A couple of my pond fish

[Mad Duff]

I was having a clear out last week and sorted a few fish out to move to my Dad's pond and I took the oppertunity to get a couple of pics.

This is an Ide (natural form of orfe) I have had the fish for around 9 years now and it went into the pond around 2" long:


This is one of my big carp, it has changed a lot since it was introduced to my father in laws pond 10 years ago at 4", it was then moved to my pond 3 years ago at about 10" and this is her now:


It took a couple of attempts to get the photo of the carp, mainly because I was absolutely soaked from head to toe

[Jim Powers]

Nice fish!

[clint]

Cool fish, how big is the pond? Man made or natural?

[Mad Duff]

Thankyou

The pond is just over 6000 gallon, here are a couple of pics





I also have 4 sturgeon in there, this is one of them:

[clint]

WOW, really nice setup you have there. I must say i like all the Buddha statues and the Fu dogs/dragon are cool as well.

[starsplitter7]

Absolutely fantastic! I always love looking at your pond pictures. And your sturgeon are great. Fantastic looking fish.

Our Aquarium club had an amazing presentation from a Koi Farmer, and then they had had a Koi Growout contest. It was amazing. Wisps of fish that grew to 2-4 inches in 4 months. Wowsers!

[Jim Powers]

Looks like a nice place to sit in the evening with a cold one.
Love the sturgeon!

[mark joshi2]

I always love looking at your pond pictures. And your sturgeon are great. Fantastic looking fish.Our Aquarium club had an amazing presentation from a Koi Farmer, and then they had had a Koi Growout contest. It was amazing. Wisps of fish that grew to 2-4 inches in 4 months. Wowsers!

[piggy4]

Love the pics Mark

[Oldfish]

The pond is just over 6000 gallon

How deep is it? Do you heat it any?

[Mad Duff]

How deep is it? Do you heat it any?

It is 6 feet deep along the back edge sloping down to 7 feet deep along the front edge, no heating, I do have to large air pumps that run all year round, these are metal bodied and get quite warm and in turn do pump warm air into the pond.

[glenna]

Your set up is VERY lovely!!!
I hope to someday have something as nice! Do you sit out there often?
Not knowing a lot about where you live.... does it get very cold in the Winter?
Do you have a heater out in the pond????

I am obviously thinking about adding a deep pond (4 feet ) in the back yard, but have no place INSIDE to save fishies should I be unprepared, so I am hearing what others are doing FIRST. I would like to keep koi. I live in the mid South US, so garden zone (USDA Hardiness) 7A which only gets below zero occasionally, but this does occur, from time to time (one time x 2 nights last year, if I remember....I HATE the cold
I think if I get it deep enough, and keep a spot thawed on the surface, I (they!!!....I will be warm and cozy in the house!!!) should be okay to survive the Winter, but not really sure.

The picutres are great, THanks!

[Mad Duff]

Your set up is VERY lovely!!!
I hope to someday have something as nice! Do you sit out there often?
Not knowing a lot about where you live.... does it get very cold in the Winter?
Do you have a heater out in the pond????

I am obviously thinking about adding a deep pond (4 feet ) in the back yard, but have no place INSIDE to save fishies should I be unprepared, so I am hearing what others are doing FIRST. I would like to keep koi. I live in the mid South US, so garden zone (USDA Hardiness) 7A which only gets below zero occasionally, but this does occur, from time to time (one time x 2 nights last year, if I remember....I HATE the cold
I think if I get it deep enough, and keep a spot thawed on the surface, I (they!!!....I will be warm and cozy in the house!!!) should be okay to survive the Winter, but not really sure.

The picutres are great, THanks!

Thank you Glenna, yeah I do like to chill out with a beer occasionally by the pond , it is also nice hand feeding the koi which I can spend quite a while doing.

No heaters even in the winter, we get pretty cold winters and will get temps down to and below zero quite regularly, Some people switch over to smaller pumps over the winter but I leave everyhing running, pumps, filters, Uv's and air pump and between the air pump and uv's they do put some heat into the water but not that much.

It does make a big difference having the roof over the pond because then no freezing rain or snow are going in, with the pumps running the pond never freezes.

The deeper you can go the better, even if similar to mine it is dug down and then raised up from the ground. You can get polythene tents like polytunnels to go over the pond in the winter and these do help hold heat in around the pond.