JR stocking recommendations

[JasPR]

Yours would be more an issue of bacteria count and contagious disease transfer. If your koi are established than this is one thing- but stocking a rotation at that size/stocking rate could lead to problems.
Many of the fish you see shoulder to shoulder in commercial facilities are fed very very little. Ammonia is not THE problem, it is bacteria count and organic waste management. JR

[dizzyfish]

JR,
It's the same fish in the pond. The bacteria count may well be high, but I haven't had too much problem with ulcers, although I do know what they look like. I understand Spring thaw is the real test and the winter we are suddenly having may be telling. I do believe the DOC's are higher than optimal. As soon as it warms up a bit I'm going to make one of those downdraft skimmers for the pond. I keep a pretty close watch for parasites and change a lot of water. It's not the ideal setup but I care enough about my fish to keep them in pretty good shape and they seem to doing pretty well so far. (Touch wood)
Mitch

[dick benbow]

When I first got started with koi some 3 decades ago Eddie Fujimoto, had just stepped aside from starting Koi USA and was going to help us get Puget Sound Koi Club Going as the first club in the state of washington. I would ask Eddie lots of questions as a newbee and he would always think for a while and then give me my answer. As the club grew and different folks asked the same question over the years I began to understand that he dispensed answers on where he figured the koi keeper was at in his/her development.
When i read this thread i was reminded of the difficulty with one shoe size that fits all. If you make it big enough, it might fit all, but not very well.....so many things about koi are that way. As pointed out dealers have different interest than hobbyists and folks with show aspirations and bigger ponds have different requirerments than those that simply want to keep their buddies in good health, growth or color development is not high on the list of concerns. To this day i still run into an occassional one inch per gallon rule as a carry over from aquarium days.LOL. I think 250 gallons per koi for a rule of thumb is a good place to start. I think a serious ponder with show koi that need to grow can start at 1,000 gallons per female. I know henry C uses 2,500 as his stocking level.

[JasPR]

2500 gallons per female- nice. THAT is beyond "Japanese standards" --that is down right 'Japanese Ninja' standards!! GO Henry!! JR

[dizzyfish]

Momotaro has a filtered concrete pond of 400,000 gallons (1,818 tons) that he rents out for something over $4K (2,200.00 British pounds) for 12 months. It has a limit of 25 koi so each koi gets 16,000 gallons or (72 tons) of space to itself according to Waddy.

[aquitori]

Quote: Originally Posted by dizzyfish Momotaro has a filtered concrete pond of 400,000 gallons (1,818 tons) that he rents out for something over $4K (2,200.00 British pounds) for 12 months. It has a limit of 25 koi so each koi gets 16,000 gallons or (72 tons) of space to itself according to Waddy.

That is a pond with no ordinary fish....

[keokoi]

Quote: Originally Posted by aquitori That is a pond with no ordinary fish....

Seeing is believing.. I never get tired of that pond..


Joe

[MikeM]

Dick: I'm saddened to report that Henry gave in to temptation. He has lowered his standards to a little less than 1500 gallons per fish. I think the RO water went to his head.. Of course, a couple are less than 30" ...this month.

[moikoi]

i want to stay within 500-600 gal per fish. i'm okay for now since i only have 14 (10-20" ) in my 12k pond. i will keep on culling as i get into some better quality fish.

[koiczar]

Moikoi

You're stocking rate (at this point) is great. If you exchange on a one to one ratio from this point forward, you'll really be doing well. Better than me! I'm still trying to decide what to cull just to get to 600-750/fish in the main pond.

Mike