First, I cannot say enough about how helpful this site has been to me.

Well - here's another one....

I have a pond that I just stocked last year. App 1/3 acre w/ the deepest part in excess of 15' - tapering up on one end into an area where there are shallows < 4'.

Now - I live in CA & the pond is in NY, my brother-in-law is up there every weekend - so most of this comes from him.

I stocked the pond w/ app 30 LMB, 30 Hybrid Blue Gill, 30 Perch, 30 Hybrid Channel Cats, some rock bass, and 4 Koi/carp for the algae - as well as fat heads.

They are all growing well btw - the koi was app 6" in July and now is over 12"...same upsize for all of the fish....all are doing well.

Here is my question(s):

Seems like there is always just a handful of BG & LMB along w/ the white Koi in the 'shallows' - probabky 15-20 fish total at any one time.

First question - is it a male or female thing as to which fish are hanging in the shallows this time of year? Meaning - is it one sex or the other that prefers the shallow water this time of year and their mates are in the deep end?

Another example the only koi we see is the white one (there are 2 gold and 1 more white/gold) - why is the white koi always in the shallows too?

Second question - didn't see any obvious fish kill this winter (on the surface or shore) - how does one know what 'made it' thru the winter if there wasn't any obvious kill that we could see on the surface?


Thanks again PB!!