Koi fish pond

If you have a vision of a lazy pond with floating water lilies and lacy ferns drifting with the movement of your swimming koi, you may be in for a bit of readjustment of your expectations. The lovely, playful koi are notorious for destroying water plants in various ways. More than any other fish, koi are plant nibblers – they love to eat pond vegetation. They root in plant containers, scattering gravel and dirt, uprooting and killing the plants. At the same time, koi need more open water and space than smaller fish, and benefit from plants oxygenating the water of your koi pond. There are a number of things to consider before adding plants to your koi pond.

• Plants add greatly to the maintenance that you will need to do to keep the pond clean and healthy for your koi.
- Before adding any plants to your pond, be sure to treat them with potassium permanganate to eliminate any parasites.
- Be careful to choose plants that can tolerate water movement, or you’ll have to avoid using water jets.
- You’ll need to skim the pond often to remove any fallen leaves or foliage from the water plants.
- If the pond needs to be treated for parasites or string algae, you’ll need to remove the plants to avoid killing them, treat them separately, then return them to the pond.

• Plants can present unexpected dangers for your koi.
- Most plants must be placed on shelves that hold them a few feet below the koi pond surface. Those shelves offer perches for predators that prey on your fish.
- Plants provide hiding places for your koi, which can present a problem if one of the fish in your koi pond becomes ill, or needs to be caught for any reason.

A good aquatic nursery can recommend plants that are suitable for koi ponds, and offer tips on positioning and cleaning to avoid most problems. One of the easiest solutions, though, is to use plants around your koi pond rather than in it. If you really love the look of floating and marginal plants, you can always grow them in a connected but separate part of the pond, using a net to keep the koi safely away from them.