Koi fans

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

been thinking about the garden now that im almost recovered from my massive business failure! I used to keep Koi, and had been growing on a Hi Utsuri for a few years, I bought her as a baby @£70.00 and only hand sized, she grew to about 5lb in wieght then we had a powercut while I was out and she with others suffocated due to the air pump stopping for 8 hours on a warm august day:thumbdown:

 

i have longed to start my collection of Koi again, and bonsais that I lost in a drought while on holiday (I know, but lessons learnt)

 

Any way, eventualy I will add the construction of the new super pond, but for now, here is a clip of my favourite Koi style, the Hi Ustsuri. (orange/hi, and utsuri/black

 

Stunning fish, and its got me well fired up for some hardcore earthworks!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6vvTXQ_imA]YouTube - Jumbo Koi - 26"- 28" Hi Utsuri[/ame]

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

here is another show stopper from Breeders Dainichi

 

nothing will chill the soul like an hour in the company of these beautiful creatures

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goOuiAu8Eu8&NR=1]YouTube - All Japan Champion 2007[/ame]

[Daniël Bos]

Not criticising you or the fish, but it strikes me as odd that a person such as yourself who advocates the preserving of ecosystems rather than just some elements within them can keep fish and rely on our legendary power supply to keep them alive.

There must be something I'm missing (probably rather a lot) but I've never understood why Koi keepers have such amounts of complicated filtration and aeration plant etc when there's a whole ecosystem you could create that would be much more resilient.

 

I do agree it's nice to sit and watch them, for hours some times.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Not criticising you or the fish, but it strikes me as odd that a person such as yourself who advocates the preserving of ecosystems rather than just some elements within them can keep fish and rely on our legendary power supply to keep them alive.

There must be something I'm missing (probably rather a lot) but I've never understood why Koi keepers have such amounts of complicated filtration and aeration plant etc when there's a whole ecosystem you could create that would be much more resilient.

 

I do agree it's nice to sit and watch them, for hours some times.

 

 

@ the end of the day. koi are highly bred and require a bit of "special attention"

 

and I think they are worth the effort!

[janey]

I've had koi in the past, but only the cheapie "mongrels" from the garden centre.

 

While I agree that they are beautiful and I can easily lose hours watching them, I much prefer the aquascape atianable with a freshwater tropical set up and our pond is has now been returned to the wildlife.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

oh stuff the lot of you!

 

I love em, so raspberries

[janey]

oh stuff the lot of you!

 

I love em, so raspberries

 

:lol:

 

You can go and contemplate zen thoughts in your Japanese Garden when you think we're all being mean and ganging up on you x

 

I think they're beautiful and I can understand why you love them so much. They're just not for me.

[Tom2020]

My uncle has a large Koi pond Mix of all of them Lovely fish Think his pond is about 12ftLong 10wide and 6-7ft Deep All raised think he has over 20fish in there some large and some small most beautiful thing i have ever seen the way its all laid out and the fish inside

[Ross Beaumont]

iv always wanted some of these mabey when i get my own place ill get round to it one day . and they are both grand fish

[Gollum]

Yes koi are worth it.

One of my favourite is the shiro utsuri.

Yes the main problem with keeping them is the filtration.

My set up is the main pond has an overflow into a side trough that has a wide range of water plants in it to remove the nitrates, then it is pumped through a UV filter and then back into the main pond, i find this works very well.