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Koi fish are a great to have. They are also known to
help you to relax and relieve stress. Koi are great to watch when they are
feeding. Although Koi will eat many natural food sources such as algae and other
natural pond residents, the greatest pleasure is feeding them yourself.
They look like piranhas at feeding time, churning the water, jumping,
they can perform like porpoises, walking along the water's surface on their
fins. Once you hear the sucking sound of Koi sucking down food you'll never
forget it. Koi will even swim up on lily pads to get trapped food.
They are very smart, you can train them to eat out of your hand. They are by
nature bottom rooting and feeding carp. You can feed them floating dry food. The
food typically runs $1 to $2 per pound. I have found floating feeding rings add
to the enjoyment. They learn to "hang out" around the feeding ring.
Any sources of water runoff feeding your pond which could contain large
concentrations of insecticides, herbicides, etc. could be a serious problem. You
would need to control and divert such runoff.
Koi stay healthy by having a large pond to live in.You need to test the water
quality for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, carbonate hardness, salinity, pH,
oxygen concentration etc., is an important and frequent requirement. The water
quality must be kept high.
There are parasites, fungal, viral and bacterial infections to be sure,
but they can be kept under control with good observation and some testing, such
as microscopic examination of skin scrapings, small pieces of gill tissue, and
an occasional autopsy. You may need to hire help in this area.
Most remedies are used in the ppm concentration, so even large ponds are
fairly reasonable to treat. Some sick Koi will require injections. Fortunately,
when they get sick they are easy to catch. Koi are comfortable in water with
around 0.1% salt, which is low enough not to bother most pond plants. 0.3% salt
is supposed to keep most parasites under control, but that doesn't always work
as well as some claim, and the higher salt concentration can play havoc with
some pond plants.
Koi are easy to raise,a big pond is not necessarily requirement to keep Koi.
Some enjoy Koi in small few hundred gallon tank or even in an aquarium. In
addition, unlike other animals, it is all right even if we do not feed them for
a week or so.
There are more than 80 varieties in the same Nishikigoi spices. It is
truly enjoyable to watch colorful Koi with red, white, black or gold swim around
in a pond.
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