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cdeakle

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I know nothing of frshwater fish. I'm strictly a salt guy. I have a co-worker that knows I'm into fish and wanted to know If I could find an answer for her question.

She wanted to know what if any other fish can she keep in her Koi pond and what other fish would fair well through the winter and summers.

Thanks for your help!!!
 

fishfanatic2

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Koi and goldfish are the primary choice for ponds. How big is her pond? Koi get very large but Im pretty sure they arent too aggresive.

As for winters, it depends how deep the pond is. If the pond is shallow enough to freeze thru then the fish will have to be taken inside, but if able to withstand freezing then your fine. There are many varieties of goldfish/koi, but if you want more variety you could try white clouds, but i dont believe theyll last very long in a pond full of koi. HTH :D
 
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Anonymous

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As I said in my reply to your post on the reef board, Koi exist for a reason. It's all about what the fish looks like from above. Nothing else really does the job if you're speaking of fish that will live through the winter except for comets or goldfish. Although, there are other fish that will live.

Jim
 
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Anonymous

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Depends on how cold the pond gets. Albino channel catfish are one option, big ones will eat small koi if they fit in the mouth but fish the same lenght are safe. At a LFS in Germany I saw Koi with some large sturgeon in the store display pond. They also had albino sturgeon for sale. Fish like golden orfe are another cold water fish as long as you don't live in CA. Small sunfish like pumpkin seeds could also be used. Browseing through a LFS you might find various minnows and of course there are the weather loaches.
 
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Anonymous

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Sturgeon get huge and are innapropriate for most ponds you're likely to be talking about. Channel catfish also get rather large, and put out a fair amount of waste, so they need a large pond as well. They also tend to stir up sediments.
Sunfish will live, but don't look so hot from above.
Koi are the most popular pond fish for a reason, and all things considered given the parameters of the question, best stick with them or comets.

Jim
 

brandon4291

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It's possible this co-worker is kinda like my grandparents are with their pond--they like the general idea of keeping a fish/plant/waterfall 'scape but are not as concerned with the specifics of the hobby the professionals look for (asymmetrical markings on the koi, specific koi varieties etc) It is possible they were just told that koi are the common fish stocked in ponds due to their size, color and tolerance of pond conditions. My g'parents asked me the same question which is what led me to believe they aren't really going for koi-specific science: "What else can we keep in there?" I agree with the bioloading/long term implications on the fish mentioned above. However, if your colleague is interested in finding out the pros and cons of possible pondmates I'd like to throw in the common Dojo (loach) sold in most petstores. Japanese koi gardens commonly stock the Dojo for reasons other than bright coloration, in fact it is a very common koi pondmate due to it's potential size, trainability & interesting behavior. The Dojo has been used to predict weather changes as their lateral line system is in close tune with barometric pressure and so is their behavior--they can act up quite clearly upon impending inclement weather. So, as far as pondmates go, did you ever think a little brown loach sold even in Wal Mart pet sections had such a useful pond lineage?
 
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Anonymous

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Just remember koi ain't small fishies :lol: The koi with the sturgeon were good meter plus fish. Weather loaches aka Dojos also come in a gold morph.
 

JeffB

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Koi comets and Shubunkin gldfish will work. ALb Channel woudlw ork but I agree with the above poster they will and do eat smaller fish. If it will fit in its mouth it will get it



Jeff
 

Mouse

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This freind of mine just added a Bristlenose catfish to his koi pond. He preveously had it in his Aquarium, it was two feet long by the time he was moved, aclimatised slowly indoors and then released. Sturgeon are another fish people put in with Koi, but here in blighty you gotta have a licence for them, as they belong to Queenie, allong with all the Swans.
 
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Anonymous

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Koi and goldfish may interbreed, the resulting fry are usually somewhat undesirable. The true answer to your question really depends on what zone this person lives in. The fish can be overwintered in cold/freezing zones if the pond is heated, MANY folks opt to bring the fish inside for the winter.

As for pond-mates, heck, when I was a kid my little sister's guppies went on a breeding FRENZY (all fancies). It was during an El Nino year, and we ended up netting a bunch of 'em up and putting them in a pond that had developed because of the rain. They lived as long as there was sufficient water (which was gone by next spring).

In our small pond (250gals.) we have one awful koi (not entirely malformed, but to my eye close enough) and several pretty comets. What we've really put our effort into are the plantings, with lotus, papyrus, water lettuce, and some kind of reed.. along with some others I'm drawing a blank on.

Tell your co-worker to be prepared for the summer ulcers (furunculosis). Steven Pro had linked me last year to some sites outlining treatment for it over on wetwebfotos.com/talk, but I've since lost it. S/he should be prepared, as it's an ugly disease. Our koi pulled through it last year, though we'd thought for SURE it was dead. Come spring, out popped this fish more than twice the size it had been! (This pond is in SoCal.)
 
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Anonymous

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FWIW the two species offered for sale in the US are most commonly the California (White) sturgeon, and less common the shovelnose sturgeon. The Ca sturgeon is a BIG fish! The shovelnose is a small fish, by sturgeon standards, only getting about three feet long. Yes you can make caviar from both. BTW thesame russian that introduced how to induce spawning in sturgeons also came up with a method of obtaining the roe by c-section thus sparing the life of the fish.
 
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Anonymous

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cdeakle":1dm8qf2u said:
I know nothing of frshwater fish. I'm strictly a salt guy. I have a co-worker that knows I'm into fish and wanted to know If I could find an answer for her question.

She wanted to know what if any other fish can she keep in her Koi pond and what other fish would fair well through the winter and summers.

Thanks for your help!!!

i could give ya a nice long list, but i won't, since you never liked me anyway :twisted:
 
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Anonymous

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LIke i said in the GRD when you posted this...Trout..you live in Washington, you could easily keep trout given the pond is large enough...if not Brook trout, sunfish, bluegills...I think Sturgeon gets a little too big for a home pond...ive seen sturgeon and they arent small fish by any means...Trout will look the best from above since thats the reason people keep Koi...
 

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