John Bloch
Koi Lover
Oct 30, 2006, 11:42 AM
Post #2 of 11
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Re: [ahjin80] How big can my kois grow?
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Welcome!
firstly I should say that I am no expert, and that I am not sure if all the below information is correct...
growth is detirmined not only by the enviornment, but by the bloodlines/types of koi you have... for instance, some plain colored koi - such as chagoi (a plain greenish yellow) or kigoi (a plain orange) can grow up to 32 inches in a matter of years... this is because they are easyer to breed, and its easyer to make a chagoi or kigoi so the gene pool is rather large, thus promoting growth...
you can find this true with almost all single color koi, given that they arent a koi that has lost pigments (a common is a kohaku (an orange and white koi) that has lost its hi(or orange color) and is just white... it was actually bred to be a kohaku, which makes it in a smaller gene pool of fish, which means chances are it wont grow as large as a chagoi or kigoi type fish)
that aside, the size of your tank/puddle/pond/lake/ocean can IMMENSLEY effect the growth of a fish... a simple example is a pond that is close to where I live... it is an immense pond that is quite deep, and probaly something in the range of 30 or 40 feet wide by 60 or 70 feet long... there are probably 9 or so koi in that pond, and they are simply gigantic... (but, they are also quite old.... the pond its self is plenty over 10 years old, and I'm positive that the fish were of japanese quality...)
also, filtration is a big key... the cleaner the water, the healthyer the fish are... you should test for ammonia and nitrItes... i say nitrItes because they can be confused with NitrAtes, both ammonia and nitrIte are toxic to your fish, and you should monitor them closely...
If you dont want your fish to grow, Dont feed them more than they need... make sure your meals you feed them are short.. most likely from 1-3 mintutes, and make sure no more than 2 times a day...
If you want to encourage growth, more food and more filtration are ok, but make sure not to overdo it, and to check the water for NitrItes and ammonia...
as for the size you should let them grow to in the tank: keep this in mind... a fullsize/adult fish should be kept in 250 gallons of water to maintain a healthy stature... with aquariums most people go by the "inch of fish per gallon" rule, which means you should have one inch of fish per gallon of your tank, say your tank was 20 gallons, you could have 20 inches of fish, 2 10 inch fish, 1 20 inch fish, 4 5 inch fish ect. BUT I PERSONALLY DONT THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA WITH KOI... koi are an especially dirty fish, and if high filtration isnt used, that rule can be totatly incorrect...
you have a 177 gallon tank (to US liquid measures) and i think your fish will be fine for quite some time... I would probably let them get up to 10 or 11 inches, and then make sure you have a larger spot to put them in later.... (one thing i would make sure of, is that they can easily turn around in the tank... 3 ft. wide might be able to house bigger fish, and I would probably keep them in there untill they are a foot or so long, but then I would want the gallonage to be closer to 100 or so gallons per fish, seing as a 24 inch fish can be considered adult, and 12 inches is half of that...)
its kind of hit and miss... I dont exactly know what you are going for, growth, or stunting it...
by the way, this is info I have taken in, and some of it may be wrong... but, hopefully someone can back me up on most of this...
Tanks!
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