Thread: Looks like I chose the wrong afternoon to start moving koi !!!

Had a bit of a filter clean SNAFU so had to move the Sanke earlier in the day than originally planned.

Cleaned the Eazy Pod and while refilling it I noticed that the water butt kept overflowing so initially thought the outlet of the water butt was blocked so to stop it overflowing I ran the sump pump to fill the second water butt, but the first water butt was still filling up. I had left the waste valve open on the Eazy Pod and the water was draining faster than the top up was going in

I thought the best option was to move the Sanke ASAP so there wasn't too much of a water quality difference.

Normally 2 boils and 2 flushes are about a 15 to 20% water change but now I'm probably doing a 30 to 40% water change !!!

I thought it was worth starting to move some K1 from the QT system bio chamber to the pond one to allow for the changes in the bio loading after moving the 2 koi.

Apart from that and the Sanke kicking off and soaking me it all went pretty smoothly lol

The Showa the other night reminded me of this lol

https://images.app.goo.gl/RUUnyXK8fvEuRbf17

Bit of a better result on the first feed this afternoon. The Sanke kept coming up to the pellets and was just mouthing at them but not eating them but after a few minutes it slowly started to eat some. All the other fish in the pond were reacting a bit nervous after adding the Sanke but most were eating OK except the Showa. It did start eating a bit but no where near as much as it had this morning. See what happens when I feed them later tonight. Might try the wait till dark trick that worked with the Showa earlier in the week. It did appear that the Sanke wasn't as bothered about the other fish in the pond compared to how the Showa reacted for the first couple of days or so. Maybe the Sanke remembered the Showa from the QT system and realised it had a friend there already as they were swimming around together quite a bit which was good to see. Just hope the Goshiki reacts as quickly next weekend

The Goshiki, Platinum Ogon and the Tench that are still in the QT system disappeared as soon as I lifted the cover when I fed them not long after removing the Sanke not surprisingly lol but I could soon hear something attacking the food as soon as I walked away.

I should have taken a photo of what happened when I tried to net the Sanke!!! One second all 3 koi were up one end expecting to be fed then the net went in and they were gone. After a short bit of chasing them around they were all back in the left hand back corner so I kind of trapped them in the corner and carefully lifted the net up and before I knew it all 3 were in the bloody net! I carefully tilted the net over slightly and fortunately the Platinum Ogon swam out then had another go and the Goshiki swam out. Result! I got the Sanke into the koi sock and moved it from the net to the pond as quick as possible as it kicked off as soon as it felt itself being lifted out of the water. That's when I got a free shower but it definitely wasn't a nice fresh one, so that's probably where the term Manky Sanke comes from lol

Hopefully this shows a photo?

Not the best quality I know. The Showa is bottom right and the Sanke is top left assuming the photo uploads onto here that is?

20220618_132458.jpg

The photo has been flipped onto it's side as it should be viewed portrait not landscape orientation

The photo worked! They all look a good size, how big are they roughly?

Originally Posted by samp09

The photo worked! They all look a good size, how big are they roughly?

Thanks for the confirmation

The Showa was 49cm when it went into the QT system a year ago but not sure if it's grown much as I didn't want to hang around measuring it and the same goes for the Sanke but that was only about 47 or 48cm a year ago I think?

What I might try doing is lay a tape measure along the side of the pond and see if I can get a bit of a better size estimate in a couple of days time once they have settled in a bit more.

OK so trying to measure them in the pond was very hit and miss but I did get 2 markers in the pond where I feed them that does help estimate the sizes of them. So as an educated best questimate I would say the Showa is around 50cm to 53cm and the Sanke is around 50cm to 51cm.

Just moved the Goshiki into the pond this afternoon. It was a right bugger to catch in the tank compared to trying to catch the Sanke last Saturday when I ended up with the Sanke, Goshiki and the Platinum Ogon in the net at the same time. It was slightly easier to move from the tank to the pond as it was kicking off far less than the other 2 were. It looks small compared to the Showa and Sanke but it was the smallest of the 3 to start with but not by how much it is now! The other 2 could have grown a bit after being moved into the pond maybe? I can't see it would have shrunk in the tank as it was always one of the first up for feeding as it was always one of the friendliest along with the Platinum Ogon, plus with the water temperature being mid teens to nearly the mid twenties since it went in there over a year ago.

Just fed them and eventually the Goshiki took some pellets from the surface. Very cautious it was for a few minutes and like the other 2 it cane up and mouthed at the food a lot without eating

Just moved the Platinum Ogon and the golden tench from the QT system to the pond this morning. So now the QT system hasn't got any fish in it but I'm going to be keeping it running for a few days or so just incase. Turned the heater off though as the room temperature is heating the tank higher than the heater is currently set to so seems a bit pointless running the heater just to keep a constant temperature over night now there's nothing in there. I'm thinking about removing the rest of the K1 from the bio chamber later today but will leave those pond chips in there as they can't be put into the IBC bio chamber for the pond because they get through the slots in the pipework and then block the return pipe. Been there, seen it, and got the soaked T shirt to prove it

The Platinum Ogon was a bit of a nightmare to get out and I was expecting that to have been the easiest of the 2. I had to remove all 3 polycarbonate sheets and turn off the aeration to be able to see the fish in the tank well enough to catch them. The Platinum Ogon kicked off a bit when trying to lift it out of the water in the koi sock and the tench went ballistic when it saw the sock. I thought it was going to leap out of the net and I'd have to try to catch it again. Once it was in the sock it was pretty calm and I only got a free shower from the Platinum Ogon, fortunately

Both fish seemed to be not that fussed about being put in the pond unlike the Showa, Sanke and Goshiki were. Maybe it was because they had been in there before so maybe they remembered the other fish from before?

Will see how they react to the early afternoon feed later.

Well the Platinum Ogon came up for food fairly quickly this afternoon and definitely eat some pellets and at the evening feed it nearly leapt out of the pond trying to get at the food

The Tench looked like it came up for food both times so that's a better result than the previous 3 and far better than I was expecting to see for at least a couple of days or so

Sounds good Frim, can't beat seeing them feed in the pond for the first time

Originally Posted by samp09

Sounds good Frim, can't beat seeing them feed in the pond for the first time

They are a bit less willing to feed this morning but that could be due to putting some Aquasource Resolve in late last night, turning off the skimmer line over night and rain by the looks of things over night too.

Just been out to turn the skimmer line back on and all the food has gone. Can't even see any that could have drifted into the skimmer basket

Glad I moved the last 2 out of the QT on Wednesday as it was about 19 to 20 degrees in the pond and just under 22 degrees in the QT system, just checked the pond a couple of minutes ago and it was just over 24 degrees

It's meant to be getting warmer tomorrow and Sunday so could reach over mid 20s by this time on Sunday evening that's like a warm bath lol when I pulled the skimmer basket out the other day the water in there felt warm, but then that's being heated from nearly all angles by the air.

Originally Posted by Tom Koi

That's go growth Frim what size was the Showa when you put him in the grow on and did you heat growon tank?

Lol not quite as good as you think Tom as the Showa was about 49 cm when it went in the QT system last April and the heat was mostly 16 to 18 over the colder months and then I think it went up to 23 over the summer. So not massively heated really

Just wish I'd had the time to measure the Showa, Sanke and Goshiki when I moved them into the pond as all I have to compare them to size wise is what's already in the pond or 2 fixed points on the side of the pond where I put the food in which has given me an estimate of something like 55 cm for the Showa going down to maybe 50 cm for the Goshiki with the Sanke being somewhere in between them. I was in a hurry to get them out of the QT system and into the pond as quickly as possible and was getting soaked in the process.

The usual suspects were the first up for food this morning. The Platinum Ogon was the first which I was really pleased to see it back to it's old ways with it's head right out of the water going for the food. Why it hasn't grown to over 60 cm surprises me going by it's speed up for food! Maybe due to it's lack of eating the last couple of years? It eats as much as some of the bigger koi but maybe it shits more than they do which counteracts it's growing abilities? It's got a strange mouth, swims very oddly and currently has a lump out of one of it's pectoral fins but it's the most friendly fish in the pond. Maybe it's part Chag lol