the albino oscars came out everyone I knew thought they would raise some up to get into the business. Guess what? all sterilized.

If you wanted to add some koi for pond pets just make sure they are sterilized and all is good.

Cheers Don

Do you know what they were eating before you got them? I would use that as bait.

Caught a Kindfisher at the pond this morning, and I have not seen the three small rascals since my first post, and I have been searching hard for them. I am hoping their stark visibility caused the kingfisher to have a tasty breakfast. They were just the right size for a meal. *fingers crossed!*

Have I mentioned I love watching kingfishers? Too bad they are touchy as heck and difficult to observe.

Well, down to the two big ones left. No sign of the 3 small ones any more, it has been a few weeks now. I have a heron hanging about making short work of my baby frogs and fish.

Just talked to a neighbor with two ponds today, and both ponds have multiple koi, and neither have ever had reproduction in several years. I am guessing the crowded nature of ponds either deters the koi from reproducing, or the babies are slow and get eaten quickly. Who knows, but now several accounts of koi not able to reproduce in ponds stocked with regular game fish.

In my one acre pond I had the 20 KOI as I have often mentioned, for a decade. They grew very large and I had each one named. I fed them every day and never had any off springs ever show up. I think the bass ate the small KOI and albino channel catfish.