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Izzy's Koi Pond

31K views 110 replies 16 participants last post by  FishyFishy89 
#1 ·
I have made a few threads and shown a few pictures here and there. I've finally decided to devote a thread entirely to it. Mind you it will probably go dead when the winter comes but for the spring, summer, and early fall I will be posting a lot of pictures here. I am not joking when I say I have thousands of pictures of the pond and the koi. They are my favorite thing to photograph.

So a little bit of background about the pond. It is roughly 3500 gallons (based on the estimate of the builder who installed it) and has been running since spring 2007. The oldest koi is about 7 and the youngest are probably 5. One day I'll have to find a picture with all of the koi and label their names and breeds. I don't know the names of most of the plants that are in the pond aside from the iris. The first couple of years I also had water lettuce and water hyacinth, and I plan to get more again this year.

And now... pictures of opening day 2013!






This is the lower stream leading to the pump and bog. I love how much the moss has grown up here!


This is the view looking up the stream into the main pond. I love this perspective because you feel like a bug!


My mom and I saw a couple of trees blooming in the backyard earlier in the day. Upon investigating we found they were cherry blossom trees! We didn't plants them; they just came naturally. This must be the first year they bloomed, but now that I know they are there I will do my best to make them happy.


Another artsy picture of the moss reflections. I just love my moss!


And the koi. The water was still pretty chilly when I took the net off, so they weren't doing too much. But it's finally warmed up enough that I can feed them! They enjoyed their first meal of cheerios today.

 
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#28 ·
Don't know what kind of snake it is. Need to get a better look next time and research. It goes into the water but stays very close to the edge.

The entire family loves our little pond. My wife and son really have an eye for what's going on in there...better than me.
 
#29 ·
Fantastic pictures! I hope you do manage to get a shot of your little woodpecker friend. One of the coolest parts of having a pond must be all the life that comes with it. One day. . . I'll find out for myself! The salamander is AWESOME! I tend to like slimy, scaly things, too. . .lol!
 
#30 ·
we call them newts over here,and i have one in my pond,along
with a couple of frogs,and a little frog spawn,which hasn't done too great
this year,many of the eggs went mouldy for some reason,perhaps
the sharp drop in temp that we had.
i very much look forward to more pictures of yours :-D
 
#31 ·
So no new pictures of the koi. The canopy has really filled in and the lack of direct sunlight makes it very difficult to get good up close shots of them. And no full pond shots because it's pretty clogged with algae and the water hasn't been warm enough for me to go yank it all out.

But I can offer you flowers!! We have a few that I expect year after year around the pond.





The iris around the pond are in bloom. We only have yellow ones, and I kinda wish we had more colors.



This is one of the wildflowers that just kinda appeared. I have no clue what they are, but I do have a VA wildflower ID book. I should look them up. I love how they grow on the rocks in the moss.





This little beauty is called Blue-eyed grass. When I was doing a wildflower project for my high school bio teacher, we found this grass growing in a field and transplanted it to the pond. It's been slowly taking over which we love.
 
#34 ·
So I know I've been saying I'll do this for a while. I finally got good pictures of all of my koi (mostly) alone. Without further ado, I give you the koi school!

Umi



I believe she is the oldest koi in the pond. I bought her in winter 2006 at my Walmart and kept her in my 55 gal over the winter. She was the smallest of the original four but also the only one still alive. I lost the first two when I put them in the pond. I never saw them again. I lost the third during the first winter. Umi is a showa which is a breed of koi which is a koi with red and white markings on a black background.

Halloween



These next three koi were added at the same time in summer 2007. I bought them all from a pretty nice LPS about 45 minutes south of me. These guys were released directly into the pond the first summer it was in operation. Halloween is an aka bekko which is a orange or red koi with black markings. She's also a chagoi which means really fat and friendly koi hehe. She's probably the largest by weight in the pond which is understandable with the way she eats...

Byakko



This picture should look familiar to everyone lol! This is my special child. I put her directly into the pond, and after a couple of weeks discovered she has a mouth deformity. I don't know exactly what is wrong, but one side of her mouth doesn't open as it should. Despite this problem, she doesn't seem to have issues feeding. I was worried sick about her that first winter, but she came through swimmingly! Byakko is a shiro utsuri. This breed of koi is bi-color with white on black markings. In case you haven't noticed, the first word describes the color and the second word describes the pattern.

Kurama



With a photobomb from Genbu. Kurama is my tancho sanke. Tancho is the name given to koi with that red spot on their heads. The rounder the better. His was rounder when he was younger, but now it's loop-sided and gives him character. The black on his back makes him a sanke which is a white koi with red and black markings. He came in with Byakko and Halloween from that same pet store.

Genbu



This is where my memory gets a bit fuzzy. There are no pictures of the fish in the pond from 2008 (this was the summer that Erik and I began dating to give you an idea of why). The first time I saw Genbu in pictures was 2009. I'm going to hazard a guess and say I got Genbu in 2008 but never took any pictures of him. He is younger than most of the other fish and therefore smaller, but he's grown pretty steadily since I got him. His markings make him a gin matsuba. This is a silver koi with black spots in the middle of his scales giving a pinecone effect.

Suzaku



Again my memory isn't up to par. The first time he shows up in pictures is from after my graduation, but I KNOW I didn't add him the summer before that because I was working in Arkansas that summer. I'm going to guess that I got Suzaku in 2010. I know that he is the youngest koi in the pond, but I don't know just how young lol. He is a kohaku koi. His white and red markings are highly coveted. When kohaku only have a red circle on their head they are called tancho. A large female pure white tancho kohaku will sell for tens of thousands of dollars.

So thus ends my tour of the koi. Not all of these pictures were taken at the same time or even the same year, so the sizes and lighting will vary a bit. And when I get them uploaded I have some updated pictures of my pond. Still trying to get a good shot of the MASSIVE frog that lives there.
 
#35 ·
Awh!!!
Pretty fishys. I think I'll deff be starting a pond of some sort when we get our house. It's so much fun to watch them flourish with life.
 
#36 ·
Hi Izzy your pond is breathtaking and your Koi are beautiful ! Looking at a Koi pond is how I got started in fish keeping. I was with my daughter and when she saw how excited and happy I was watching the Koi she said mom you need and fish and she gave me my Betta Perseus a couple of weeks later for Mothers Day last year. I truly adore fish of all kinds !
 
#48 ·
*long drum roll* PICTURES!!

The light isn't cooperating with me, so these are the best I can do until I finish the book that is the instruction manual.







This is a new angle that you guys haven't seen the pond from, but it's the angel from which visitors to my house most often see the pond. It's easier to stand on a wall than walk through the brush.
 
#51 ·
The pic from above gives a hugely different perspective in the size of the pond. From ground level it doesn't look like they have much room... this way it looks huge!
 
#52 ·
Thanks, everyone! I'm really hoping to get a nice sunny day so I can get some up close pictures of the waterfall and the pond. Gotta mess with the settings to get some good pictures of the koi. They are surprisingly fast for something so large (and chubby in Halloween's case). The weather has just not been cooperating. It's been overcast and hazy for weeks now.
 
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