There are too many people who neglect their backyard. It is truly a shame because backyards have so many wonderful possibilities! One great way to make the area something you’ll really enjoy is …
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Filed under Koi Backyard Pond by on Mar 16th, 2008. Comment. 
Discuss – Small backyard garden ponds are usually low maintenance. The occasional debris from your pond can usually be trapped with a mechanical pre-filter, which is included with the SuperFlo pump.
If you are using a soft liner your water garden or fish pond can take any shape you like, square, round, oblong or just about anything else that your imagination can think of. If you are using a rigid or preformed pond then you are probably looking at a kidney shaped liner, this is the most popular. It is not the shape of the garden pond that gives it it’s charm or character, it is the water plants, fish and the plants that surround the pond.
Basically think of pond styles to be one of two formal and informal designs.
Formal pond styles have clean straight lines and geometric shapes. They have rigid borders made of brick, preformed tiles or rocks. Formal garden ponds are used as reflecting pools. Meaning they are very calm and reflect the surrounding trees and flowers. You don’t normally see this style of water garden in backyards.
Discuss – First thing is deciding the placement of the garden pond. This is entirely your opinion; some things to consider might be the layout of the land and shade surrounding the pond.
Rectangles and squares are thought of to be formal styles and the more they are stretched to being oval the more informal it looks. Which means kidney and pie shapes are informal styles.
Informal garden ponds have curving fluid lines that flow without defined edges into the surrounding gardens and vegetation. They have a more natural appearance and function. Unlike formal styles the plants are not used as a decoration or ornament but as the main feature. Waterfalls are normally added to this type of design. Edging compliments the landscaping which can be irregular and hilly. Use large rocks and river rocks on the bottom and edges of the pond, which makes it seem more natural.
Rectangles are the easiest to install, they are easier to dig a hole for and when using soft liners you only have to make a few folds in the corners. Preformed ponds like kidney shapes are even easier to install. Free formed, where you define the shape by digging and then lining with a soft pond liner are more difficult and the most expensive water gardens to install yourself. They require that you buy almost twice as much liner than you think you will need. If you are installing it yourself avoid shapes that produce arms or very irregular designs, it will be a nightmare trying to get the liners to fit.
Discuss – Building a garden pond requires a bit of an initial investment. Good equipment should be used, because once a pond is installed it will last many, many years.
Just remember what ever shape you choose, it will not be very apparent once the surrounding plants mature. So you see it is not that important, just go with the easiest to install and decorate with beautiful plants and fish. You can read more information about and pond kits and water gardening here.
Carry Staltz provides information on gardening and water features for Decorativewaterfountains.com. Landscaping using water gardens and fish ponds is a hobby and she brings her tips and ideas that have worked for her over the years to make you next project go smoother and easier.
Filed under Koi Ponds by on Mar 15th, 2008. Comment.
Discuss – The key to training your Koi to eat from your hand is patience and conditioning. Like any wild animal Koi have a natural distrust for anything that they think can hurt them, and you’re plenty big enough to do that as far as they are concerned.
Koi Carp and breeding for profit
Koi are amazing animals. They have evolved originally from common carp and were originally thought of as throw backs. The koi world has grown massively and is continuing to grow at an unprecedented rate. Years ago if you heard of someone spending £1000 on a fish you may have fell over, in this day and age this is commonplace.
Quick sum for you to get you interested.
Each kilogram of female koi will produce approximately 200000 eggs if you hatch out 100000 eggs and grow the koi to 2-3″ which takes approximately 120 days. You will end up with 100000 fish a value of 60p each trade. The cost of arriving at this point is approximately 10p per fish, you now have a profit of 50p per fish = £50000. I hear you ask “why doesn’t everyone do it” Firstly is knowledge, you do need a good degree of knowledge to do this. Secondly is holding capacity you will need a large pool or recirculation system to achieve this. Thirdly, it is a risky business, one thing goes wrong with the system and you loose your entire batch of fish.
So how do you start?
This is a long process and I will post these in 10 parts of ezine.
Part one.
Easy Spawning
Discuss – This is becuase KOI can grow quite large and therefore require more water in the pond for proper biological breakdown of waste. KOI are also more expensive (and harder to replace) than goldfish, so this should also be taken into account before filling your new pond full of KOI fish.
When spring is in the air water temperature is at about 15-20 degrees you will notice your fish may go off there food. You may also notice three fish swimming like an arrow around the pool. This is two male fish and the female. The male in front will be looking for a place to spawn. This is the time you put in you brushes. The brushes are like a toilet brush but much softer. These brushes must be placed in the shallow water approx 6-10″ deep.
When the fish are ready they will start to thrash over the brushes this normally happens in early morning.
After approximately one hour you will see the brushes are covered with eggs very tiny eggs.
The eggs need to be moved to a separate tank or old bath or the parents will eat them. It is best to treat the eggs with malachite to prevent fungus a quick dip is fine as you don’t want to starve the eggs of oxygen.
The bath or tank must be setup to have running water the flow needs to be 5 liters per minute (very low) you can pump this directly from you pond if you wish. When the water arrives at the tank use an old bed sheet to filter the water. The water needs to be as clean as possible or the tiny little particles will stick in the baby koi gills causing slow growth and death.
Discuss – Generally, it’s best to not have submerged plants in large pots, when also keeping KOI. The ideal KOI pond is much deeper than the average water garden, so the necessity for plants to help with water quality and shade is reduced.
The eggs will take approx 3-4days to hatch, then the real fun begins
Next article 18/10/06
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My name is Tim Warrington, I have been successfully setting up and building koi farms for over 8 years. I built my last fish farm in the desert for food fish, I have bred all sorts of koi/fish and sold them for massive profit, I am here to share this with you in 10 parts. |
Filed under Koi Natural Pond by on Mar 12th, 2008. 1 Comment.