My sister bought a new house recently and inherited a (rather dinky) Koi pond. No one in my family has any experience maintaining this thing. I think there are a few goldfish, one or two koi, and im not sure what else. The water is getting pretty murky and I don't know what's even in the thing filter wise or how to clean it. Basically the previous owner built this thing a month or two prior to selling the house and now we're stuck with it. Do any of you have any idea how to maintain something like this? Or maybe know any professionals in the Houston area who could come take a look and tell us what the hell to do. I feel really bad for the fish and want to do something for them. I think the pond is too small and would like to build something bigger for my sister as a present. It'll also be nice for the fish as well. I have no idea how to go about any of this.
If there's only a couple of big fish, don't worry about overcrowding. Koi and goldfish are carp, i.e. they eat moss and algae and whatnot. What part of town are you in? There's a jillion outdoor-pond cleaning services. Google it.
The "pond" is really tiny. I'd say something like 3 feet in length. I highly doubt that's actually big enough for a Koi. The previous owner was pretty annoying for this and I really feel bad for the fish. My sister lives in Atascosita. My main concern right now is getting the thing cleaned but I want to build something bigger as soon as possible.
Since it's a small pond, it won't be hard to clean. First you have to determine what type of filtration system the pond has (carbon filter, filter replacement, etc). Depending on that, this will help consider how often you will have to physically clean your pond. If you have a good system, you'll probably just clean it 4 times a year (every 3 months) When it comes to physically cleaning, you could probably use something as simple as this to siphon the water out. They're are probably about $10 I'm guessing. To siphon, you have to use your mouth (similar to getting gas out of a car) or understand the logic of trying siphon by bending the hose a certain way to get the flow of water moving. I'll admit, i sometimes resort to sucking. Spoiler You can leave the fish in the pond, and concentrate on siphoning the gravel area at the bottom of the pond (be carefull and don't siphon the fish). the gravel will be where most of the poo will be. Take out only about half to 2/3rds of the water. then put in some liquid chlorine remover and add water. I believe you could find an automatic cleaner (instead of using your mouth to siphon) but if your pond is small theres not much to it. Good additions to the pond would be a Plecostomus (aka Plecos). They are algae eaters and also act as scavengers to eat off the pond floor Spoiler They can also get pretty big, so keep that in mind Spoiler Cat fish from pet stores are good scavengers too, but can also be aggressive and eat non-aggressive fish (such as gold fish). If you had Koi and they got big enough, the cat fish would leave them alone. Also, try to keep leaves out of the pond and net them out. They can chemically imbalance the water and hurt the fish
How would I determine the filtration system? The previous owner left behind "beneficial bacteria" and "chlorine remover" (ph balancer?). Would it be okay to put the beneficial bacteria in while the fish are in there?
Honestly don't know anything about the bacteria, but if its meant for the pond then i don't see how it could hurt the fish. PH is also another important factor. As I don't actually own a pond, i can't tell you how much PH is necessary (needs to be either high or low, i'm sure you can google this). But it shouldn't be difficult, trust me
This person has an advertisement in the The Lone Star Koi Club newsletter: Rolf Nelson - Nelson Water Gardens (website) 1502 Katy Fort Bend County Road Katy, TX 77493 Telephone: 281-391-4769
Take a picture of the filtration system, "maybe" i can help explain that. EDIT: Also, since its such a small pond, you could just resort to Mollies and Guppies instead of Gold Fish. Gold fish are really dirty fish and cause you to clean the pond regularly PS: In high school and college I used to work in a pet store, mainly with freshwater fish. That's where my knowledge is from
does your sister actually want a koi pond? seems like a lot of work and money for something that is not really necessary. my advice would be to rip it out and fill in the hole. and koi can get pretty big. a three foot pond is going to be cramped for them. i cant believe the seller put that in right before moving! who would think that is a good idea?
She doesn't. But it's there already and my little niece seems to have gotten attached to the fish. 3x2x3 is super tiny. I don't know what that idiot was thinking putting something like that before moving. -_- Anyway thanks everyone for the advice. I think I learned how to keep it effectively clean and the algae down for now. I started the process today and hopefully all goes well. The Koi are very small atm and the space isn't an issue as of yet. But as I mentioned earlier my next goal is to build a properly sized pond for her to transfer these guys into. Apparently the cost of maintenance and utilities isn't that bad after the initial investment.
Did your sister have an idea of what to do about the small pond? I'm assuming she saw it and knew about it in all the stages of house buying. I'd just try to find an adopter for the fish, to be honest. Since there aren't a lot of fish in there, process shouldn't take too long. And your niece could probably even take care of the goldfish, by putting them in a fish bowl. It would give the koi a better (read: bigger) home, and the decision to do something with the small pond will be a lot easier, since there aren't fish lives to think about. Also, maybe the previous owner installed the pond, thinking he'd / she'd be there for a while, but maybe got fired as soon as the pond was installed. Shouldn't call people idiots unless you know the whole story. (Unless they did actually build the pond knowing they'd be moving out. Then yeah, idiots, lol)
It wasn't there when she first viewed the house or when she put the offer in to buy the house. Near the end stages it was there. So yeah, pretty much an idiot. Also, idk about that idea. Goldfish aren't meant to live in bowls. That's messed up. And all of the fish have obviously been through enough stress. I'd rather just build them a new home. After spending time researching today, I think the biggest cost to me will be buying a new filter system. The rest should be okay and I can probably self-build a decently large one with a cool waterfall and everything for $700-800 if that. I have some ideas. I'll let you guys know how it goes.
That's a bit strange that the owner decided to make a change to the house, essentially, after your sister already put in her offer. I mean, wouldn't the seller be afraid that the buyer would retract the offer, because of a renovation? Owner's logic smells...fishy. And yeah, I didn't realize how bad bowls were, for goldfish. Googled the idea of fish bowls just now, and wow. Thought bowls were ideal for small fish...guess not. You sure you want to give up on the idea of adopting the fish out? You said your sister didn't really care for the fish - is she warm to the idea of taking care of them?
bad advices all around from TMac'n owner likely had a body buried and used koi pond as cover. fill it in, give the fish away. creating a pond is difficult and pros do them improper all the time. you will waste money fixing what the owner did by hiring pros then you will waste money fixing what the pros did by hiring someone else. then when all that goes to crap it will cost far more to remove than the glorified pothole you are currently stuck with. best left to people who keep them as their own hobby.
I built one at my house, Just had a pump, filter and UV light and it functioned just fine. I really enjoyed it, but about once a year a raccoon would get in to it and eat all my fish. After a couple of times of that it's now just a waterfall. I do get frogs and tadpoles in it in the Spring. You have to scoop out a lot of the eggs though, they lay masses of sticky goo.
