Temporary housing

Obviously the fish need a temporary home while their new big pond (please see next post) is going to be built.

David and Marco bought an above-ground pool with 12 feet diameter and about 3 feed deep, which we place in the enclosed patio (for security reasons). We move all the fish and the plants in there.

At the beginning the fish are very shy and always immediately disappear and hide when someone walks by. They soon find out though that people are not to be feared and that there is food coming from these hands! They are always hungry and if they don’t get enough food they go after the roots of the plants or chase the little fish. We are told that if you feed 50 pounds of food you get 25 pounds of fish. This is the rate at which they are growing and by the time we leave the biggest Koi are almost one foot long!

Koi can grow to 3 feet length (90 cm) and they can way up to 45 pounds (20 kg). I don’t know what the exact criteria are but some people pay up to $60,000 for a Koi!

The pool looks really pretty with the water lilies that are blooming and the hyacinths and the water lettuce that are covering part of the surface and provide needed shade.

However, for the size of this pond, the habitat is kind of overpopulated with more than twenty Koi and Marco has a lot of work every day to properly maintain the water and the filters.