It’s not really that cold in Minnesota yet but the outdoor pond water temperature is around 52 or 53 degrees. The koi in the lower pond looked cold to me. They would swim around half heartedly and barely nibble at any food thrown to them. Quite sad.

Meanwhile, the koi from the upper pond came in over the weekend and they have been looking very happy in 62 degree water. It’s hard to not feed them when the eagerly swim up to you but we don’t want to stress the filtration system. We have a plan to keep them on minimal food for the first few weeks.

Here’s our happy koi:

Part of bringing the koi in is measuring and taking a few photos of each koi. Most of them have grown well this year. Some of the 28 koi will have to move along next year because koi can be very unpredictable. Just because it looks nice at 6-9 inches, doesn’t guarantee it will keep its good looks.

It’s also a space issue. As the koi have grown larger, we really should limit our stock. The pond builder compensates with a lot of water constantly changing but overcrowding is inviting trouble. Maybe I do need a third pond… perhaps the pond builder could build a pond at the office 😂.

Here’s the Fall 2018 roll call – all squeezed into 3500 gallons of water for the next few months.