Koi fish ponds are growing in popularity throughout the world.
More and more people are adding these great focal points of entertainment and relaxation as a way to enhance the time they spend out by the barbecue.
Koi are wonderful ornamental fish, as they come in a wide array of breathtaking colors.
They are also very hardy, and so they can take a great deal of variation in the quality of their outdoor environment.
So, with your interest piqued, let's look at some things about koi fish ponds you'll want to keep in mind.
Two of the most important considerations for koi fish ponds are the size of the pond you end up with and the temperature of the water.
These can most greatly impact the health of the fish.
The size of the koi fish ponds people select is important because koi can live a long time.
Therefore, it's not uncommon for people to end up with far more fish than they started with.
Sure, they could breed.
But that's not what I mean.
Your fish can grow considerably.
You always want your fish to have plenty of room, so I always suggest you at least go with a 500 gallon pond.
Next, the water temperature will make a difference in how things play out.
Koi fish ponds can stand to be on the cooler side, as these are far from tropical fish.
They like cooler water, and something in the 60's is usually ideal.
Keep in mind that you can even have ice form on the surface of the pone and all is well.
The koi will tend to hibernate.
Their digestion slows way down and they will do just fine.
Once you've made your selection among available koi fish ponds to choose from, the fun part is in selecting how you want to beautify your set-up.
A lot of koi ponds will have lilies growing in them.
The lilies are nice in that they provide shade, and you can even shade up to three-quarters of the pond.
This will help keep algae from growing rampantly too.
In fact, it's best that koi fish ponds only get about 5 or so hours of directly sunlight each day.
Algae and increased water temperature could result otherwise.
Another thing that can relate to shade and sun exposure is the placement of koi fish ponds.
However, you might be careful about putting it right under a shade tree.
It can increase the number of bugs that end up as nice treats for the koi, as well as larvae, which they seem to like.
Yet, it can also produce a lot of falling leaves and broken branches to clean up.
So you want to balance how close to trees you might put the pond.
Koi ponds also benefit from carefully thinking through how deep you want to build.
See, on the one hand, you might think that a shallow pond would be easier to maintain.
However, maintenance may not be nearly as large a problem as predators.
For instance, raccoons can be a particularly big nuisance.
But, a deep pond allows the fish to easily move down and avoid the attack.
Blue herons are also a huge problem, because they can choke down a lot of koi.
A pond that's about eight feet deep usually puts the fish out of reach.
Other people simply use bird nets over the pond to prevent attack.