Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Koi question

As far as seasonal temps, it goes from iced over all winter to about 72 in the middle of the summer. 72 was the peak last summer and it lasted about a week. This spring it climbed to 60 but has dropped back down to 52 as of yesterday because of the cold weather we have been having.

The too many mature bluegill and not enough spawning area was suggested to me on this site. After it was all said and done last year, I believe that theory was correct.

I'll work on getting some pictures of the koi and trout together this weekend.

2trackin, it sounds like you have a great little pond, I like to see people doing things with their pond that is out of the ordinary.
What is your ponds water source and what species of trout do you have?

Photo's would be great.

You have trout that lasted 72F for a week? Amazing! I have a pond that all the trout die in one day with 70 F. Customer knows this and we are working on a solution to recirc the water and shade it. Also might try a different variety, but getting fish into Cal is getting tough.

BG are prolific spawners, and I cannot fathom how would they stress not having nests, let alone how they could not make nests. I had a pond with 3 feet of muck and just two adults and it was loaded with babies. I have another pond now where the bg are practically the last fish standing after a die off. I am sorry, but I am not buying the stress thoery.

Temperature isn't the only factor in rainbow trout surviving. Water temps could be 60 degrees but the rainbow trout would die at a DO level of 2 ppm. Water temps could be 75 degrees and rainbow trout could survive a week if the DO level was 10 ppm. DO is just as if not more important than water temp.

My pond is heavily aerated with a solar aerator. I know trout will bite the big one fast with O2, but I was under the impression right around 70F is the cutoff as far as temps, even short term like a week. That what the trout experts tell me at least. The longer they go at 70 and above the weaker they get until floating.

When he said his temp. got to 72 I'll bet that was taken at a 2 or 3 ft. depth so he probably had 65 in deeper water.
I have my temp probe in 5ft. of water so I can better judge any problems that might happen in the summer, it's never gotten above 68 probably due to the 95 gpm inflow.

In flow, a spring, anything with cool O2 water is huge. The trout actually seek that out and stay there. My problem is none of the above, plus literally zero shade. One little foot bridge and that is where they all hang out until floating. Also the naturals or regulars are much more heat tolerant vs. the triploids, which is what we want. So I'm thinking better off just getting them to live than watching triploids float since they are not as hardy. I just got a load of dregs, bullfrog polliwogs/res/gsf and bg. Probably 120 lbs. Have to get busy sorting.

I know this picture means nothing. I took about 30 pictures tonight and those trout are just too fast. So, I ended up with some koi and a trout splash. I'm still going to work on better pictures this weekend.

AP,

My pond is a water table pond, I live across the street from a lake that they control the lake level with a pump. I think that has some influence on my pond as well although it still does go up and down. The trout I have are golden rainbows. I like brighter colored fish because my pond is pretty tannic.

I'm surprised that the pond stays cool enough, the ground water or springs must be supplying enough cool water.
Between golden rainbows and Koi you really need to watch out for Herons.
Some floating islands would give your trout more shade when it's hot and it seems most pond life enjoy what they provide.

Great news 2trackin! I couldn't really believe this hadn't been tried. In my setting I have a spring-fed waterfall dumping 300-2000+ gpm. I think this will really help with DO and creating a cool flow area for the trout. I wouldn't be surpassed or unhappy if the koi seek out other warmer parts of the pond.

2trackin-- do your koi successfully reproduce to maturity or do the trout and other fish eat off the young?

koi and golden rainbows=easy targets for ospreys

In the winter, the side of the pond facing the woods is always the last to freeze and first to thaw (even though its always shaded), so I may be getting a little spring water, I'm not really sure though.

I've had koi for 3 years now, last summer was when I put the trout in and I did it as an experiment. I only put 20 in as a test to see if they would live. As far as I can tell, the only one I lost was the one I caught ice fishing and it went in the fry pan

In my area, last summer seemed to have a lot of cooler than normal nights. I'm sure that contributed to my success. Who knows what will happen this summer? We may get some hot weather and I'll have to turn the kids loose with the fishing poles to get them out.

I like the idea of floating islands, I've checked out a lot of photos of them on this site and would like to make one.

Now, if someone can just breed some cool water tilapia to eat my dang duckweed, I'll be all set!

Well, it took a while but I finally got a good pic. Here are some koi & golden rainbow trout enjoying feeding time together!

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Cool pictures! I've checked more koi references and they seem pretty consistent that the upper end of trout temps are very acceptable for summer high temps.

Well, my pond has been warmer this year than the last few. It was bouncing between 72 at night and 74 during the day for 3 weeks. One day it spiked to 75 for around 6 hours. The last couple of cool nights now have it 70-71. I would have never thought the trout would have made it through these temps but here they are yesterday chowing down with the kio & bluegills. as far as I can tell, I haven't lost a fish yet.

Rainbow trout are much hardier than people give them credit for with plenty of DO.

DO is most important for trout. I have fished lakes that were cold enough for trout and people would catch an occasional trout but a lack of good DO at cooler water temps hinder the trout and prevent them surviving the summer

Well, my surface water temperatures were way above the 70 degree temp that RBT are suppose to want. But, they nonetheless MADE IT THROUGH THE SUMMER. In cas your wondering, I am pumped. I have zero doubt that koi would survive the temperatures in my pond.

Great news MoMule!!! Maybe you'll get really lucky and They'll pull off a spawn near the cave entrance....We STLL need some pics of your new ponds!

Very exciting they survived...