Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Best time to restock koi

We stocked our 2 acre pond 4 years ago (central Virginia), and only 1 huge koi has survived.We have the opportunity to pick up some 6-8" koi at the end of the month but was unsure if this was a good time to restock them or if we should wait until spring. The hatchery is 5 hours away, and it is on our way home from our trip, so thought we might take advantage of it.

We have large mouth bass, channel catfish, perch, crappie and bluegill along with the koi in the pond.

How big are the Bass, catfish, and crappie? 6"-8" koi might make convenient snacks.

I'm with Theo..a 6-8" koi is a quick meal for even a 14-15" bass.

With LMB you should be stocking 10"-12" koi and 13"-14" are very likely to survive.

Bill, that is exactly the same reason we only stock 12"+ Triploid Grass Carp. i.e. too big for bass up here to eat.

We do have LMB that are 18-19". Largest crappie we have caught was 10".
The cost for larger koi is $40-50 each. If we stock grass carp, we have to get a permit. We may have to go that route since the larger koi price is prohibitive as we would need 15-20 and most likely restock some next year.

Karen:

I am curious as to why you would need 15-20 koi.

IME they are considered ornamental; if you need that many aesthetically, I understand.

We have a lot of vegetation in our pond, and the koi did a great job keeping it down. We don't have them as ornaments - they are what came in our pond stocking package, so figured that's what we should restock with.