Dubuque Arboretum lost 300 koi & need more; Can your club help?

[B.Scott]

Good point Luke!

I think you picked up on one of the major dangers: People with koi that are unwanted giving them a new home! "Let's let them go in the big koi pond in the tree park!" One male among many females would fill the pond with fry in no time.

In any case the fish do not need to be anything more than "nice" as you don't want to tempt people to come back in the evening and "take them for a ride".

One little suggestion as to extra funding... The arboretum could put a couple of those gum ball machines filled with koi food next to the pond. This would bring the cost of feed from a debit to a profit and possibly discourage people from throwing bread into the pond.

B.Scott

[Werner]

It seems to me plan Werner --flow through from the existing well adjusted for the seasons and a propeller surface aerator, would solve the fish and funding problems. It would also eliminate the cost of running the energy hog pumps and the pump house could be converted to a Japanese Tea House bringing in more income. Elegant yet simple.

[luke frisbee]

i wouldn't even areate the water

[Werner]

A bottom draw aerator would keep the pond temperature layers from stratifiying, creating a larger zone of fish and aquatic life habitation. It would only need to be run a couple of hour a day in the warmest months, half hour up to freezing temps. It's output is similar to a fountain and would do much for esthetics in the pond.

[gregbickal]

Thanks everyone. Great suggestions. They need a way to drain out the muck, so retro fitting some vaccum heads on to their existing drain pipe would probably be the simplest solution. Then as you say, leave everything else as it is. Airiation would help.

As for population control, Your male/female ideas are all out of wack. Im thinking more of some LARGE MOUTH BASS and plenty of bluegills Kloubecs will probably stock the pond with some of their fingerlings, and I will probably donate my 25" large orange ogon so they have something with some size initially. I told the zoo to keep the number of koi to under 50 adults. 1 per 1,000 gallons. If their population gets to high, they can call the club out to do some culling, and auction off the extras like other places do.

They already sell koi food in cups. I told them about the gumball machines. They said on one holiday weekend they sold over 100lbs of food. That was a ticking timebomb waiting to happen.

[luke frisbee]

25 cents for a quarter oz of food dispensed from the koi/gumball.
100 lbs ( a buck a pound from mazuri or rangen in the quantities they would use)
100 lb x 16 bucks - 100 bucks =$1500Ask them if you can run the koi concession if you maintain the pond

heck i bet mazuri would give you a DEEP discount if they could put their labels on the gumball machines

[joe bauer]

it is 5' deep?


5' is not enough. koi do fine down to 40F, but a 5' deep pond can get a lot colder than that in that part of the country.

if you don't heat it, you better dig it deeper..............

[junglegeorge12]

They must not be charging enuf for the food if they sold 100 lbs, but the other point is they need a way to regulate how much food gets bought and fed, the gumball machine would fix too much overfeeding.

Other point, obviously manpower is an issue, if u draw from the deepest drain u will reduce the maount of hours per year needed to clean the bottom.....and who gets the koi sh*t detail anyway? I bet not the supervisor and does anyone else care enuf to do it right?

On the valve and controls issue, the core system is what it is, it can do anything even email your grandma to tell her to save the koi. However the valves and controls you are referring to to sqwitch the power over automatically may put the project out of their reach. 4" solenoid valves that r reliable r not cheap. A heavy enuf contactor system to run those pumps and enable switchover isnt the el cheapo either. I think it is better to make it simple and just let it call or email or sound an alarm to the supervisor and four others he designates until the problem is solved and waterflow returns. Valves and relays cost more and also make more things that can break. So bottom line, it can be done but I dont think it's worth it for their setup. Better to just put a simple call out alarm on a flow or differential switch, flow switches r inexpensive.

[bekko]

You guys are going to engineer this project to death. Just add water, add small cheap koi (any number, any size, any sex), clean it out and start over in 8 to 10 years when all the fish die again. Gets the job done with minimal man-hours and expense.

-stev ehop kins

[B.Scott]

Quote: You guys are going to engineer this project to death

My idea was a little flashing red light on the side of the pump house should the pump fail. Someone is bound to say something and all that needs to be done is send someone out with the key to open the door, close a valve or two and throw a switch.
I agree once again. What we need here is K.I.S.S. technology (keep it simple stupid)

B.Scott