What Are Koi Ponds?

There has been a lot noise made about them in recent years. Everyone is talking about getting or already having a Koi pond, but just what the heck is a Koi pond? Is it a pond of special seaweed? No thanks! If I get a craving to be covered in seaweed I will schedule an appointment at the spa and follow my seaweed wrap with a soak in a tub of mud. Or maybe unlike me you actually know that Koi is a kind of fish, not seaweed.

Did you know that Koi is a carp fish? They are very much like the goldfish in .color and size that most of us think of when thinking about the kinds of fish in tanks and ponds. This is due in large part to the efforts of breeders wanting to increase the Koi fish’s’ popularity among consumers as some Koi fish varieties have an ‘inconspicuous’ gray coloring to them. Some of the more ‘colorful’ Koi are found to have colors such as: black, red, white, blue, and yellow. Koi have ancestral ties to China and Japan. Like goldfish, Koi fish are a hardy breed of small fish.

Koi fish don’t need a lot of fussing to keep them in optimum shape either which explains their popularity among the majority of us who aren’t looking for yet another task to add to our daily to-do lists. They are a cold water fish and therefore your Koi pond needs to be deep enough to allow them to find cooler water near the bottom of the pond during especially warm months of the year. A Koi pond that has at least 4 feet of depth will also allow your Koi fish to survive wintry temperatures when the surface of the pond is likely to freeze. It is a good idea to place your Koi pond nearby large, leafy trees as this will help to hide your Koi from would-be predators such as birds, raccoons, and neighborhood cats. If predation upon your Koi fish becomes a problem you may need to install some sort of netting that will keep predators from getting into the Koi pond and having a go at the Koi.

So now you have discovered that a Koi pond isn’t some new-age contraption for holding seaweed. Instead a Koi pond can be an a mesmerizing scene in which to relax around as you watch your Koi fish swim, eat, and maybe even peek at you from time to time.