Koi fish can swim in a highly populated plant environment, if the pond is deep enough although koi fish are much happier if the pond is less populated and they have a reasonable amount of space to swim about in and of course if the pond is filtered adequately. The general ‘rule of thumb’ recommendation for stocking a pond is to have no more than one inch of fish per square foot of the pond surface area. Filtration is important to keep ammonia levels down, the water quality is important to the fishes survival.

Koi fish need to be monitored and fed sufficiently and require greens in their diet and they tend to find submerged grasses and lily plants particularly tasty! Koi fish are similar to Carp as they are both omnivorous and need to be fed once or twice a day, pelletised food can easily be obtained from garden centres, most provide ones especially for Koi fish containing all their nutritional requirements.

Koi fish are also notorious for rooting plants and it is worth keeping valuable plants in tubs before placing them on the pond floor.

Koi Filtration

Before designing a koi pond it is important to consider which filter system to use. Many pond enthusiasts forget to take into account the size of koi filters before constructing the pond. Prefabricated multi-chamber systems are easy use and install and are now widely used.

Oasis Vor-tec filter systems are extremely popular and easy to install.