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Originally Posted by chachi  That is the first time I have heard to wait untill your pond stabilizes before spending too much on fish. I quess it has to cycle like an aquarium does right? The pond store told me I could safely add fish right away. I spent $70 on one fish from the pet store because he had size but the rest are less than that because they are small. I love them though and watch them like a hawk and would be heartbroken to lose one.
I agree about buying online and see on here often and I even had that perception once that is an accepted place to buy a pup. Unless you have been to the breeders house you will never know for sure you didnt just buy a puppymill dog. |
Yeah, I know, people condemn a pet store and see nothing wrong with buying from a website.
I did lose one and it did break my heart. This fish was so friendly and let me hand feed it. It takes a while before the pond stabilizes, you might have an overgrowth of algae or different other things until your plants are larger. You can safely add fish right away, and in fact, your pond will never stabilize without fish, but you might lose some in the beginning. Koi are very temperamental regarding water quality, and it needs it to be so much better than what goldfish can tolerate. The ammonia from the fish feeds the biofilter and this in turn works with the plants to make good healthy water. After about three years you have a self-sustaining ecosystem that you don’t have to do much besides pump and adding water. By the way, have you heard of koi clay? It does great things for clearing up water, and this can be really helpful when a pond is new or after a windstorm. It also is good for the fish to eat and they say their colors are better with the clay. It also keeps string algae in check which can be a real problem at first. You want a small growth of algae on your liner, it's very pretty, but it can quickly get out of hand and grow into large clumps when things aren't balanced.