RE: birds/ponds

Hope you quarantined those koi before releasing them. Lotsa of sick ones out
there lately and can kill off the entire pond...

Koi are definitely more personable than goldfish. If you don't have
predators, you might want to teach them to eat out of your hand... don't
worry, their teeth are way down in the bottom of their throat, so they suck
your finger, don't bite it. It also gives you the chance to check them for
sores or problems.

I have everything in my pond at the moment and is one reason we are draining
it. It is going back to being only a koi pond. Of course, I am sure the
egret and heron will be bringing something else again... I am very careful
with any new plant material brought in. I unpot, clean (give them a PP bath
too) trying to keep unwanted things out of there.

In basic terms, the eggs are in the bellies of your fish and the males have
to pin her down against something to push the eggs out and fertilize. Of
course, they also eat the eggs as well.... but somehow in my pond, not
enough of the fry get eaten! (too much cover obviously) You need to check
the mother, they sometimes get bad cuts from this.

If the babies are black, they are goldfish and will turn other colors down
the road... if they are clear, they are koi.

Donna



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On
> Behalf Of EvaTEsq@aol.com
> Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 9:52 PM
> To: gardenchat@hort.net
> Subject: Re: [CHAT] birds/ponds
> 
> LOL!  I did check the plants.  They fared ok.  When I saw  the fish this
> morning, they were mostly hitting the rocks and missing the  pots -- which
> kinda
> looked like it would hurt.  I also counted the fish --  they are all in
> the
> pond where they should be.
> 
> Donna, do you have only koi in your pond?  This is my first year with  koi
> (they are very small).  I have had only goldfish in the pond until a  few
> weeks
> ago when I fell in love with a couple of 2 inch ghost koi.  It is  the
> goldfish who are spawning.  I didn't see the koi anywhere.  I  guess they
> were trying
> to stay out of the way.
> 
> 
> Eva
> Long  Island, NY
> Zone 6/7
> 
> In a message dated 5/11/2005 9:01:37  P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> gossiper@sbcglobal.net writes:
> 
> 
> So Eva,  do you have any plants still in the pots tonight? When my bigger
> fish spawn  there is nothing safe in that pond... came home to floating
> pots
> on more  than one occasion. Might also want to check that no one got
> flipped
> out of  the pond too...
> 
> So I guess you will be looking for homes for fish soon  too....
> 
> I went to a class on koi. The last day we each got a sick koi,  did an
> ortopsy (sp?), and learned all the organs and stuff inside. Mine was  a
> female full of eggs. Amazing how many they have! BTW, to pass the class,
> I
> had to put everything back into the fish in the proper place. It was a
> very
> interesting class.
> 
> Donna
> And yes Kitty, I did pass the  class.
> 
> 
> >
> > Donna, is right.  They require a little  work here and there, but it's
> > *fun*
> > work.
> >
> > The  pond is really not a hassle, but definitely a GIANT DISTRACTION.
> I
> > find
> > that I get distracted when I'm supposed to be weeding  another gardening
> > area, and I have to walk past the pond to get  something out of the shed
> > ...
> > forget about it -- 15 minutes  easy wasted while I'm gazing at the pond,
> > watching
> > the fish do  their *fishy* things.
> >
> > I was late to work this morning because  I was watching the pond.  The
> > fish
> > were spawning like  CRAZY!  It was the most activity that I've ever
> seen
> >  from
> > these fish.  They were swimming so fast around the pond  and  smacking
> each
> > other around like crazy.
> >
> >
> > Eva
> > Long  Island, NY
> > Zone  6/7
> 
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