hi guys, i have a problem ... i used to have a big bunch of oxygenating weed/plants, since i built the pond two years ago ive been putting in a big batch every summer because it just disappears over time. i do have 2 grass carp and 3 koi, they all range 6-10" ... could they be responceable? or does it die over the winter?
my neighbor has offered me a big aerator which he used to keep eels alive with, im considering it because surely it will be more affective? and i wont have to keep replacing weed which introduced leeches into my pond in its first year (not the type which attach themself to fish incase your wondering)

Cheers
Arran

i had read through that mf, i wondered why it didnt have ghost koi on the list till i found a also intresting article ..
http://www.petclubuk.com/p/pet-info/p ... types/ghost-koi-carp/1001
They are a different species from ornamental koi. typical of me to find that after i posted this. thanks anyway mf

Arran

has anyone got any of these? i think i have one which i bought as a 'ghost carp', but its very different from a ordinary ghost carp as its black and white! with the odd orange or red patch. the problem is i cant find much information on them, so is it likly to be of a koi variety? and if so does it differ from any other koi in terms of growth speed and its maximum size? im quite surpriced to have it only a year and its grown about 3/4x the size i got it.
Cheers
Arran.

ok, ill get some new bulbs this weekend and see how things go. thanks

ive had 2 tench in the past, but unfortunatly they got sucked up the pump if you get algae then there certainly a good choice because they eat it. great little fish, you cant expect them to grow huge though but their long living apparently and dont stop eating.

if your getting some grass carp your going to want some plants in the pond, they eat plants more than they eat fish pellets and such, also they love it when its belting hot(probably the most consistant time when they come to the surface) so dont get worried if they suddenly start playing about near the top.
mirror carp i wouldnt say are much different to koi so you should manage as you are there.
tench will eat anything! sinking pellets can sometimes be better for them, what i did instead of paying out maybe ?3 for some small pellets i went to the local fishing tackle shop and bought a 1kg bag of 3mm trout pellets their called only cost about ?1 if you dont buy the branded ones, really high in protien though so you cant feed them it over the winter, but any carp will eat these as well. theres actually a caresheet for tench on this site ...
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/ ... resheet.php?caresheetID=5
good luck and i hope everything goes well.

Arran

they tend to grow quite big but im unsure about the speed they grow at. ive got 2 at the moment 1 bought at 2-3"(july 2007) and the other bought at 6"(july 2008) ... the oldest is still only about 4-5" but the bigger one is getting on 8-9" now. so theres obviously a difference unless they grow faster after they get so big, or it could be a male/female thing, not sure.

those are great koi!
i have koi, ghost and grass carp in my pond, i did have mirror carp which grew considerably faster than the others. i can tell you where to get them but i know they only have them sometimes and its based in cumbria ... dont think they deliver fish either. if you want to know anyway the information is on here ...
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk ... re=167&thiscounty=Cumbria

mirror carp do grow very quickly. i know of a lake which ive known since they put carp in it. they only started out as 3-5oz and within a year every one of them was knocking 2-3lb and this lake was heavily stocked.

sorry about the late reply, i completely forgot my password and for some reason i couldnt change it till recently anyway, to your question they are heissner filters, right awkward things they are. i managed to find a LED shaped thing on the top and you can see the UV through this, they were both lit up. ive only changed 1 in the 2 years ive had them. im thinking of taking them apart and cleaning the sponges off, but the filters have a 'clean' option which flushes water through them and 'supposedly' cleans the everything inside ... so me taking it all apart is unnecessary surely? ... the algae is getting quite bad now, i cant see my bright yellow koi till their about 3inch under the surface, i just cant understand it.

thanks for the reply guys, yes, i have 2 uv filters constantly running, they are cleaned out once a week but this hasnt made any difference ... perhaps the bulbs have blown? if so how can i tell since your not suppose to look at them. also i am going to get some floating plants.

recently i have just noticed a baby fish in my pond, its about 1" could this be a last year suvivor? im curious, its the only one and the female fish in my pond have only just started to spawn, non of the males have any white spots... will they appear some time soon? or what happens if the females dont release the spawn anytime soon?

also the algae has made it impossible to see anything in my pond over the past week. what can i do without putting chemicals in?, i want to be able to keep an eye on the fish but since the algae has increased the fish havent been near the surface unless its for food. has this something to do with the water?

Thanks
Arran.