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Losing My Favorite
Koi
(And Lessons Learned From It)
by Elmer Epistola
Posted: October 28, 2004
Why is it that every time one
of our koi dies, it happens to be our favorite one? I thought that
this was just one of those pretty clever things to say at a party when I
first heard it. After many years of koi keeping, however, it
seems to me that the saying may be true after all.
Just take that instance when I
lost my biggest koi some years ago. It was a pioneer in
my pond, being one of the first three authentic Japanese-born nishikigoi
(all were Sanke) I bought when I decided to get serious with the hobby.
It had perfect body conformation - truly a stunner when it passes
by.
The errors were simple, yet
fatal: overstocking and overfeeding. Buoyed by my success in
setting up a nice, big pond and gradually maturing it to a very
stable and healthy one, I decided at that time to add a few more koi
to my collection. By then my first koi had been around for a
couple of years already, and have grown and developed into really
beautiful fish. I wanted more of these elegant creatures, I
told myself.
So I added a koi. Then
one more. And more. The koi bug, it seems, had bitten me for
yet another time. I had difficulty controlling myself every
time I visited the koi store. In a span of one week, I think I
added ten koi. To complicate things, I just couldn't wait to
grow these ten newcomers into 20-inch jewels just like the
original inhabitants of my pond. So I fed them heavily twice a
day.
I was unknowingly poisoning my
koi to death by throwing too much food into the water. I
didn't check if there were any leftovers because I expected my
larger koi to gobble up everything. I've also stopped checking
the water quality of my pond, another common mistake of an
overconfident hobbyist. Lastly, I have grossly overestimated
the capacity of my filters. By the time I realized that the water
had turned really bad, I had lost five koi already, my biggest
pioneer included. It was such a sorry loss for me that I
couldn't eat nor sleep for days.
Lessons learned:
1) Having a mature and stable pond
doesn't mean that it will remain so forever, so
always make sure that your filters can
keep up with your pond's growing needs.
Adding a few fish can alter
the balance in your pond. In fact, even if no fish are added, the
continuous growth of the fish in your pond will eventually catch up with the
capacity limit of your original filters. Heavy feeding also results in
heavy waste production. Thus, always ask yourself whether your filters are still
up to the task, especially when changes occur.
Figure 1. Always ask yourself if
your filters are still capable
of meeting your pond's continuously growing
requirements
2)
Regular water quality checks are
indispensable, even if you
think that you already have the most stable pond in the world. Of course, the
frequency of water checks can be reduced as the pond becomes mature and stable,
but it should certainly not be stopped altogether. Water checks are also
required whenever changes are introduced to your pond.
Of course, I will also never forget the day
my favorite 16-inch Sandan Kohaku, also a Japanese original, jumped out of the
pond. It was already fried under the sun when I got to it.
That day I had to repair a leak in my main pond, so I temporarily crammed all my
koi into my quarantine pond. After ensuring that it was properly aerated,
I proceeded with the repair activities with confidence. After all, the
quarantine pond is big enough to hold the koi for a few days with proper
filtration and aeration.
My shock and horror were hard to contain
when I saw a stiff, brownish fish on the floor beside the quarantine pond when I
checked on my koi that afternoon. I was really praying that it was just
one of the local ones. But what did I tell you? Don't our favorite
koi always end up the victim when a mishap happens? Untold grief weighed
down on me when I confirmed that it was indeed my favorite koi that died.
Lessons learned:
3)
Koi are good jumpers, so be sure to always
keep them from jumping to their death.
A 12-inch wall height from the water line
is what's recommended by many koi hobbyists to fence in your fish, but this is
not enough if the koi really want to escape. Try to exceed this height by a few
more inches if you can. A net over the water may be a safer bet if you
have access to one.
4) Transferring koi to a new environment,
even if only temporarily, stresses them to the point of wanting to get out of
the water. Thus, when
transferring koi to another pond, try to replicate the old pond's conditions as
much as possible and acclimatize the koi to the new pond properly,
e.g., float thier container bags in the pond for 20 minutes before releasing
them. Also, take extra precautions to prevent them from jumping out of the
water whenever they are transferred to a new pond.
Figure 2. High pond walls will
prevent koi from
jumping out of the water
My final example of how I lost a favorite
koi involved another pioneer of mine, one of the three Sanke koi I bought when I
was starting out. At that time I bought some local (but good-looking) koi
from Cartimar, for the simple reason that I was excited to come across local koi
that are indistinguishable from Japan-born ones. Unfortunately, I hadn't
noticed that these koi had fish lice (so beware when buying local koi in
Cartimar!).
I had the good sense of quarantining these
local koi for two weeks before mixing them in with the rest in the main pond.
What I failed to do was to eradicate the fish lice while the fish were under
quarantine. Soon enough, most of the koi in my main pond had lice on their head
and skin. I netted out the infested ones and put them in my quarantine
pond for treatment.
The treatment went well for the next seven
days. Unfortunately, one fateful night, the lone pump of my quarantine
pond conked out. Without any form of aeration, the koi in the
quarantine pond were dead the next morning.
Lessons learned:
5)
Never buy koi that are sick or infested by parasites.
Of course, to be able to succeed at this, you need to be familiar with
what to look for when inspecting fish you're planning to buy. Thus, be diligent
enough to learn what symptoms to avoid. For starters, please check out
this link:
Koi Diseases. Also, try to choose the koi stores
you're buying fish from. Never buy from poorly maintained stores,
especially when there are emaciated and sick-looking koi swimming with your
prospective purchase.
6)
Quarantine your newly purchased fish for 3
weeks before releasing them into your main pond.
Koi experts have always given this advice -
to quarantine new koi to ensure that they're not bringing any unknown disease
into your pond. Unfortunately, it is not easy to comply with. You
need a second pond, albeit a smaller one, to keep the new koi in for three
weeks. This second pond will need its own filtration system as well.
Even the excitement of letting your new acquisitions swim beside your original
koi is difficult to contain. But this is a 'must-do' in order to protect
your original koi from diseases that they are not immune to. Contaminating
your main pond will be a much bigger headache in the long run.
Figure 3. Quarantine tanks prevent
new fish from
contaminating your main pond
7)
Always use a fool-proof and redundant
filtration/aeration system.
Things break down, and pumps are no
exception. If they do, and the pond is left with no aeration, then
catastrophe is not far behind. Under such a situation, the bigger (and
therefore more expensive) fish are most vulnerable to lack of oxygen.
Thus, it is better to have two smaller pumps running your filters than just
having a large one. If one of the pumps breaks down, then the koi
have a chance of surviving till morning when you can correct the problem.
Include aerators and bubblers in your pond system to ensure adequate oxygenation
of the water.
Figure 4. Adding air pumps to
your pond can help your
koi survive during times of emergency
It wasn't easy documenting how I've lost my
favorite koi, but I felt it had to be done for others to learn from these
personal experiences. It also helps to be reminded once in a while of the
serious attention the koi keeping hobby warrants. Although losing a koi
happens even to the best of us, due diligence is needed to minimize the losses.
So it's true. We only lose our
favorite koi. The best way not to lose them, therefore, is not to lose
any.
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