is it possible to keep both happily in a pond together? i'm researching all my options for my new pond, i'd really like to be able to keep some koi in my 10x3x3ft pond which i'm guestimating will be approx 500gals, i realise that only a couple of koi would be possible, but could i add a small number of goldfish as well, i intend to put a strong filtration system in. I read on koivet.com that the

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GOLDEN RULE FOR KOI AND POND FISH is
"One inch of fish per ten gallons of pond water will do well if adequately filtrated and small, regular water changes are done."

What This Means:

Well, this is true for the quarantine and hospital tanks. This is true for retail tanks. This is true, no matter if you believe it or not. Just like the laws of gravity.

"When fish are sick, nothing you do will work until you remedy a crowding scenario. You can reduce the stocking density to the above, or Mother Nature will do it for you."

Then, your treatments will start to work.
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so going by this i could keep 50inches of fish, but obviously i would go much less than that to allow for growth.

if i where to buy say 2x6" koi would they grow massively on me or would they just grow to a size sustainable by the pond?

Sorry for the hundreds of questions...i just want to do the best i can!

Jamoko

I've seen koi and goldfish kept in ponds together, and I don't see a problem, but I can see koi getting a tad bit ambitious with food and starving off the smaller goldfish.

Really, 500 gallons isn't big enough for koi. My pond's just 250 gallons, and I can't imagine having one in there. I do have a baby koi that's going to summer out there so he'll hopefully GROW a bit, but he'll be re-homed next year. Ideally, a koi should have 1,000 gallons for a pond. Good luck!

I keep Koi, Comets and Shubunkins together in one side of my pond and then the slower fish on the other side (Oranda's, Ryunkin, Lionhead and Pearlscale). The fast fish are all together and they do just fine.

Koi and pond comets do just fine together. They can even have offspring, which from what I understand are ugly? I have one pond comet in with my pond (well as you know it's not really mine anymore but it is mine ). If you keep your water perameters good your koi will keep growing. The only time that their growth is really stunted is when they are in bad water. You don't want to try that because it can be deadly. I've heard of people keeping koi in 100 gallons and they grow to almost 3 feet long, which I think is mean. This is just an example of how they will out grow the environment if they have good water quality.

mmmm, obviously i'm not going to know my gallons exactly until i've filled the pond, but as you said before scott about 240gals being suitable for a koi then i should comfortably be able to support 2 koi and a couple of comets? no? of course i'll be wanting to keep the water as perfect as possible, so if i started with two say 6" koi how many years would it take them to reach their full size? the reason i'm asking is i'm intending to move house again in a few years time so they would be upgraded to a larger pond then anyway, and i have seen on here using debi as an example that she has 6 koi plus a load of other goldfish in a roughly 4x4x4ft pond and mines 10x3x3ft so surely this gives them plenty of lenght to swim up and down and the correct amount of water to support them?

jamoko

Koi grow very very fast. Mine went from 2 inches to my biggest being 24 in 2 years.

crikey...that is fast...i'm trying so hard to put myself off getting even two koi...they are just so beautiful i would love one or two, i'm think i'm just putting myself through all the questions to get the notion of them out of my system until i can build a huge koi pond

The other thing to remember is that koi can comfortably live to be 80yrs old and even older. They grow so fast too, personally I would never contemplate getting koi unless I had a pond the size of a swimming pool. jmo.