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Hi, I hope you can help me, because
I've been trying to figure out if this is feasible,
and I'd really appreciate your input.
I live in Iowa City, Iowa, and I
have a (somewhat) large pond in my backyard. It is roughly
220 feet by 100 feet. It is in the remains of an old
limestone quarry, and is fed in the winter by an underground
spring at one end. The water has an average depth of
3 feet, with a deepest point about 10 feet.
Our house sits on the edge of the
quarry, and we often spend time on the deck looking
down at the fish in the pond. There is a very healthy
(some HUGE) carp that live in the pond, and while I
know koi arent the same thing as grass carp, I can't
help imagine how beautiful they would be in this pond.
I'm just trying to figure out if you think it would
be possible to put fish in this pond. I'm not looking
for any prize winning koi, but I believe that some pond
quality koi would look really nice.
I'm sorry to bother you, but I've
been doing lots of internet research, and I just havent
found anything like this. I dont know if its because
its not really possible, or just that no one has tried
anything like this. If you could let me know what you
think, I would really appreciate it.
Thank you very much,
Shawn Sato
Hey, Shawn!
What you have there, by midwest
backyard ponding standards, is a *gigantonormous*
pond with built-in filtration. It is what us urban-dwelling
techno-driven hobbyists cry ourselves to sleep over
every night. Doing a rough calculation, you've got
about 600,000 gallons in there. I'd be amazed if there
were not multiple other native species of fish in
there as well as the grass carp, simply on the basis
of egg transport in on the feathers and feet of the
waterfowl that must be visiting on a regular basis.
If the water is replenished in
the winter by a spring, I suspect that it is fed year-round.
As long as the outlet does not feed a natural waterway,
what you have there is technically the same as any
other backyard pond, just a little (gulp) bigger and
older. It is an artificial construct, with carp already
in it.
Given that grass carp are a much
tougher organism than koi, (not having been inbred
for two hundred years) koi should survive fairly well
in your back yard, with a couple of cautions. First,
don't expect to see much of them. Unless your quarry
water is gin-clear (which I doubt), you won't see
*any* fish unless it is right up under your deck.
When small, koi are "hard-wired" with "evade
and run" in their teeny-tiny brains, and will
tend to stay near the deeper parts of the water.
Grass carp and native fish are
the colors they are for a reason. Camoflage. Koi are
best described as "targets" under these
circumstances, and any fishing bird worth his feathers
(kingfishers, cormorants, bald eagles, herons, egrets,
sandhill cranes) and every raccoon in the county will
be coming over for lunch pretty soon, with koi at
the top of the menu, simply because they are easy
to see. This problem will be worsened if you feed
them off your deck with floating food, since the koi
will recognize any disturbance at the water's surface
as something to eat, and will become part of the Great
Circle of Life very quickly as a result.
Given that even "garden
center" koi run $25-$50 dollars apiece, I don't
think that it's a wise use of funds.
Bob Passovoy
President
MPKS
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