Indoor koi land, My koi

Spring is coming to Minnesota

Posted by lorivertin on

The pond digger can’t wait for spring. He loves to be outside when it’s sunny, working around the yard. The last few days, he’s been busy helping the ice to melt…

The pond digger is not content to let Mother Nature melt the ice on the winter pond. Of course he does have a point that the water temperatures are at the voodoo zone where parasites begin to flourish and the koi have basically no immune system to fight attacks. He noticed that two more koi looked rather weak so we decided to pull them all out of the pond. In the course of pulling out the koi and melting the ice, we found little Hato encased in an icy tomb. Hato has probably been dead for most of the winter but luckily for the rest of the koi he had not yet deteriorated to create a biohazard in the pond. The pond digger hopes to clean up the the pond and return some of the koi back out here by the end of the weekend.
The pond digger is not content to let Mother Nature melt the ice on the winter pond. Of course he does have a point that the water temperatures are at the voodoo zone where parasites begin to flourish and the koi have basically no immune system to fight attacks. He noticed that two more koi looked rather weak so we decided to pull them all out of the pond. In the course of pulling out the koi and melting the ice, we found little Hato encased in an icy tomb. Hato has probably been dead for most of the winter but luckily for the rest of the koi he had not yet deteriorated to create a biohazard in the pond. The pond digger hopes to clean up the the pond and return some of the koi back out here by the end of the weekend.
So all the koi are now in the garage and my car is not. We're thinking that next winter we will just plan to bring the koi in...unless the pond digger constructs a greenhouse over the upper pond for the winter.
So all the koi are now in the garage and my car is not. We’re thinking that next winter we will just plan to bring the koi in…unless the pond digger constructs a greenhouse over the upper pond for the winter.
T2 is staying in sick bay because he has a pop-eyed look. I made the mistake of not quarantining ZuZu, who died while we were away. T2 is swimming around, eating a little medi-koi and not looking too bad.
T2 is staying in sick bay because he has a pop-eyed look. I made the mistake of not quarantining ZuZu, who died while we were away. T2 is swimming around, eating a little medi-koi and not looking too bad.
Cha-Cha was our lazarus koi last year. Frozen to the ice, mostly dead, nursed back to health over three weeks and doing fin most of the winter...until yesterday. Easily caught and looking weak, we put Cha-Cha in a tub alone. The first four hours were spent in the dead koi side float position. There is a great deal of information of what to do for a sick koi on the internet. For our koi we sort of follow the routine of provide clean water, aerate, a little bit of salt, a little bit of ick powder and something called lifeguard by Tetra that claims to address a wide variety of ailments. Who knows what really works...I do know that our koi come back within a short time and seem to do fine. Cha-Cha is one of our favorite koi. She'll never be given away because she has survived through so much. Not a very pretty koi and since she was ill last winter, her fins are a bit stubby and her back half seems somewhat small for the front half. I'm sure Cha-Cha will have an issue every winter and might not live as long as the average koi but we like her.
Cha-Cha was our lazarus koi last year. Frozen to the ice, mostly dead, nursed back to health over three weeks and doing fine most of the winter…until yesterday. Easily caught and looking weak, we put Cha-Cha in a tub alone. The first four hours were spent in the dead koi side float position. There is a great deal of information of what to do for a sick koi on the internet. For our koi we sort of follow the routine of provide clean water, aerate, a little bit of salt, a little bit of ick powder and something called lifeguard by Tetra that claims to address a wide variety of ailments. Who knows what really works…I do know that our koi come back within a short time and seem to do fine.
Cha-Cha is one of our favorite koi. She’ll never be given away because she has survived through so much. Not a very pretty koi and since she was ill last winter, her fins are a bit stubby and her back half seems somewhat small for the front half. I’m sure Cha-Cha will have an issue every winter and might not live as long as the average koi but we like her.
Ethel and Farm Boy now have four new tank mates . Ethel is the only one eating though. She swims to the edge whenever we walk near the tank and opens her mouth expecting to be fed. We try to scatter the food around the tank in hopes that the other koi might get a little but Ethel knows to swim at the surface with her mouth open, just like a hoover vacuum.
Ethel and Farm Boy now have four new tank mates . Ethel is the only one eating though. She swims to the edge whenever we walk near the tank and opens her mouth expecting to be fed. We try to scatter the food around the tank in hopes that the other koi might get a little but Ethel knows to swim at the surface with her mouth open, just like a hoover vacuum.
Tarzan, Buttercup and Irene have spent much of the winter snuggled together in one spot of the tank. We've added a few koi from the outdoor pond including the shiro utsuri that we thought was dead. The two kohaku seem to like to stir them up and get them moving.
Tarzan, Buttercup and Irene have spent much of the winter snuggled together in one spot of the tank. We’ve added a few koi from the outdoor pond including the shiro utsuri that we thought was dead. The two kohaku seem to like to stir them up and get them moving.
The seventeen tosai are very greedy and really push each other around for the for bits. We are thinking about moving some of the koi back into the lower pond and the seventeen will move into the bigger tank. It's like a game of leapfrog. The pond digger will is planning to make the upper pond a little deeper and then all of the koi purchased in 2014 and earlier will move into the large pond. The seventeen tosai will be the only ones in the lower pond.
The seventeen tosai are very greedy and really push each other around for the food bits. We are thinking about moving some of the koi back into the lower pond and the seventeen will move into the bigger tank. It’s like a game of leapfrog. The pond digger will is planning to make the upper pond a little deeper and then all of the koi purchased in 2014 and earlier will move into the large pond. The seventeen tosai will be the only ones in the lower pond.

Lots more to blog about now that spring is on its way 🙂