Avice/Help from lambournkoi

[Stig]

Hi lambournkoi


5 years ago we bought a house with a pond and we inherited some fish 2 big Koi and 2 medium ones and some goldfish. When we sold, the people didnt want the pond so I built a pond at our new house and transported the fish.
Since then a F***ing heron has decide to decimate my collection and he ate the smaller fish but left the four koi.
I then bought a load of shubunkin (dont know if that the right spelling) and apart from one dying they have been thriving..... To combat the heron I had put fishing wire all around the pond and over it and for a year he hasnt come back.
Yesterday I went out to feed the fish and all that was left was the two big Koi.
I cleaned my pond today and took some photos as you can see the two big ones are rather large.
Are they run of the mill Koi ? as I am seriously thinking of either selling them on to someone with a bigger pond/ collection of Koi or try to keep them and add more fish to keep them company .





Thanks

Stig

[lambournkoi]

Hi Stig,

The brown one is a Female Ghost Koi and the other is a Female bitza (a bit of this and a bit of that). The Ghost Koi is likely to be Israeli. I dought very much if either are Japanese.

You could put a clear net over the pond of put a heron and cat scarer near the pond. The scarer run's on a battery and connects to a hose pipe. When it senses heat/movement it blasts a large spray of water too and throw across the pond, they normally work a treat and scare the sh1t out of anything going within range.

I would recommend getting them a friend (none small enough to fit in their mouths) preferably Koi then if you have to treat them for parasites etc you will not be limited to poor universal pond treatments. Some treatments will kill Orfe, Rudd, Sturgeon, goldfish and Sterlets.

[Kaiser Bill]

Stig - you put a plastic Heron out - isnt that likely to tempt one to land?

[Stig]

The plastic heron is supposed to scare them away as they are solitary predators.

lambournkoi.

How old do you reckon they are.....

Would they eat shubunkin etc....

How cam you tell they are female ?


Cheers

Stig

[Kaiser Bill]

oh, right....dont know my fish, dont know my birds

[lambournkoi]

Originally Posted by Kaiser Bill

Stig - you put a plastic Heron out - isnt that likely to tempt one to land?

It was once thought that a Heron only fed solitary and that by putting a fake one on your pond would another one would not feed anywhere near it. Unfortunately not true.

[lambournkoi]

Sorry cannot age your Koi, but they are older than 3yrs as they cannot be sexed until they become mature at between 2 and 3years of age. Females have a larger body shape and a male is long and slim often referred to as cigar shaped, that's why i say yours are female. Here is a picture of my female 32" Chagoi and my 29" male Matsuba, both Japanese.


If your Shubunkin were small enough to fit in your Koi's mouth's they would eat them. They would eat any fish that would fit in there mouths regardless of breed.

[Stig]

I take it if I added a male and they had young uns then they would probably eat them as well !
I will look at the pir water sprayer thing but is fishing wire strung like the matrix a good deterent and are mine too big for the heron to take or would it just kill them for the hell of it ?


Cheers

Stig


PS. you are not allowed to shoot the buggers either are you ?

[2008uk300c]

Originally Posted by Stig

PS. you are not allowed to shoot the buggers either are you ?

Aren't you only breaking the law if you get caught ?

[lambournkoi]

Originally Posted by Stig

I take it if I added a male and they had young uns then they would probably eat them as well !
I will look at the pir water sprayer thing but is fishing wire strung like the matrix a good deterent and are mine too big for the heron to take or would it just kill them for the hell of it ?


Cheers

Stig


PS. you are not allowed to shoot the buggers either are you ?

Heron are a protected species

Yours are to big for a heron to eat but we lost a 12" koi last year that was pulled from the pond by a Heron and it was unable to swallow it but it had crushed it's head when trying.

If you put a male in and they spawn, ideally you need to put a floating spawning net in the pond to stop the fry getting sucked in to the filter or eaten. Some do some will probably survive in the pond if they are good at hiding. You will get around 100,000-200,000 fry per spawning so you could end up with a few.

I can get you a pir sprayer if you cannot find one locally.