Should I Keep the Pump Running Through Winter?

 The question of whether or not to keep your koi pond's pump and filter running through the winter is one that many hobbyists ask this time of the year, although it can be difficult to give a straight answer. In general I would say yes, keep things running as they are but this depends greatly on the climate of where you live, the current weather and your pond/filter setup.

Koi are very adaptable and can cope with most climates, although extremes should be avoided. The water shouldn't be allowed to drop to below 4C for long, and rapid changes can be very stressful. This is one of the main reasons why people heat their ponds, not to keep them at summer temperatures, but to keep them stable. Of course people that choose to heat their koi ponds will leave their pumps and filters running, as often they will maintain the temperatures just high enough to continue light feeding. This usually requires that you keep the heat in with a pond cover to cut down on the fuel bills. A cover is also very useful even if you don't heat your pond just to keep out the worst of the winter weather and reduces wind chill.

As the temperatures reduce so does the activity of your koi and filter bacteria. Conversely dissolved oxygen levels increase, so with less demand below 8C aeration from fountains, waterfalls and air pumps can be switched off or diverted. In fact devices like this can actually chill the water further, one of the reasons trickle filters and Bakki showers have failed to take off in the UK. You may wish to keep air pumps running to your filter as moving water takes longer to freeze and it can help with re-establishing the bacteria come spring.

One of the main misconceptions about the design of a koi pond is that it should be very deep for the koi to survive over winter. A lot of this has come from garden pond and water garden advice where fish are kept in a much more natural environment and at lower densities. Most garden ponds are deep enough not to freeze solid, so the main reasons for a koi pond being so deep is its ability to support a greater quantity of fish and also provide more stable conditions. Experts talk about the stratification of water into different temperature layers due to the varying densities that are unique to water. It's because of this that it is suggested that koi move to the bottom of a pond because it is warmer but the truth is that koi sit on the bottom to conserve energy. What is being described is a thermocline where water as it gets colder gets heavier until it reaches it's maximum density at 4C. As it gets colder still it gets strangely less dense until it becomes ice, which we all know floats.

What this means is the bottom of your pond cannot be warmer than 4C before ice starts to form on the surface. On the other hand if you continue to circulate the water from the bottom to the surface the mixing can reduce the overall pond temperatures still further which is not good for your koi. As well as the temperature effect koi need to save energy through the winter months so are better off without having to swim against strong currents.

The answer then is when the water temperatures drop to 8C try to maintain it by reducing the exposure to the colder air by restricting the pump flow or use a smaller pump. You can make the water return to the pond by creating less splashing and it's also a good idea to lag the pipes. Submersible pumps in the pond can be raised if possible to leave the warmer water undisturbed. Years ago before filters were fed by bottom drains it was common to have a mid water intake and are very useful to have if you experience a harsh winter.

If the bottom temperature drops further to 4C then it's probably best to either switch off the pump or use a heater. If you do choose to switch off the pump then try to empty the pipes so there's no chance of them splitting if it does freeze. Don't worry if the pond does ice over as this normally won't cause any problems unless it stays like it for weeks and the pond is heavily stocked.

Labels: pond pumps

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Piscinarii

  Piscinarii.com has kindly given this blog Koi Carp a mention, so I thought I would share a little link love and return the favour. This is not difficult though as Piscinarii.com is one of the most entertaining and interesting fish keeping blogs out there. Recent posts have covered everything from movies and celebrities, through to how religion can influence keeping fish. This blog comes from the Philippines, a country with many tropical fish enthusiasts and a growing number of koi fans. It has been reported recently that their fish farmers have been considering diversifying into koi breeding due to new demand and the high costs of importation. While it's easy to get envious of their climate, there are a few unique problems that their koi keepers have to deal with, such as Typhons.
Piscinarii for those like me that didn't study Latin at school, is the name for a fish pond owner. Marcus Cicero used it to describe rich Roman citizens who were more interested in keeping their ornamental ponds than in politics. It became associated as a derisive term implying madness. Perhaps a modern alternative for someone with an obsessive interest would now be called an Otaku in Japanese, or more tongue in cheek for a koi fan, Koi Kichi. These terms though only relate to a persons deep interest in the subject, whereas Cicero's use of Piscinarii was to poke fun at the rich and powerful whose ponds were status symbols for showing off. The Romans became quite adept at keeping fish in ponds they called Piscinae, but it was found easier and more profitable to grow freshwater fish for food. Sea fish were preferred though so a divide grew between salt water ponds (Piscinae Salsae), which were expensive and mostly for novelty value and freshwater ponds that were a source of food for the average Roman citizen. It was written in 37 BC that a ponds appeal was to the eye rather than the purse, which it emptied rather than being filled. This is something many koi keepers can identify with.

"For in the first place they are built at great cost, in the second place they are stocked at great cost, and in the third place they are kept up at great cost" With Roman nobility trying to out do each other in the late republic, they would build grand villas by the sea with fishponds in coves and inlets, much like the swimming pools at millionaires pads today. Many were built from an early concrete that set underwater and used a network of channels with brass grates to regulate the level and salinity.
The photo above shows part of a saltwater fishpond that belonged to the Emperor Tiberius. This pond mixes with the sea at high tide, but like many Roman fishponds of the time, it's mainly brackish as it's diluted by natural springs in the cave. There's a narrow channel that connects the sea to the pond and allows fish to enter but not escape. The fish must have thought they were swimming up stream, attracted by the freshwater. It has been suggested that the four tanks in the centre were used to house fish that if put together would eat each other but could just have easily been used to place fish for easy catching. People probably slaves, were employed to catch food for the fish and sometimes they would even buy it from the market. How long they managed to keep these fish alive I don't know, but it's quite amazing to think that around the time of Jesus, and without all the modern equipment we have today, people were enjoying a similar hobby. Although it's well known that the Chinese have kept ornamental fish for thousands of years, it's most likely that the Romans were the first to spread the use of aquaculture throughout Europe, with it later being continued by medieval monks. Labels: fishkeeping, ponds

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Autumn pond maintenance

 

Listening to the news today it's been reported that the UK has had the longest period of warm weather on record. I doubt this is all to do with global warming and sooner or later things will get back to normal. Now then, if you haven't done so already, is the time to get your koi pond ready for when the cold does eventually arrive.

The koi are definitely benefiting from the warmer weather as they continue to feed, but this should be reduced and only once or twice a day. Feeding koi a wheatgerm based food helps their digestion and the lower protein reduces any waste that the filter has to cope with. As the temperatures drop and your koi become less active so do the bacteria we rely on so heavily to keep the pond healthy. Luckily for our koi the growth of bad bacteria is also slowed but to help prevent any problems we should remove the sources of pollution before they can get a chance.

One of the biggest headaches this time of the year are leaves falling in the pond. They seem to be hanging on to some of the trees later this year, as though they like us are not quite ready for this weather to end. The most effective way to keep leaves out is to cover your pond with a weather proof cover or net. These both provide benefits but to some they can prove unsightly and not practical with every shape and design of pond.

The option then is to regularly remove them yourself or with a skimmer. Most leaves floating on the surface won't cause many problems and can even look rather nice, something the Japanese take great delight in, but if left to build up they can block pumps and later decompose effecting water quality. One variety of koi the Ochiba Shigure is even named after its appearance resembling dead leaves on a pond.

If you don't prevent the leaves from entering your pond then make sure the skimmer is regularly emptied or alternatively remove them yourself with a net everyday. This can be a pain but if removed now come spring you will have less problems to deal with. The greatest risks are leaves settling at the bottom or in quiet areas and then turning stagnant. A pond vacuum is very useful for this as well as cleaning out any other areas of the pond that collects dirt. There are a number of bacterial products that claim to remove waste and mulm from a pond before winter, but what needs to be remembered is that they will be less effective the colder it gets and should never be a substitute for good old fashioned cleaning.

Labels: koi health, koi pond, water quality

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Getting Started

My water quality experiment has been running for a week now but there's very little visible change. This is not surprising considering it was started as a sterile environment with raw tap water and the only things added have been dechlorinator and three Saki Hikari pellets. This is what many koi keepers go through when filling their ponds for the first time and is often referred to as getting the pond to cycle. This means establishing a colony of bacteria in the filter which break down the waste products that build up into safer compounds, ammonia being the most harmful to koi. The cycle part refers to the nitrogen cycle, of which ammonia as a compound of nitrogen is part of.

A koi pond filter can take anywhere between a week to over a month to fully cycle depending on the conditions. Around 20 days is about average to establish a working bio filter but it may take many more months before it's at full strength and mature. This is why new ponds can experience problems often called new pond syndrome when too many koi are added too early. Nearly any body of water will not remain sterile for long and even chlorinated tap water will not kill all organisms, the reason you shouldn't clean contact lenses in it, but there are ways to speed things up.

The quickest way to seed a bio filter is to introduce some media from an already established filter. For most people this isn't an option and it could be a source of introducing disease so the next best thing is to buy a product that contains a ready culture of bacteria. These can be great to get things going or as a boost but they don't contain the true nitrifying bacteria needed for an efficient and stable koi pond filter. The nitrifying bacteria Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter (Nitrospira is in fact more common as the nitrite reducing bacteria in water) are much slower developing and being autotrophic need a steady supply of the chemicals ammonia and nitrite to feed on, so are very difficult to store alive. Until these bacteria gain in numbers it's best to carry out regular water changes and only introduce a few koi with light feeding to start with.

In my experiment I've not added any bacterial products as I wanted to let things develop naturally and not be influenced by an abundance of certain strains. Most of these products contain heterotrophic bacteria which can feed on a variety of things and are responsible for mineralising organic waste into ammonia. They can do some of the work for the nitrifying bacteria but given a choice they prefer organic waste because it releases more energy.

Without any koi the only source of ammonia so far will be from the food pellets but these first have to be mineralised by hetertrophic bacteria. Having tested the water the ammonia levels are registering at around 0.15 mg/l which in a pond of koi would not be healthy but it does suggests that bacteria are present. One of the sources of the bacteria could have been in the koi food itself as Saki Hikari contains a probiotic to aid digestion. I'm going to switch foods to see if this makes any difference but it maybe something worth investigating later on.

Labels: koi pond filters, water quality

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Yumekoi Euthanize Koi in the Fight Against KHV

  To follow the recent Yumekoi update these shocking before and after photos have been posted on the Yumekoi site. It's very sad and such a waste considering the care and effort that they had been given but necessary. These koi had to be euthanized, even though they may be healthy, to remove any doubt that KHV is still present. Since the Koi Herpes Virus (KHV) outbreak in June, Yumekoi have done everything to prevent the virus from spreading and to reassure their customers. Mike Snaden especially has acted admirably by being open about all the facts, and I am sure that when this dreadful business is all over peoples support for them and confidence in their koi will remain undiminished. It's still a difficult time for them emotionally and financially, so if you would like to help them out Isle of Ely Koi are collecting donations by email at yumekoi@isleofelykoi.co.ukmail.

Labels: KHV, koi health

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Rain Effects Your Koi Pond

  It's been raining cats and dogs in the last few days but the koi don't seem to mind. It's rare for a bit of rain to cause any problems but there are a few things to keep an eye on.

Smaller ground level ponds are most at risk from overflowing and pollution washing in from ground water. After a very heavy down pour it's a good idea to give your pond a check just to make sure things are OK. The best precaution is to have an overflow fitted, often easily placed in a gravity filter chamber sharing the same drain and can also allow for a continuous top up system. This is nice to have but not essential if you monitor the level regularly and reduced it if needs be with a submersible pump.

A koi pond that's built in a low lying area where the ground doesn't drain well can have problems with water running off the surface and back pressure. Liner ponds are particularly vulnerable to this and water can actually seep in between the wall and the liner causing it to bulge out. In a block built pond a gap left between the wall and the earth should help prevent this but in areas where there's a high water table a sump chamber that drains to the sewer may be necessary.

If you live in an area prone to flooding then a concrete above ground pond is the safest option. All rain water is soft and can be slightly acidic so it's worth checking your ponds pH to make sure it hasn't changed too much. Small water changes and crushed oyster shells should keep things stable but for some people they prefer to avoid any fluctuations by building a roof over their koi pond. In industrial areas a roof would be useful to avoid the problems of pollution, but for most people's ponds nothing more than the regular water changes are usually needed.

Labels: koi pond

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Yumekoi KHV Update

 The latest news from Yumekoi is that they should have received the test results from CEFAS by now and are euthanizing all infected koi. Since Mike Snaden took blood samples from all their koi, and their customers koi that may have come into contact with the KHV outbreak which occurred after the BKKS National, they have had to wait for the results due to CEFAS being overloaded with work. Because of the backlog of samples waiting to be tested CEFAS (Centre for Fisheries, Environment and Aquaculture Science) have had to allocate extra staff to the duty of testing. With CEFAS being the only test centre in the UK that uses the reliable Elisa test that identifies KHV anti-bodies, it's been a long and anxious wait for everybody involved. Yumekoi expect to get all the results back by today, which could decide the fate of some very high quality koi.

This has been probably the worst year on record of reported cases of KHV in the UK, mostly in fisheries but what was once an almost unheard of disease is probably the most talked about topic in koi circles. The scale of the problem in the UK is unknown as some of the cases my go unreported due to the fact that there is no known cure and that there aren't any regulations yet in place to do so. A case recently when men were caught by customs trying to smuggle carp into the country from France in a van, shows how difficult controlling the spread of this disease can be. It's expected that KHV will become a notifiable disease some time early next year and rules governing the movement and sale of live animals within the UK are set to tighten.

All around the world there are conflicting opinions about what to do about KHV and while a reliable vaccine is being worked on some countries see it as less of a problem. Recently scientists in Australia revealed that they have considered releasing KHV into the wild populations of carp as a way to control their numbers, as they are seen as a pest. As KHV only kills carp this would be effective but I don't like the idea of fixing one problem with another. Not all carp are killed by the virus with some acquiring immunity but at the same time being possible carriers to infect others. This would rely on man's intervention not to spread the disease any further which has already been shown to be fallible. Labels: KHV, koi health

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