How To Raise Koi Fish In A Pond?

Koi fish are renowned as an easy-to-raised specie and if raising them successfully, you might earn a fortune from them.

However, there are still some certain requirements that you should keep in mind before bringing them home, such as pond sizes, expenses, living environments, and how to feed them. Rest assured, all will be told in this article.

Things To Consider Before Raising Koi Fish In Your Pond

Costs

Raising koi fish is quite expensive. The cost here is not just about the expense you’ll have to spend to buy a Koi fish but also the extra fees to provide it with an ideal living environment.

As you might know it or not, Koi fish keeps growing throughout their life, which means it gets bigger and bigger, even up 4’ and weighing around 15 pounds (the world’s largest is 90 pounds). Besides, they can live in excess of 100 years but commonly would be within 30-50 years.

The price ranges for Koi mainly depend on their size and marking and lack of defects, frequently starting at $15 for a small one up to $1000+ for a bigger.

The ideal environment for them to live in should be 1000+ gallons with at least 3’ depth.

Pond size

An 8’x6’ pond with 3’ depth will yield around 1077 gallons of water, and that measurement is just enough for no more than 5 average-sized ones.

The more Koi fish, the bigger the pond.

For example, for a pond of 15 Koi fish, it must be at least 3200 gallons of volume.

Living Environments

Koi can grow both indoors and outdoors as long as your tank/pond has a reasonable size and retains contact between water and air.

A natural way is to take advantage of background plants that can directly release oxygen into the water, such as macrophytes, water violet, curled pondweed, and slender club rush. Choose low-maintenance plants to save time.

Or, a great alternative to balance the contact between water and air is using a de-icer or bubbler.

A waterfall or fountain is also a good idea as well. To help with pond water changes, you can install a bottom drain.

Last but not least, don’t forget to protect Koi fish from outside potential predators, like using electric fencing or netting.

How To Raise Koi Fish In A Pond

To create a Koi fish pond, it is actually not difficult at all!

All the materials you need for the installing process could be easily found around the house, at the pet store, or local building supply. If not, finding online Koi retailers is a good way to save effort and time.

The best place to dig a Koi pond should below and in a shaded place, like near bushes or under a roof/tree. That said, ensure the fish receives enough amount of natural light daily or you can use UV lights during the winter instead.

If you have a raised garden in your backyard, it is perfect to consider building an above-ground pond.

Koi’s Diet

This is easy because Koi fish are omnivorous.

It can eat fruits, cereal, vegetables, algae, larva, eggs of insects, floating fish feed (bought from pet stores or supply stores), insects, bugs, and more.

If you build an ecologically balanced fishpond, you don’t need extra feeding for them. Otherwise, make sure to supply enough food for them but remember to not overfeed Koi because it might result in some infective and bacterial issues.

When bringing your fish from the pet store, local supply store, or Koi farm, feed them immediately. During these early stages, you can use specific food pallets for Koi fish to train them getting habituated with specific food types.

You can also train them to eat out of your hands to create a connection between you and your Koi.

Health Care

Domesticated Koi normally have a weak immune system because they have been inbred for more than 200 years for diverse colors.

From that point, make sure to continuously watch them during feeding times to check if they are lethargic. If your fish has one of the following symptoms, it might be suffering some potential health issues:

• Lathery
• Seclusion from other fish
• Lack of appetite

If you find out a fish appearing sick, isolate it right then and seek proper treatment.

Keeping the pond water clean, on the other hand, is essential to raise them healthily. Otherwise, if they have been injured, they are riskily vulnerable to bacteria and infected by parasites.

How To Keep Water Fresh?

Aside from the two options we’ve mentioned above to naturally keep pond water clean (add plants and avoid overfeeding the fish), there are some others.

For example, clean out debris before they decay and remain fish population. Koi eat a lot, meaning that they waste a lot. Too much fish waste in a limited pond will gradually release poison compounds, like ammonia.

Besides, consider installing a proper filtration system in your pond. To learn more, read this ultimate guide.

Or, you can try installing a Nano media reactor, a UV sterilizer. Choosing a proper size pump is also important.

Conclusion

Whether you want to raise Koi as a pet fish or for commercial purposes, providing them a good living habitat is key to help them grow happily. Remember that only those older, bigger, and prettiest ones with the least imperfects fetch the sums in the thousands.

We hope that through this in-depth guideline, you’ll have a better idea about how to raise koi fish in a pond. Thanks for reading!