AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2002:

The football season starts in August; though I enjoy football it always starts too early for me and heralds the end of summer. The evenings draw in and the season begins to change, however Koi keepers can use the end of summer to their advantage. The fishermen amongst us are well aware that during this time the fish they seek to catch are very hungry. The reason for this is that fish and carp in particular are also aware that the seasons are changing and adjust to the shortening of the days and the drop in temperature. They know winter is around the corner and that they need to put down layers of fat to enable them to survive the harsher months and to be in good condition to spawn next year.

I regularly read the angling press and many of the known large carp that specialist anglers pursue obtain their highest weights in October / November. My koi are absolutely ravenous at this moment and I am feeding them as often as possible. However as I have a heated pond I will be able to feed throughout the winter. For those of you who don’t have a heated pond now’s the time to feed them as much as you can this will help them to cope with our harsh winter.

I recently visited Raey and Dee Squires of the Southern Koi Group which myself and Chris also belong to and I have say that the growth rates that they achieve are incredible. Full credit to them for doing so. I hope that Raey could be persuaded to write an article on his methods. I said to Raey while I was looking at his monsters that any koi over three years old should be replaced by koi of the new Jumbo lines. However my statement was wide of the mark, because undoubtedly there are many koi over three years old in the UK that are capable of obtaining Jumbo size. Most of these are of the Non- Go-Sanke variety’s. When I started keeping koi around ten years ago I met an MSB member called Jean Lynwood and she had many koi over 75cm. Jean won many awards at various koi shows over the south east. She has since retired and emigrated to Australia , but many MSB members still have her fish.

In July Chris & I went to visit Dream Koi where Gary Abram had many Tosai at a staggering 35cm, these fish were of an unbelievable quality, however Gary was very wary when catching these fish as the acted their age! And there was a real risk of them jumping and injuring themselves.

I believe if you wish to grow koi to a Jumbo size then the following are critical, but not in an order of importance.

1. A large deep heated pond
2. A strong current
3. Lot’s of air introduced into the water = oxygenation
4. Good quality food and varied diet, an absolute must
5. Low stocking density, to enable rapid growth

If you heat your pond, you can raise the temperature even during the summer months, koi in the Japanese mud ponds enjoy temperatures around 26-28c. You can replicate those temperatures. Nissai Mud ponds are often up to three metres deep. Raey, I know advocates a strong current to enable his fish to develop strong muscles, hence the good body shape of his fish. Koi do need lots of oxygen this helps skin quality as well as body shape and most importantly, good health. Most koi foods are of a good quality these days, but there are a few that should be avoided. You need experiment to find the food gives the best results. Also you can try them on treats such as prawns, brown bread & Manuka Honey and cockles. Lastly the less numbers of fish we keep the better the pond environment will be for the Koi that you do keep.

On a personal pond note I have been again battling against the odds with the dreaded green weed. Things came to a head in late August when just before our holidays, I had to dose the pond with half a kilo of clarasan. However this seems to have sorted out the green menace and I now have a clear pond, with just a short less than 10mm growth carpeting the sides. I’m sure the new 55 watt UV’s have helped, they finally arrived six weeks from order!!!