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Ok, I assume there’s no such thing as a stupid question here: My parents have had two koi in their pond for the last 15 years. They are (or rather were) huge. They usually swim around the pond near each other. We assume they’re the same sex since they’ve never laid any eggs. But, today I found one of the koi dead. The other one looks fine, it was hanging around at the opposite side of the pond as the dead one. My question is, do you think the other koi is gonna be sad that its friend is dead and its the only fish left in the pond? Should we consider getting another koi? Or is it just silly to worry about? Edit: actually, I found two dead frogs just laying intact by the side of their pond a week ago, and I wondered what had killed them. Could anything be wrong with the pond? It’s just a medium-sized backyard pond with a bubbler in it, and various animals like frogs and turtles and a few small fish other than the koi. There’s a pump to pump extra water in there that hasn’t been used in a few months. The area’s been pretty dry recently but the pond level is ok. No chemicals have been put in there. Sucrose fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Apr 5, 2021 |
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Apr 4, 2021 21:42
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Stoca Zola posted:I can't see any filtration listed here. I also can't see any plants listed. So, I'm not sure how the fish/turtle wastes are being dealt with in this pond. Koi are social fish but are probably too big for a medium sized backyard pond so I wouldn't recommend getting more (how big/deep is medium?). It wouldn't surprise me if something has built up in the water over time that affected the frogs, as frogs have permeable skin and I think are most likely to be sensitive. With water evaporating from the pond and only top ups (perhaps from tap water) and not actual water changes you could definitely be concentrating either waste products or chemicals that are in the source water. If you are interested in doing some testing the easiest way is probably a dip stick test as that should show ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels, hardness, pH and chlorine. Wet tests where you use chemicals and test tubes are more accurate but also more expensive so it depends on how much effort you want to put into diagnosing the pond. Other things that might be present that could be harder to test for are copper or heavy metals, or pollutants carried into the pond by rainwater. It sounds like the water isn't treated by water conditioner before the pond is topped up? The Koi were fine in the pond for 15 years. It's big enough that we've never fed them. I think far more could probably comfortably live there, especially if we fed them, but there's always been only two.The water is just from a well. I guess my main question is the social aspect. There's probably nothing wrong with the pond itself, or if there is I'd never be able to guess it. Is the remaining koi going to get horribly lonely now that there's just one? I came back to the pond later and the living koi was sitting right next to the dead one's body, I don't know if that means it's sad or it means it doesn't care in the slightest.
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Apr 5, 2021 18:26
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Stoca Zola posted:Koi are absolutely social fish, your surviving koi might not do well alone especially if its pondmates are small enough that it doesn't really notice them. Maybe my interpretation of medium pond is very different to yours but I still think a populated pond should have intentional filtration. Well water can carry nitrates and other pollutants from the water table and pond plants or emersed plants at the edges are a good way to consume these. Oh yeah this is an entirely different kind of pond. My mom lives in rural western Michigan, the pond and other ponds around here are more like the pond in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXYGkkrkvlQ. Usually nothing is done to maintain them, they just exist. RoboRodent posted:Why are you so sure there's nothing wrong with the pond, and why aren't you interested in addressing that? It's a pond that was originally just a pond in the corner of some farmer's field, with nothing done to maintain it. It was gradually getting shallower though, so my dad had it dug out and installed a bubbler and a pump that pumps water into it if you turn it on. My dad unexpectedly passed away in January. I don't really know how to take care of his pond, but I don't think he did anything to it other than turn the pump on once and a while to keep the water level high. I have no idea what could have killed the koi, I'm mainly concerned about the surviving one; if it will be just fine on its own or if we ought to buy another koi to keep it company. Though, I have no idea what sex the koi in the pond is, and accidentally putting an opposite sex one in and ending up with a million more koi in the pond would definitely not be ideal. Sucrose fucked around with this message at 17:28 on Apr 9, 2021 |
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Apr 9, 2021 17:01
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