Has anyone place koi in new pond (less than 5 days old)?

[cman.dc]

I been keeping several koi in a preform pond for awhile, very worried about their health. I had to empty the pond because of a leak, so I had to refill it.
I put in some Pondcare "Pond Start" to the new pond.
Not sure if I should wait it out for a couple weeks (waiting for the pond to establish) and keep doin water changes every 2 days in the preform to keep levels safe?

Just curious if anyone else was in the same situation involving putting koi into a pond that was less than a week old?

[reptar15]

you mean your filters aren't established? I wouldn't recommend what you are doing but if you had too then I would do DAILY water changes and do not feed your fish.

[Steve Nguyen]

you emptied and fixed the leak, then refilled the same preformed pond? if yes, it should be fine. what kind of filtering are you using and how old is the filter since it's in operation? if the filter is a couple months old. you should be ok. monitor your water conditions closely for next few weeks.

Steve

[JosephandGabby]

I know I'm probably going to get attacked for admitting this, but I've actually added Koi to a new pond on several occasions (years ago when I was a newbie) with no ill effects whatsoever. I wouldn't recommend following my irresponsbible example, especially if you have expensive show-quality Koi. But if absolutely necessary, you can add Koi to a new pond (no established filter) provided the water paramaters are comparable to what they're used to and you use dechlorinator. I'd hold back on feeding them for a while to help give the filter a chance to kick in. Again, for clarification, I'm not recommending you add a Koi -- any Koi -- to an unestablished pond. All I'm saying is that I have personally done it in the past and, fortunately, did not encounter any problems as a result of doing so. The best practice is to use an establsihed QT, letting your pond and filter setup get established, before adding Koi...

[Dan Blatt]

Depends on a couple things......
size of pond and number of fish. A couple small fish in a big pond...no need to worry. Of course thats assuming water has been declorinated. Ammonia levels won't even register.

[cman.dc]

They have been in the pond for 2 nights now, they seem to be doin well and ate twice today.

I have three koi in the 4-6inches range, my pond is 1600 gallon in size.
I checked the salt level, ph, nitrate, etc. beforehand all good.
Thanks Joe for putting your personal input...I was sweating it the last 48 hrs I'm glad someone else admitted having done the same thing

dan, thanks for putting things in perspective.

[MikeM]

At that stocking rate, you should be fine as long as you monitor the ammonia & nitrite. Feed only lightly and do not add any more fish until there is measurable nitrate and no measurable ammonia or nitrite. Even if it seems all is fine, wait at least 6 weeks before you even think about adding more fish. When your 3 get to be 18", the pond will not look so empty. When they are 22", it will look crowded.

[Steve Nguyen]

I would say s/he will add more fish sooner than you think. we've all been down that road before.

Steve

[Gail]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steve Nguyen I would say s/he will add more fish sooner than you think. we've all been down that road before. Steve

I agree..try and try to hold off on that!

[cman.dc]

My current kois (japanese) were bought from a local koi auction that had unsold koi from the auction. I bought the tosai (from what I was told) from the unsold batch, everything I bought was $15.

I am holding off buying more koi until the local show in Sept., because the quality japenese koi available here isn't cheap. I am applying the same approach in Sept., get bargains from visiting vendor looking to get rid of their inventory on the last night. But, I doubt I will get more $15 bargains

In short, I have no problem not adding koi anytime soon. Also, I don't want to spend alot of money on koi at this point (until I develop a good eye), but I don't want to waste my small pond space on junk.

I will cull some of the koi when my knowledge of the hobby gets better.
Your right Mike, I have seen a 1600 gallon pond with 3 18' koi in the past, the pond size seemed barely adequate.

My goal in the end 3 kois or sell all biggies, keep getting fingerling every year Thanks everyone for the advice. This board has reputation for being tough, but i'm looking to learn!