Running before walking

[Duncan]

Running before walking

A good friend of mine (No Names) text me Saturday saying he had lost one of his larger fish and he did not think he was cut out for this hobby. This is not the first time he has mentioned a disillusionment with the hobby, so I guess he is having second thoughts.

He has been in ponding for a couple of years thrown loads of money at it in the form of bakki’s, heating, RO etc you get the picture, without I suspect really knowing why he should have spent or employed all this kit he probably just read on forums that this was the way to go and let’s face it, there is no shortage of folks pedalling the latest and greatest in filtration and they all decry the opposition, so my Friend went for it whole sale.

If he is reading this I truly mean no disrespect, I simply suspect he has fallen into the same old trap a hell of a lot of folks fall into and that is they see a koi pond and fall in love with it and think it’s a simple matter of a hole in the ground full of water a filter of types then add fish. Again forgive me for saying, and an attitude that goes along the lines of “water, fish, how hard can it be?” They then proceed to load it to the gunnels with fish to the point it’s impossible to see any free space without a fish or several fish in it.

Well this hobby is hard! All fish keeping be it a pond or aquarium is hard and requires a commitment to learn the hobby. At times it’s not very rewarding in fact down right demoralising at times. There is no substitute for learning your hobby from the ground up, koi health, filtration and most important water chemistry. No amount of throwing TECH at it or money will save you from health problems if you do not study hard and learn your craft and the right way to go about things.

For instance: you’re running a closed circuit recycling aquatic system, meaning there is little refreshing of the water column. Now everyone knows about the nitrogen cycle. Folks put fish in, begin to cycling process in 8 weeks they add loads of fish thinking it cycled what could go wrong? Well although the system has cycled it still needs to build bio mass to the newly acquired loading after adding still more fish. If you add to many fish to soon the filter is always playing catch up and can take years to settle properly.

Remember koi in effect live in their own toilet and you’re trying to establish a complete eco system, an eco-system where good and bad bacteria live in check with one another in the water column. Your aiming to strike a balance where the koi’s immune system holds all pathogens at bay, and that’s takes years, not weeks. It takes several years of adding fish one or two max at a time and then leaving for a good three, four months before adding anything else. Building a complete eco system takes, time, dedication and not over loading your system to the point the fish are crowded and polluting the water to a rich pathogenic nutrient.

Another thing that’s strange folks spend literally thousands on koi systems yet still have no quarantine, that’s crazy! Go into any koi dealers and ask them to show you their quarantine, (if they will) all koi dealers have them. If it were that easy none of the dealers would have them, that alone in its self should tell you something. If they were not needed they would turn that space over to pure fish sales.

Look I’m not trying to preach here I myself was certainly guilty of some of it at some point, but I’m simply saying if you throw tech and money at the hobby and little else your heading for heart ache
before you add a piece of equipment to your pond ask yourself why your adding it and what’s it going to give you in the long run. If you can do without it go without it till you understand it.

Understand pond maintenance why it’s essential and why it’s needed, learn to understand what it gives back for all this work, no amount of Tech can compensate for good pond maintenance
And last a pond with few fish will ALWAYS out perform a pond where fish are fighting for space crowding causes immeasurable problems not least fish losses and other health issues, if you crowd a pond you will permanently have your ulcer kit in one hand and parasite treatments in the other.

This is an expensive and at times a heart breaking hobby save your money add fish slowly very slowly I know it’s maybe not cool and you want to see loads of fish, but it is better for your fish. Try and stick to the 50” rule that’s ( in fully mature pond) 50” of fish to every 1000 gallons that could be 2 x 25” or 4 x 12.5” and so on. Go out today and try and measure your fish and see if you fit into the 50” rule

If you observe some basic rules you can have fun and enjoyment if you don’t it will cost you loads and end in tears.

[Manky Sanke]

Well said Duncan, I can't add anything to that other than I wholeheartedly agree.

[Glenn]

Well put Dunc, good reading