Tropical Fish Information – Your Fish Tank Guru

Season 1: Spring

Springtime is the time when your koi pool really comes to life. The life in your koi pool has been hibernating during the winter, and now as the warm weather comes, they’re now ready to come back to life! In koi care, this season is the best time to start maintaining your koi pool before the life in it (the fish, plants, etc.) come back to live from their cold, winter break. Your koi pool will start to change extremely as days gets hotter.

Be very careful so as not to miss this opportunity to do the necessary maintenance. What you do is you watch for temperatures that falls around 50 degrees (this will be the perfect time).

This season is considered as the very weak time for your koi, and that’s because they haven’t eaten for months, which have put them on a low energy level. Due to this, your koi is prone to attacks by different kinds of organisms, such as parasites, fungi, bacteria and viruses…. and this makes it the best time to take all of the possible preventative measures. To significantly reduce the amount of pests and materials that could cause diseases, you can add a wide array of treatment solutions.

Once the temperature gets warmer, you can give your koi pool another dosage of this treatment to get your koi well-protected as they are again developing their own immune systems (which will be effective enough to serve as a protection from various kinds of diseases that can affect them).

Season 2: Fall

The fall will bring a significant change to your koi pool, because this is the time when most of the plant life will begin to change. In this time, what you should do is to move all of your plants that has the inability to withstand lower levels of temperatures indoors (or you can put them in a green house). Another thing that you have to focus on in this season are the leaves, which has to be cleared as well. Doing this will give you a clearer and healthier koi pool. You can also buy a pond cover too as an alternative for this.

Season 3: Winter

Let’s say that this will be the first winter season that your koi pool will go through. Now, this is the time when your koi pool will undergo a down period, due to the fact that less events are happening in this season compared to any of the other seasons. There are necessary steps/precautions that you need to take before winter arrives, so as to ensure the survival of your koi pool as well as your koi. You’ll have to feed your koi lesser during this time (for tips on how often you should feed your koi, you can always talk with your local pet store).

Summertime is the season wherein you can invest for the stuff that you’re going to need to prepare for the winter. Your koi can withstand constant temperatures that fall as low as 39 degrees (and those that are slightly lower than 39 degrees) for a short period of time.

If you buy a heater for your koi pool, just make sure to make a research first on what size you’re going to need to sufficiently heat your koi pool during the winter time, otherwise ice will still continue to form, and this can cause very dangerous amounts of gas in the water (as it is being trapped under the ice). You can opt to have an emergency tank inside your koi pool to prepare for extreme kind of events.

Season 4: Summer

Summertime is one of the best and more lively times for your koi pool. In this season, temperatures are beautiful, and this is the time that can help you enjoy your koi pool more. But as beautiful as things are during this season, never forget to keep up your maintenance, so as to keep your koi pool staying lively and beautiful as well.

This is the time when the oxygen level in your koi pool decreases and proper and necessary precautions and steps are to be taken (especially if you’re located in a place wherein the temperatures stay on a high level for most of the year). A good indication that your koi pool needs oxygen is when you see your koi hanging out towards the surface of the water, seemingly gasping for air.

The heat that the summer paves way for potential parasites and illness into your koi pool. You must watch and observe your koi for signs of illness, as most of the parasites are invisible to the naked eye. Symptoms like your koi rubbing against objects, shaking, scratching, or shivering could indicate different types of illnesses, so it is of utmost importance to watch your koi closely.

In koi care, you should look out for illnesses like the Koi Herpes Virus, which have high mortality rate, and this needs immediate treatment. If you observe any kind of changes with your koi, contact your Koi dealer, local vet or pet store as soon as possible.

In caring for koi, there are important precautions and measures that you can do when faced with small and large-scale storms. No matter where you live, it’s quite inevitable that you’ll encounter at least one extreme weather condition throughout the year. We have seen the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, showing us that having an emergency plan is the way to avoid the total destruction of your fish and your koi pond as well.

Small-Scale Storms:

Preparing your koi pool for such small-scale storms is much easier compared to those of the large ones. These few simple steps will guide your koi pool through such storms.

1) Stop feeding your pets. Truth of the matter is that your koi pool has enough natural sources for food for the pets to feed on so that they won’t starve for a long period of time. If your filtration system are undamaged, not feeding your pets will reduce the risk of ammonia problems in the future.

2) Make big water changes to your koi pool. If the time comes that something goes really wrong and you’re unable to take care of the koi pool immediately, your pets will have the privilege of getting the freshest water that’s available to them. Leave out several inches of water so as to make up for the coming rainfall so that there will be lesser chances of overflowing.

If you got a drainage system, just be sure to clear it of any kind of debris to make it work very well. Now, if your koi pool is at ground level and you’d expect high waters to occur, you can add some protection through sand bagging around the area, which will keep your pets confined within the area if the time comes that flooding will occur.

3) Place a net over your koi pool to ensure its protection from flying debris. The same net that you have used for the fall to keep out the leaves will do, so long as you will secure it down very well.

4) Remove any object that can blow over, away or fall into the koi pool. Remember this: if you can push it over, so can the wind as well! The items that can be blown away by the wind should be removed completely and then placed inside your house.

Large-Scale Storms:

Large-scale storms prevent any type of preventative measures from being successful and effective. In koi watch, the only way to completely save your koi pool from such storms is by removing completely your pets from the pond itself.

In koi watch, it’s good to have all the equipment that you need to transport your pets readily. The equipment that’s needed to bag and transport your pets is small and can be stored easily when they’re not in use.

You must have the proper bags ready to transport your pets. Never try to use trash bags or regular plastic bags for this, as these materials aren’t designed for the task, and may even damage your pets. Make sure to get bags that are big enough to hold and store your pets.

You’ll also need rubber bands for each of the bag that you buy. Choose those that have good quality, so as not to let the pressure of the water pop the rubber band out as you’re transporting your pets.

You need to have a net that’s big enough to compete with your pets. Although you won’t need the net to pull the fish out of the water, you’ll need it to direct your pets to the place that you want them to go. Just take proper precaution in handling the net, as they can cause potential damage to your pets, especially the larger ones.

To give the best care possible, use a paint bucket to catch your pets, as the bucket will not hurt your pets like nets can. Make sure that your bucket is just big enough to contain your pets.

To have a healthy pet Koi, you have to feed them with the proper koi treat that will keep them in great shape. For this, you should know the nature of your pets when it comes to their diet and feeding patterns.

Generally, Koi are omnivorous fish, which means that they eat both plants and meat alike. They are known to have sharp appetites when the water temperature falls on 61 to 71 degrees Fahrenheit. The summertime is when they are most active in their appetites, this is why they should be fed with koi fish treat that will give them a good quality diet (those nutritious koi fish treat).

Your pets eat almost anything that comes in their way, ranging from insects, worms, snails, to the foliage of underwater plants (which could sometimes give their owners quite a bit of a headache!). Some of them would also feast on those acorn and grasses which they manage to eat by pulling themselves part of the way out of the water!

Wintertime, however, is when their digestive system slows down, almost to a stop. Now, this is the time when there’s no need for you to feed them with koi fish treat. Why? It’s because they may take the liberty of nibbling on the algae that can be found at the bottom of the pond (or any available natural food there is). But there’s one thing that you must always remember: once the temperature will fall to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, any food that will be left and stored in their stomach will become bad, that it may cause them to fall ill.

So, what are the good and healthy koi fish treat that you can give to your pets? You must always keep in mind that they need to have the right and proper combination of fats, protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. To get these, you can feed them with pellet foods, which can be made to float on the top of the water so that they’ll come out of the water’s surface to snatch it.

In addition to this, you can also feed your pets with special treats like watermelons, peas and lettuce. Be careful though in feeding them with koi fish treat such as corn, beans and grapes, as they contain an outer casing, which can’t be properly digested if swallowed by your pets. So make sure that you remove the outer casings before feeding them with it.

Other koi fish treat include prawns (edible crustaceans which has similarities to shrimp, only that they are bigger), bread (which can be broken down, rolled into small balls and thrown into the pond), lettuce (high in essential vitamins and minerals) and fruits (but should only be fed occasionally, as most of them have high amounts of natural sugar).

You should ensure that your pets are in great health and also free from injuries. As they have great appetites, you needn’t put a lot of stress into how and how much they’re being fed. Feeding your pets with koi fish treat is when you can take the pleasure of your pet’s eagerness to interact with you. A healthy diet can give your pets bright colors, making them even more attractive to you and others!

In koi pool, overpopulation of the pet is one of the hardest problems that pond owners have to deal with. This can cause big problems to your koi pond, which can even cause death to your koi. To avoid these dilemmas, here are a few ways to help prevent overpopulation in your koi pond water.

Don’t Overstock: (This is the same as an aquarium DUH)

Overstocking is one of the common problems among new koi pond owners. When you first start purchasing your koi, decide between a number of koi that are equally playful and beautiful so as to save your own koi pond from overstocking. You can always talk with your pet store professional or dealer about your koi pond’s specs.

Tell them the total size of your koi pond, the type of filtration systems you use, and where you’re planning to place your koi pond. These helpful information can help them to successfully predict the right amount of koi that you can have in your koi pond. Don’t worry if the number may seem small, because keep in mind that this species grow rather fast and get large quickly!

One of the problems that people or owners run into is not able to turn down offers from others. When you are being offered with a koi by other pond owners, always look at the reasons as to why they’re giving you their koi (this might be due to overpopulation issues as well). Turning down offers such as this doesn’t mean you’re causing damage to the koi, but it’s just that the owner may have to find a different individual to take the offer.

Steps To Take Once Overpopulation Has Occurred:

If the time comes that your koi pond has reached overpopulation, here are some steps to remove the babies from it. A good way is to stop feeding your koi once you realize that spawning has actually occurred. Stop feeding your koi for no less than 3 weeks. Don’t worry about your koi starving, as they’ll focus more on the natural food that they can get if you’re not feeding them everyday. Their natural diet includes their young.

Although they aren’t one of those cannibalistic animals, it’s natural for them to eat their young when they’re still eggs or if they’re small, resembling insects. Once the babies looks like real fish, the adult ones will recognize this, and they’ll no longer see them as food.

It’s quite important to start this process as soon as you’ll observe spawning or babies in the koi pool water. Though cruel as this may seem, it’s only a natural process. Another way to do this is by giving those unwanted babies away. You can first check with your local pet store, as many of them have programs wherein they’ll accept those unwanted animals and provide shelter for them (some may also pay a certain amount of money for each koi since they sell them). You can also go to local zoos, local Koi societies and online forums.