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Last Updated: 4/19/08
Quick Information
My Koi
Description and Varieties - plus butterfly, longfin, and ghost koi; koi
eating from your hand; and telling goldfish and koi apart and interbreeding
Setup and Water Preferences
Sexing
Breeding
Koi and Plants
Special Additions for a Koi Pond
Viral Gill Disease
Koi Links
Keeping a pond devoted to koi is very different than a pond with only a few koi or devoted to other fish, animals, and/or plants. My pond is eclectic. It is not a true "koi pond" but contains two koi. For detailed information on setting up the high-tech, expensive, huge, specialty "koi pond," see the koi links section for entire large web sites devoted to these gargantuan beauties and created by experts in this area of pond keeping.
New! See a video of my 1800 gallon pond which shows the fish moving around, including my koi, Maggie and Colin.
Like most of my pages, this page needs to be divided, expanded, updated, etc. This is just to let you know that I need to do that but have to wait until I have time and work on some other pages first.
I have a page at Pond Showcase with photos of koi ponds (you are welcome to add your own too!).
Common names: Koi, Japanese Carp, Japanese Colored Carp, Nishikigoi
Scientific/Latin name: Cyprinus carpio
Maximum length: 2 to 4 feet
Colors: Red, white, "blue," black, orange, yellow, metallics, and lots more
Temperature preference: 50 to 75 degrees F but can survive 33 to 100 degrees
F for short periods of time
pH preference: 7 to 8
Hardness preference: Moderate
Salinity preference: 1 Tablespoon per 5 to 20 gallons
Compatibility: Very good, may eat small animals inadvertently with plant
material or fish food
Life span: 50 to 150 years or more
Ease of keeping: Easy if large pond with adequate filtration provided
Ease of breeding: Easy if large pond provided and eggs removed from parents
and other fish
I currently have two koi. They are named after characters from the TV show Sliders (Quinn and Wade are two goldfish in my 50 gallon tank so those names were used first years ago). Information on their pond can be found at my pond descriptions page under 1800 gallon pond.
Current butterfly koi living in my 1800 gallon pond:
Maggie, about 12 inches long (around 1999?), metallic orange with some black spots, butterfly
koi, # 2 in this photo. Her fins never regrew after a mild bought with some infection;
she may be a longfin koi (or even a regular koi) instead of a butterfly koi, if there is really a
difference.
Colin, about 12 inches long (around 1999?), white with some black spots, butterfly koi. He is
much more
slender with longer, more flowing fins than Maggie.
By 4/4/03, Colin and Maggie are both about a foot and a half long now. Neither one has shown any interest in spawning together along with the goldfish or orfe in the shallows.
Maggie got stuck in some nylon rope in the pond on 10/8/07. You can read about it in the November 2007 pond newsletter under Happenings at Robyn's Pond #3. She is okay as of 11/10/07. Both koi both seem to be still about 18" long but might be larger. It is hard to tell without actually catching them to measure.
Photos of Colin and Maggie:
The photos are listed newest to oldest.
I was in the pond on 6/24/07 and took this photo of the fish.
Pond fish - my big koi, Maggie, is in the
middle. The two big orfe are at the top of the photo. One of the baby orfe is below the big orfe
on the right. The rest are goldfish.
Close-up of Maggie from the previous photo.
Pond fish under the pond net on 6/23/07. My koi, Colin (white) and Maggie (orange, just her rear can be seen) are at the top right of the photo.
Pond facing northeast. You can see the koi on the right side in the water from a distance.
Pond fish being fed on 4/29/07. You can see the floating pond pellets and Cheerios. My two koi, Maggie (orange) and Colin (white) can be seen in the middle. One of the orfe can be seen on the far left. The rest of the fish are goldfish. There is a net over this part of the pond.
Iced pond - facing south on 2/24/07. The pond is melting out; you can see my koi, Maggie (right) and Colin (left), in the middle of the photo. A lot of leaves have blown into the open water.
Pond fish on 1/6/07. Colin is right in the middle of the photo. Maggie is above and to the right of him. There is a net over the pond.
Pond fish on 9/24/06. Maggie and Colin
are at the upper left. The rest are goldfish.
Pond fish on 9/24/06. My two koi (Maggie
and Colin) are marked as are a few goldfish, my upside-down orfe, and a healthy orfe.
Pond fish on 8/31/06. You can see the end
of Colin near the bottom of the fish pack.
Pond fish on 8/31/06. You can see Maggie
at the top left just barely.
The 1800 gallon pond on 7/9/06. You can just
make out Maggie in the middle coming out from under the water hyacinth.
The 1800 gallon pond on 7/9/06. Maggie is in the
middle of the photo.
Pond fish under the net on 4/19/06. They are
mostly goldfish. My koi, Colin, is at the bottom with algae growing on him. Two of my orfe are
on the far right.
Maggie - my big koi Maggie under the net on
4/19/06. She was feeling under the weather with a few infected patches on her back.
Here are two photos that include Maggie and Colin on 1/9/05:
Fish - the koi are labeled, close-up.
Fish - farther away.
These five photos were all taken on 12/23/03.
Colin with other fish, close up.
Colin and Maggie with other fish from a distance.
Colin and Maggie with other fish from a distance.
Close-up of Maggie.
Maggie with other fish - this is the photo from which I zoomed in to
get the previous close-up of Maggie.
Pond fish on 3/23/03. Colin and Maggie are on the bottom of the photo.
Here is a photo that shows Maggie at the bottom and part of Colin off to the left.
Two photos from 12/26/01 that show Colin and Maggie from a distance with the other pond fish
can be seen here:
Pond fish
Pond fish - in this photo, arrows point to the koi.
A photo from the summer of 2001 is at the top of this page. Here are some photos taken in early
spring, 2001 of Colin and Maggie:
Pond Fish - 4/30/01; Maggie and Colin are in the center with Maggie
on the left
Pond Fish - 3/25/01; Maggie and Colin are on the far right with
Maggie on the left
Pond Fish - 3/25/01; Maggie and Colin are in the left of the bunch
of fish with Maggie on the left
You can also see Colin and Maggie in these three sequential photos from 6/18/00 where their names are marked next to the picture: Photo 1, Photo2, and Photo 3. Maggie and Colin are in Photo 1 (not marked in that one though) and Photo 3. Only Maggie is in Photo 2.
Here is a photo of koi at Lilypons in Frederick, MD taken on 8/31/03: Lilypons koi.
Photos of Koi - this page has lots of photos that I took of various fancy koi at Ladew Topiary Gardens.
The following butterfly koi I had died:
Remmy, 1 foot long, black and orange, butterfly koi, #9 in this
photo. Photo taken 9/6/98. Remmy died on 3/21/99 after a winter and early spring with
wildly fluctuating temperatures. He suffered from fin rot and lethargy before dying. He was
about 12 inches long, and I had had him for two years.
Two other butterfly koi without names died the same year that I got them in 1997. One was
mostly white and one was mostly metallic orange with some black spots. They were gorgeous.
Both died while under 6 inches long.
Cyprinus carpio, koi, or Japanese colored carp can grow to four feet in length. They can live over a hundred years. According to a thread on the rec.ponds newsgroup, one of the oldest documented koi was 226 years old in Japan (Her name was Hanako, and she weighed 20 pounds and was 30 inches long. She died in Japan in 1977. They counted the annual rings on her scales to tell her age.). Koi can lay thousands of eggs at a time. Most often, they only grow to a few feet long. Older koi can grow beyond 30 inches. They grow throughout their lives but may stop breeding later in life. Only the fry are suitable for tank life. In a pond, the only suitable life for such large and elegant fish, they require at least a few hundred gallons a piece, depending on their size at the time. Outside, they also need a few feet below maximum ice depth to overwinter. Koi come in reds, whites, yellows, blacks, and blues (not true blue) of all combinations. They can be dull or shiny, short-finned or longfinned. There are hundreds of Japanese names for the various patterns, finnage, scales, etc. Three of the most common types of koi are the Kohaku (red and white, the most well known variety), Showa (red, white, and lots of black), and Sanke (red, white, and a little black). Visit some of the sites below if these names interest you. Judging and breeding koi is a large business in Japan, China, and parts of the US.
Butterfly Koi and Longfin Koi:
Longfinned koi or butterfly koi are part koi and part Indonesian carp and are not recognized in judging yet in many areas. They have long, flowing fins and come in most colors of ordinary koi. My butterfly koi seem to be a bit smaller and hardier than ordinary koi. Yet, butterfly koi are reputed to be faster growing and larger than regular koi. Apparently longfin koi and butterfly koi may be different types of koi. One source says that butterfly koi have long, flowing fins with feathery edges whereas longfin koi have fins not all that longer than regular koi. Longfin koi may also be called dragon carp. Butterfly and longfin koi grow fast and have long fins and sometimes long barbels and sometimes even pom-poms on their nostrils. One koi keeper says that butterfly koi have forked mouth barbs once over 7 to 8 inches in length unlike longfin koi. There is much confusion between butterfly and longfin.
Ghost Koi:
Ghost koi are a mix of a platinum ogon koi and a common river carp. They have a shadow or skull-shaped patch on their backs and/or head over "wild colored" skin. These dark, "ugly" koi were developed in the UK and are more hardy than ordinary koi.
Eating from Your Hand:
Koi can learn to eat from your hand. First, feed them as normal but keep your hand as close as they will allow while feeding. Try about a foot from the water to start. Then, each day, move your hand closer to the water. After a while, try having your hand in the water near the food. Then, put the food in your hand and into the water. Slowly release the food. Soon, the koi should eat food released from your hand. Finally, feed them directly from your hand. This is all information from other koi keepers since I have never tried it as I am too busy to enjoy my ponds (I work all week at a "job" and spend all weekend taking care of the animals, aquariums, and ponds which is much harder work).
Telling Goldfish and Koi Apart and Interbreeding:
Koi have barbels under their mouths. Goldfish do not. The two species can interbreed producing presumed sterile offspring. Their offspring often have barbels but may not. In addition to the barbels, goldfish and koi have different body shapes. It is hard to explain but if you look at photos of goldfish and koi enough, you will just know. I have oftentimes been asked if fry found in a pond or tank are goldfish or koi. In most cases, it is more likely that they are goldfish because goldfish are more apt to spawn. Newborn goldfish are blah/black/brown for months (the exceptions are shubunkins and calico fantail goldfish) before developing color whereas newborn koi soon develop some colors akin to their parents within a few weeks. Barbels should also be obvious on koi fry within a month or two.
Kathy sent these photos of goldfish on 9/1/06. What caught my attention is that she did not know
what they were. She has many koi and butterfly koi and put in some shubunkins (calico goldfish)
about 10 years ago. These fish appear to be goldfish. But, if the only goldfish were shubunkins,
that is what they should be. They do not look exactly as goldfish should though. They seem to
have some koi-like qualities. I am wondering if they could be the rare hybrids of koi and
goldfish. What do you think? The fish that most looks koi-like to me in body shape is the
bottom right fish in the last photo. The fish definitely have more than shubunkin in them. The
male yellow fish has a partial hood (like an oranda) as well.
Fish, fish, fish, fish, and fish
Koi should be put in ponds of 500+ gallons. They prefer a moderate hardness, temperatures from 50 degrees F to the high 70's degrees F, and clean, well-oxygenated water. Koi can survive short amounts of time in temperatures as low as right above freezing and as high as 90 to 100 degrees F. Koi eat just about everything! That includes insects, fish food, and your prized water plants when it suits them. They usually do not seek out fish to eat but will eat eggs and fry of many species.
Males can develop breeding tubercules. During breeding, females are noticeably fatter. Outside breeding times, sexing is very difficult for people new to koi. I am not aware of any methods used aside from shape.
Left to their own in a large pond with both males and females, koi will spawn on soft plants in the shallows. The information on koi is similar to that of goldfish . In fact, goldfish and koi can produce offspring since they are closely related. The resulting mixed species fish are believed to be sterile.
As anyone who has tried to combine koi and plants will tell you, koi love to eat plants. I only had at most three butterfly koi at any time. One was about a foot long as of 8/31/98, and the other two were half as big. The large koi, Remmy, died during the spring of 1999. The two remaining koi have now (10/99) grown to Remmy's size as well. My koi love to root the pebbles out of the pots and generally make a mess. If you have potted plants with koi, be sure to cover the dirt with at least two inches of pea gravel. Even then, expect some dirt released into the pond. Some people suggest topping with larger gravel or lava rock that koi cannot move but I would think that would hold in less of the dirt.
When my pond was set up in May of 1997, there were some dozen two gallon pots with about 100 anacharis plants and 6-12 plants each of bacopa, cabomba, hornwort, moneywort, jungle val, foxtail, dwarf sagittaria, and red ludwegia (probably not a winter survivor). As of 8/30/98 when I checked the submerged pots, the koi (mostly Remmy who was a foot long but has since died) and goldfish had eaten all but about 3 bunches of anacharis, one large piece of hornwort, a few dwarf sagittaria, and some jungle val. Those must be the more koi resistant species to try. During the summer of 1999, both anacharis and hornwort fared very well in the pond.
My koi did not harmed the lilies or marginals to any extent in 1998 but ate the water clover in 1997. A new water clover plant in 1998 took over a large part of the pond. While my koi eat all duckweed and most azolla that they can find, they do not eat salvinia (also called water velvet) to any extent because it grew to cover 100% of the pond surface by Fall 1998 (from just a few pieces in Spring). I was tossing out 20 pounds of it a week to keep an open spot in the pond. Salvinia would be a good choice for those wanting a floating plant that is koi resistant. Be sure to keep it in a ring or otherwise protected until it has multiplied to a hundred plants or so, each about an inch long.
There are two keys to keeping koi and plants together. One is to have more plants than your number of koi can eat. The other is to keep the koi well fed on vegetative rich food. The only way to insure koi will not eat something is to make it inaccessible by using blockades, nets, etc. Many pond catalogs sell special mesh cages for plants to protect them. I have yet to find any plant that koi or goldfish will never eat at all. Salvinia comes close. AquaMart sells many types of plant protectors for water lilies, submerged plants, and floating plants. I have ones for floating and submerged plants. The floating ones work well except when goldfish jump into it to spawn! Once the floaters fill the net up, I release them. The submerged plant protectors did not work well for me when I finally tried them in 2003. Maggie just pushed them down, untied them, and ate the plants right through the mesh! I give up on submerged plants!
Other methods to deter koi from eating or disturbing plants include the following. You can feed the koi duckweed raised in another pond (a tub pond is fine) to satiate their plant hunger. Plants can be raised in a separate pond connected to the koi pond by a waterfall. The top of plant pots can be covered in a mesh to keep koi from rooting out the rocks and dirt.
Special Additions for a Koi Pond
If the predominant purpose of your pond is to keep koi, then you should consider adding the following things to your pond.
1. A bottom drain to collect the excess debris off the bottom.
2. A skimmer to skim off leaves and debris.
3. An excellent filter system that is easy to maintain and can remove (and/or render less
harmful) the copious excretions of koi.
4. Maybe a UV sterilizer (see here).
5. Shade provided by overhangs, suspended tarps, or mats of floating plants that the koi do not
prefer to eat.
6. If you want plants that are safe from hungry koi, build a separate bog pond or vegetable filter,
connected by waterfalls to the koi pond or otherwise blocked off from the koi.
In 1999, koi owners and suppliers in the USA began experiencing koi die-offs. In most cases, the person obtained a new koi or brought a koi back from a show that infected the pond. Mortality was nearly 100% for koi and carp but seemed not to affect other species. Symptoms included those common to bacterial outbreaks, gill abnormalities, sometimes lesions, listlessness, etc. The fish did not improve with antibiotic treatment. Many koi specialists began working on the problem. On the East coast, a herpes virus seemed to be the culprit. It was isolated from infected koi. Secondary bacterial problems were commonly present. On the West coast, a virus was suspected but had not been isolated (as of 10/99). Koi can be infected directly or from being exposed to water containing infected fish. It is super contagious. As there is no known treatment for this problem, extra caution should be taken to quarantine all new koi or koi returning from a koi show. Quarantine tanks should be far away from other koi and no supplies should be shared between them. If the quarantined fish dies, all supplies and the tank/tub should be soaked in dilute bleach for a day. The koi groups suggest that you send in dying koi for testing to figure out this problem. For more information, visit any of the first three koi links below. The MAKC specifically has information and where you can send infected fish for analysis.
In 2000 and 2001, very few koi became ill and a new risky method of treatment was devised using near toxic doses of Chloramine-T. Using that protocol (I refer you to the MAKC as the treatment is risky, and I have not had occasion to use it), many fish were able to be saved. The virus was named Viral Gill Disease. The virus allows the invasion of various bacteria that may be resistant to antibiotics in koi often treated with antibiotics. The virus is contagious even after a few hours in water with a sick fish. All new koi should be quarantined as well as those returning from shows where they were exposed to other fish.
If you are a koi keeper, the first three sites are the three that you MUST visit! I cannot vouch for most of the other sites. A lot of them were simply requests for links.
Koi USA - magazine; a lot of basic to advanced koi information and forums on all the various aspects of koi keeping
Mid Atlantic Koi Club - MAKC, I am a member; they have a monthy magazine and a book with copies of their best articles from the past; really the best source for new koi keepers on the Eastern Coast of the United States
Koi Vet - lots of koi and pond information; THE site to visit if you have a koi health question. Also, see some of Dr. Johnson's related koi pages such as Koicrisis.com, Koilab.com, and Koinews.com. He has a bunch more sites too.
Nishikigoi International - koi magazine
McNeary's Arborists, Inc. - general pond information, koi stuff, Springflow filtering media, etc.
Koi Cymru - The South Wales Section of the British Koi-Keepers' Society - koi pond building, etc.
Quality Koi Company, Inc. - sell koi and supplies
Koi Page - a site with animation
JD's Koi Pond & Fish - includes some nice koi photos
Koi-zyme - a safe product made to help koi combat Aeromonas and other nasty bacteria; formerly called Lymnozyme.
Koiclay.com - sells calcium bentonite clay which is reported to improve the health of koi via the addition of minerals
Currahee Koi and Water Gardens in Georgia sells high quality koi. Hundreds of places sell koi!
Fancy Koi Outlet - sell koi supplies including koi-zyme, medicated food, and koi clay which may be hard to find at general pond suppliers.
Worldwide Koi Club Yahoo Group
KoiClubs.com - a list of koi clubs
Living Jewels - a koi site
Antonio's Koi - includes a page showing some of the different varieties of koi
Koi Keeper - software for koi pond owners.
Pond Armor - a product painted onto a surface to make it water tight and useable for a pond
The Koi Keepers - sell koi
Robert J. Conway Original Koi Paintings & Water Garden Art (link request)
Razor Back Koi - sell koi and supplies (link request)
Videokoi.com - sells a koi video featuring Dr. Johnson of koivet.com fame.
Photos of Koi - this page has photos that I took of various fancy koi at Ladew Topiary Gardens.
Happy Koi - a South African koi store and web site
Heating Your Pond - heaters for koi ponds
Koi Search - a Google search more specific to koi
Wilbur's Koi Pond - some photos I took of koi and their huge pond (in the dark though).
Koi Nursery - sell koi
For other pond web sites that may contain koi information as well and also for catalogs that contain koi-related supplies and koi themselves, go to my Pond Sources Page.
See the bottom of my pond page for the All Koi Pond Tour Web Ring as well as general pond web rings.
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