|
I am thinking of digging
a farm pond on my property and putting Koi in it. The pond
would be for our enjoyment but also to possibly raise Koi
for resale. Also, could I put other fish (Cat, Bass, or panfish)
in the pond. Would the Koi co-habit with these fish?
Well. Ambitious.
As far as farm ponds are concerned, I can
tell you that koi, being carp, will survive if the pond is
big enough and deep enough and has decent aeration, but they
will be subject to predation from all sides, and of all the
carp subspecies, koi are least able to survive the challenges
of living in the wild.
First, they are an entirely inbred and
man-made creature. Their ability to withstand parasitic and
stress-related diseases is impaired. Their bright colors attract
the eye, not only ours, but also the eyes of kingfishers,
herons, sandhill cranes, ospreys, bald eagles, cattle egrets,
raccoons and 'possums (though the last tend to be too dam'
dumb to do anything with the information!). Koi are naturally
curious and will tend to swim towards anything new in the
water, and as such, become "lunch" very easily.
It's a lot like introducing your prize hunting dog into a
pack of wolves' territory with no place to hide.
Second, while koi are nonaggressive, they
are very good at reproducing. Any of your critters that survive
the challenges of predation (which means that you'll select
for those fish most like their ancestors, grey carp) will
stay deep and you'll never see them. While they are down there,
they will reproduce, and within a very few years, will overpopulate
the pond. What tends to follow this is a sudden die-off and
all the fun of disposing of a couple of tons of dead fish.
It should also be noted that koi are notoriously inefficient
at food processing. They eat nonstop and produce huge quantities
of waste products. A look at most successful hobbyist ponds
will demonstrate that the major investment of the hobbyist
was the biofiltration system.
Fish for resale is even more problematic.
Water gardeners come in a wide spread of enthusiasms. Those
that look for fish to admire in our ponds and take to koi
shows tend to be -er- picky about where the fish come from,
and the fanciest want to know the bloodlines.
Carp will cohabit with most fish, but you
need to remember that panfish tend to be predators. Especially
bass, who will look upon the small to medium koi as lunch,
and bluegills, who consider fish fry of all types as delicious.
If you are buying show quality koi for breeding (at $5000
to$40,000 per fish for the best bloodlines {no I am not
kidding!}) a farm pond is not a good place to put them.
Speaking of farm ponds...
I'm an ex-farm boy myself (Starke Co.,
IN) and if I'm thinking what you are thinking, what you plan
is your basic hole in the ground at the lowest point on your
property. I can not begin to tell you what a bad environment
that will be. It will be big enough to attract ducks and geese,
and while they are pretty, they carry countless parasites
and communicable diseases from elsewhere. A serious koi keeper
is ultra-paranoid when it comes to these problems, and flat
will not purchase fish from a random farm pond. Most farm
ponds, unless they are spring-fed, tend to be stagnant, and
murky. No oxygen gets to the bottom and anaerobic conditions
prevail. Fish die quickly in these conditions if the water
is deep. If it's too shallow, temperature changes will cause
unacceptable stresses. Farm ponds tend to slope gradually
from shallow to deep, and this form of construction encourages
wading predators as mentioned above.
The lowest point on the property will be
a target for runoff, too. Any fertilizer, weed killer, insecticide
or other pollutant in or on the surrounding soil will end
up in the pond. If it rains heavily and floods, your fish
are gone.
Don't expect your farm pond to be crystal
clear, either. It'll have a mud bottom and it'll look like
mud, at least the parts of it not filled with microscopic
and hair algae. You'll be tempted to use chemicals to control
this. Also a bad idea. Once the chemicals are in they never
come out. Remember too that stagnant water is perfect for
raising mosquitoes.
Please do not misunderstand. I'm not "anti-farm
pond". They serve a specific purpose in the overall ecology
of a farming system. If large enough and deep enough, many
panfish will survive happily there if they are adapted to
the conditions and water management is competent. Farm ponds
are not a place for show-quality koi, though, and carp of
any description can put a significant strain on an otherwise
healthy and balanced pond ecology.
Your best bet for ongoing education would
be to find a reasonably local koi hobbyist society or a water
gardening club, join it, and start learning about the animals
and the challenges. A visit to a working koi fishery (Kloubec
Fisheries in Amana, IA is fairly close to you and has
a nice website) might also help.
Hope this helps.
Bob Passovoy
President
Midwest Pond and Koi Society
|
