I don’t even know where to start. My beautiful koi pond, let’s start there. Last spring (about March) my family started digging our 1,500 gallon koi pond. We dug up 1,500 gallons of red Clay with shovels over the course of two days. Over the spring and summer we got koi, goldfish, and so many plants. By mid summer, the koi pond was stable and thriving. We knew nearly ever koi by name. Pearl, Angelica, Midas, Tattoo, Peach, Daisy, Horse Face, Sterling, Dune, Chani, Craigslist Koi, our little koi with scoliosis whose name I don’t know how to spell, and so many others. Too many to name in this post. My point is - my family poured our hearts into this pond and every single one of our koi. As it got cold, we winterized the pond. The koi slowed down, we cut the plants back for the winter, did a big cleanout of all the leaves and twigs on the bottom, and reduced feeding. Eventually we stopped feeding and put in a deicer. All was well with our beautiful fish.
The photos were towards the end of summer. So anyways, let’s skip to mid-December. All 30 or so fish are doing great. The pond is stocked to the Max, but not above. We feel really good with how smoothly the winter transition has gone and some of our anxiety about it has faded. Then we get a call from my uncle. “Hey you’ll never guess what you’ve done. You’ve got me hooked on koi, I’m gonna get some tanks and build a pond in the spring” “Oh wow, that’s awesome! We can’t wait, you’ll have to have us come over and help. How fun.” blah blah blah, then “Oh and by the way, I’m shipping 15 koi to your house. I need you to keep them in your pond until I get my tanks set up” us- “what.... oh um, the pond, first winter, not good time, the cold, the cycle couldn’t really handle it right now without the plants, er, umm please don’t” him- “It’ll be fine, you have room for like 150 koi in there! Plus I’ve already put the order in. They’ll be there in three days” What. Just. Happened.
Fast forward three days, the koi get here. They had shipped them upside down, so half the water leaked out and one of the koi died in shipping. It was the mail carrier not the seller of course. About a week in, we start losing koi. My uncle went talked to the guy at the pet store and in this case it was extremely helpful! He asked my uncle what size the pond was (1,500 gallons), how many koi there were (48 when my uncle added his fish, before any died), what kind of bubbler we had (waterfall), etc etc. As soon as my uncle answered he goes “that’s your problem. Your pond is grossly overstocked, the fish are dying because of poor water quality, lack of space, and limited oxygen. They could even be picking on the smaller ones because they know they don’t have what they need for all of them to survive this winter. A good rule of thumb in a pond like yours is 10 gallons per inch of fish“ apparently my uncle thought it was 10 gallons per FISH. UGH. We lost 15 of our beautiful koi, Midas, Dune, and Daisy among the ones we lost. That’s not even the end though...
Around mid January my uncle gets his tanks all set up and took his koi back. Someone had told him I would give him cycled filter media, so when he asked I did. From my tank. A couple days later Could only count 7/10 neon tetras. I told my uncle that he set up his second tank I’d get him a little bit of media from the pond filter. Well about 3 days later they brought back my cycled filter sponges, except they were covered in blue ich medication and had been washed in tap water. Completely ruined. Granted, they didn't know. Then my aunt (my uncle’s wife) started talking about getting more sponges from me. I told her I’d get her some media from the pond. A family member overheard and said “Don’t get it from the pond, they need to leave. Just take it from your tank” I tried to discreetly whisper that I had already given all that I could take from my indoor tank, but they didn’t understand and more firmly told me I couldn’t take it from the pond. I was rushed and panicked in a panicked state of not knowing what to do I reluctantly gave them the last of the filter media from my 20 gallon tank... Two days later (day before yesterday) one of my honey gourami died and 2 more tetras are missing. I immediately did a water change and decided to pull one of my two sponge filters from my axolotl tank, because it’s cycled. I went out and bought some fast growing plants last minute to spread between all my tanks. Hornwort and duckweed... All that to learn that they washed the sponges I gave them so it was absolutely pointless. I am , disappointed, frustrated, and a little bit lost on what to do next. Now my tetras (5) and gourami (2) don’t have the right sized groups. I am hesitant to just replace them...
Well anyone who made it this far, thanks for reading. I just needed to share my frustration with some people who get it.
The photos were towards the end of summer. So anyways, let’s skip to mid-December. All 30 or so fish are doing great. The pond is stocked to the Max, but not above. We feel really good with how smoothly the winter transition has gone and some of our anxiety about it has faded. Then we get a call from my uncle. “Hey you’ll never guess what you’ve done. You’ve got me hooked on koi, I’m gonna get some tanks and build a pond in the spring” “Oh wow, that’s awesome! We can’t wait, you’ll have to have us come over and help. How fun.” blah blah blah, then “Oh and by the way, I’m shipping 15 koi to your house. I need you to keep them in your pond until I get my tanks set up” us- “what.... oh um, the pond, first winter, not good time, the cold, the cycle couldn’t really handle it right now without the plants, er, umm please don’t” him- “It’ll be fine, you have room for like 150 koi in there! Plus I’ve already put the order in. They’ll be there in three days” What. Just. Happened.
Fast forward three days, the koi get here. They had shipped them upside down, so half the water leaked out and one of the koi died in shipping. It was the mail carrier not the seller of course. About a week in, we start losing koi. My uncle went talked to the guy at the pet store and in this case it was extremely helpful! He asked my uncle what size the pond was (1,500 gallons), how many koi there were (48 when my uncle added his fish, before any died), what kind of bubbler we had (waterfall), etc etc. As soon as my uncle answered he goes “that’s your problem. Your pond is grossly overstocked, the fish are dying because of poor water quality, lack of space, and limited oxygen. They could even be picking on the smaller ones because they know they don’t have what they need for all of them to survive this winter. A good rule of thumb in a pond like yours is 10 gallons per inch of fish“ apparently my uncle thought it was 10 gallons per FISH. UGH. We lost 15 of our beautiful koi, Midas, Dune, and Daisy among the ones we lost. That’s not even the end though...
Around mid January my uncle gets his tanks all set up and took his koi back. Someone had told him I would give him cycled filter media, so when he asked I did. From my tank. A couple days later Could only count 7/10 neon tetras. I told my uncle that he set up his second tank I’d get him a little bit of media from the pond filter. Well about 3 days later they brought back my cycled filter sponges, except they were covered in blue ich medication and had been washed in tap water. Completely ruined. Granted, they didn't know. Then my aunt (my uncle’s wife) started talking about getting more sponges from me. I told her I’d get her some media from the pond. A family member overheard and said “Don’t get it from the pond, they need to leave. Just take it from your tank” I tried to discreetly whisper that I had already given all that I could take from my indoor tank, but they didn’t understand and more firmly told me I couldn’t take it from the pond. I was rushed and panicked in a panicked state of not knowing what to do I reluctantly gave them the last of the filter media from my 20 gallon tank... Two days later (day before yesterday) one of my honey gourami died and 2 more tetras are missing. I immediately did a water change and decided to pull one of my two sponge filters from my axolotl tank, because it’s cycled. I went out and bought some fast growing plants last minute to spread between all my tanks. Hornwort and duckweed... All that to learn that they washed the sponges I gave them so it was absolutely pointless. I am , disappointed, frustrated, and a little bit lost on what to do next. Now my tetras (5) and gourami (2) don’t have the right sized groups. I am hesitant to just replace them...
Well anyone who made it this far, thanks for reading. I just needed to share my frustration with some people who get it.
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Sometimes it's hard to know when to go with the flow and when to take a stand, especially when you're a kid and adult relatives are involved.
