a hello and an apology. (Long w/ cliffnotes)

[cmalgee]

Howdy everyone. I'm Chris, and I've been keeping some form of carp for the last 5 years (I still have 2 of the original 12 fish and actually gave away 6). I bought my house in the hills of Virginia that had an ex-fishpond mud hole in the backyard that I wanted to clean up.

I haven't had a fish die in 3 years and that was a new koi brought into my tiny pond. I didn't have the understanding that I should've at the time and still don't today, but seem to have healthy water in my expanded but still small pond. I did however have a kujaku disappear from my pond last weekend while I was in New York. It wasn't a great fish by what I'm learning to be higher quality standards, but my ex-gf and I got it together a year ago and it was disappointing.

Ok - my pond. It's actually a water garden. It is 390 gallons, not including the waterfall, after the biggest expansion I could make. I have a 900 gph pump and a mechanical filter/UV combo from laguna that's good for 700 gallons. I also have a prefilter box on a small 120 gph pump that's surrounded by bio-balls, and my waterfall is filled with lava rock. I have 3 koi - 1 7-8" shusui, 1 5" hariwake, and 1 5" sanke. I also have 1 6" goldfish, 1 5" shubunkin, and a couple other small fish that I'm going to remove so it would be the one goldy and shubunkin up top in the 150 gallon pond, and the 3 koi in the bottom in the 240 gallon pond. I take very good care of my pond with 10% water changes and filter backwashes more than 3x a week. The water tests and looks great.

Now in my first days of looking into the koi-bito forum (that I really love so far), I got excited about the prospect of getting a beautiful showa from enkoi, and asked jnorth if I could participate in the grow out. After reading more about the conditions necessary to get the full benefit of a premium quality koi, I believe I need more room to do one of those beauties justice for more than a few years. Thank you very much jnorth for allowing me to participate, but I would feel like I was wasting a great fish if I brought an 8-10" premium in to such a small area. I think the difference in size of the pond alone would cause a great deal of stress, but I didn't realize that until I had already asked to participate, so I apologize that I didn't explain my concerns to you earlier.

Cliffs notes:
Hi!
I have a small pond that is well-filtered for now
I've got 3 pond quality koi
Asked to join in enkoi grow out
backed out without telling jnorth
Sorry. Hope you don't hold it against me!
I'll be happy to answer any questions or comments!

[KoiCop]

Hello Chris . . .

Sory to hear you had to back out on getting that showa but, all things considered, I think you made the right decision.

Hopefully one day you'll be able to expand and try it again.

[cmalgee]

[QUOTE=KoiCop;115166]Hello Chris . . .

Sory to hear you had to back out on getting that showa but, all things considered, I think you made the right decision.

Hopefully one day you'll be able to expand and try it again.[/QUOTE]


Thanks, KoiCop.

I agree with "Hopefully, one day". Any suggestions for what I am working with currently?

[glitterfin]

Welcome to the forum. I think you did the right thing. Hopefully, the smaller pond will be a good experience, and then you can make a larger pond for your koi later on, and be better equipped to do it right the first time.

[jnorth]

[QUOTE=cmalgee;115124]

Now in my first days of looking into the koi-bito forum (that I really love so far), I got excited about the prospect of getting a beautiful showa from enkoi, and asked jnorth if I could participate in the grow out. After reading more about the conditions necessary to get the full benefit of a premium quality koi, I believe I need more room to do one of those beauties justice for more than a few years. Thank you very much jnorth for allowing me to participate, but I would feel like I was wasting a great fish if I brought an 8-10" premium in to such a small area. I think the difference in size of the pond alone would cause a great deal of stress, but I didn't realize that until I had already asked to participate, so I apologize that I didn't explain my concerns to you earlier.

Cliffs notes:
Hi!
I have a small pond that is well-filtered for now
I've got 3 pond quality koi
Asked to join in enkoi grow out
backed out without telling jnorth
Sorry. Hope you don't hold it against me!
I'll be happy to answer any questions or comments![/QUOTE]

No big deal You probably did the right thing. No one will hold it against you.