will sunlight help koi keep their vivid colors? part 2

[koi dealer]

Quote: Originally Posted by Graham Aaah Kid you're 13 years old ..you didn't mis-understand.... experience I don't think so...you're making off the cuff remarks on every board on the net based on a very basic limited knowledge of ornamental fish keeping...half of what you post is rubbish and the rest on inexperience. You need to stand down and listen to what people with years of experience have to say, you need to learn about fish and not just a koi.. G

ok.... 13? sure........

[Russell Peters]

It gets one thinking doesn't it. Why is 13 the unlucky age for posting?

Lildude = koidealer

Let us hope that they do not join forces. At least Lilduded has learned to listen.

[CarolinaGirl]

I have one koi that used to get sunburned on a regular basis. My pond is in full sun in South Carolina. For the most part, the koi did not enjoy having no escape from the sun. On a hot sunny day, they could be found lining up with their heads against the wall in the only bit of shade in the whole pond. They looked like cars in a parking lot. One large white koi used to swim near the surface and often got very pink along her dorsal area. Now I have two large shade sails covering the pond. As soon as I got the sails up, the fish became noticably more active, swimming more in the shaded areas than in the sun. No more sunburned pink koi either!

[aquitori]

There has to be some shade on the pond, fish exposed to full sunlight more than 8 hrs, have the skin of an older fish.

[moikoi]

mine only gets morning sun on the wide side of the pond,by noon time til sun down it's pretty much shaded with lattice.

[Russell Peters]

Quote: Originally Posted by moikoi mine only gets morning sun on the wide side of the pond,by noon time til sun down it's pretty much shaded with lattice.

That is still good, any sunlight is beneficial.

[gspotmc]

Quote: Originally Posted by Russell Peters It gets one thinking doesn't it. Why is 13 the unlucky age for posting? Lildude = koidealer Let us hope that they do not join forces. At least Lilduded has learned to listen.

Oh my goodness, is he listening right now? That's nice to know. But sometimes older generation can learn from young ones as well. But not when it comes to parenting. I am glad I have a lot of mentor (good ones) Jo Co, Ken Tran, K. Pham, Shawn M. and lastly R Peters. Not everything I do is right. But I can always absorb what they tell and they. It's not EASY BUT i think you learn from experience and not from bragging rights because I have this many champs and I always go to Japan to pick the best fish that money can buy and totally discrediting that he or she is with a dealer from USA.

Michael

[gspotmc]

Hello, My pond is under full sun. I guess it would be nice to have a little bit of shade. I experienced summer in full blast. Had 1 or 2 sanke that has hikkui right now. I don't know if it is related or not.
Michael

[Graham]

As I mentioned earlier, my pond gets full sun all day, with shadows being cast over certain parts from the shrubs around the pond. It's only later in the summer when the water is really warm.....for around here that's 78*..... that I'll notice the fish hanging in the shadows later in the day. So I would think that water temps play a major roll in whether a pond needs shade or not.

G

[JasPR]

It is amazing that something you might think is so straight forward is actually quite complicated.

Sun or any light discussed in this context requires a discussion of what 'light' is to begin with. Aqui you will know this, and so will Mike M and Mitch but I'm not sure about the rest? So forgive me if this is not of interest-

Light comes in both intensity and spectrum. Intensity is what it implies- how strong/bright the light is as it hits the fish's skin. Spectrum is what range of light is hitting the fish- what is the color spectrum of benefit and harm.
And if one is missing and the other is extreme , living cells can be negatively effected or positively effected.

So unlike fish tanks or 'nature', we need to first consider the pond depth and turbidity issues in the water column. In a deep pond, light is cut dramatically at three feet. So one neighbor might observe premature againg in the koi's skin, burns and washed out colors and the other neighbor with a 6 foot deep pond may have no such problems.
The same is true with water clarity. In truth, koi water should not be too too clear- as in 'chlorine treated white' water clear. This is very bad for the koi's skin especially if you now add in shallow depth and strong sun. Ironically, these puddle type ponds that are murky and green may be safer in this reagrd than a PP'd to death puddle that exposes the fish to constant sun at shallow depth.

So we need to consider pond design when we talk about light effects- both good and bad. Then we can talk about intensity and exposure time with a small 'e' in the effect on koi.
Spectrum- this would be when the sun hits one's pond. Meaning at what time of day? is it only morning sun? ( the absolute best) or mid day ( bad and only good in ponds at or over 4 feet deep) or late in the afternoon ( also very good)

Finally, indoor koi keeping does carry the risk of declining color ( especially beni) depending on age of fish and quality of the fish. This is because as skin gets deeper and wider, the lights ability to penetrate to the color cells developing in the deep dermis is greatly reduced. Color cells are quite delicate. There is also the issue of vitamin conversion/ assimilation and algae growth and its role in maintaining algae indoors as the fish can't just be fed color food they must be able to absorb and convert and this requires light, but that is another subject.
JR