The shiro utsuri koi are doing nicely in the winter pond so far. Like the rest of the koi, I never see them eat but we throw a few nuggets of food into the pool and after a day or so, the nuggets are gone. The koi seem to forget that we used to feed them regularly. They siddle up to the edge of the pool and quickly swim away when they think we’re looking at them too long.

We’re thinking about the pond that will hold the shiro utsuri koi and a pergola over the water sounds like a good idea. Apparently the shiros keep darker sumi in cooler water. The lower pool does not have a lot of shade throughout the day. Perhaps the shade will keep the water a few degrees cooler. Putting in water plants would be helpful but the koi tend to eat up most of the plants. We had a sail shade up last year but it wasn’t very attractive. Lots to think about but we have a few more months to make a plan.