ryhno

hi folks
can anyone advise on how hardy jap koi are as my pond is unheated and it would be very hard to cover it my pond is 2700 gallons with an average depth of three feet and a 3ft wide sump hole 4ft 6 deep my worry is that my fish are only young biggest being 7 inch and smallest about 3 inch i have 19 koi 90 % of them are jap ... im a bit worried that if we have a repeat of last years low temps for prolonged periods will i lose fish......

any sugestions would be gratefully recieved

faz201283

mine aint as big as yours pal but my koi are about the same size and mine aint heated either, since i put the canopy up and roofed it the heat holds in alot better, ive got green mesh (the stuff off building sites) on the sides which cut out all the wind so i dont have the worry of wind blasting over the surface area cooling it down but ill still be getting a solar cover like DHR to help


im just about to stain and treat all the timber and then ill take some pics

awh53

my pond is around 700 gallons and only 3 feet deep by 8 feet square i only covered a quarter of my pond last year (that was with a piece of polystrene sheet) and all my koi survived ok two were over 10inch now nearly 14inch most were only 2 or 3 inches long last year this year i plann to cover about half of it with polystrene and then use some garden fleece to cover all but about a two foot square i also lifted my air stone right to the top of the water i have 19 koi and 4 large goldfish one of which has a large fan tail (all fish range from 8inches to 14inches)

Davej

Hi Kev

No they are not that hardy, If the water gets cold enough you will suffer losses. Sure I read somewhere that a significant proportion of Koi purchased in the UK don’t survive their first winter.

Sorry to be blunt but best put it on the table.

Some form of contingency plan for those short periods when water temps are liable to get really critically low would be worth considering. Doesn’t need a lot heat wise, particularly if you could get a cover on.

Dave

ryhno

ok cheers guys

i will take it all in and have a good think about a back up plan just in case we get another winter like the last two .

regards to you all

kev