Koi Pond – New Fish – Chagoi
Some of the more unfortunate noobs out there who has read the koi article on Kosmo might have noticed that there were no pictures of my pond nor my fish on the paper, and there are 2 very simple reason to that.
1. for some reasons Kosmo missed the whole pond experience and decided to concentrate sole on fish, which was unfortunate
2. my fish were shy, it was hard for the reporter to take good pictures of them
very nice female Chagoi about 1 feet in length
To fix that 2nd point, I need a fearless fish to lead the pack. Now, the many varieties of Koi is akin to the different breeds of dogs, each carrying different natural traits. For example, a golden retrieval is inherintely easier to train playing catch compared to a chiwawa. Similarly, a Chagoi (olive brown colored Koi) is naturally brave and usually exhibit good leadership quality in a school of koi fish. Hence, a Chagoi can usually lead all the other fish to be friendlier and display less fright towards human.
Chagoi showing uninhibited feeding behaviour, leading the pack
I had been wanting to get a decent size Chagoi for quite some time but has always found them either difficult to find, or very expensive. When I was at Sentul Park Koi Center last week and found out that they have a tank of Chagoi selling at very very reasonable price, I was delighted, and picked a big fat female (around 30 cm) on the very same weekend morning. As adviced by Mr. Lee, always transfer koi to new pond only in the morning to allow sufficient time for the fish to get used to its surrounding
friendlier fish hanging out at the surface
Sure enough, by the 2nd day, the Chagoi was the first fish to come on the surface to feed. Naturally, the other fish follows, albiet with slightly more hesitation. A few days later, other fish are starting to get bolder too, I can only hope that they will become more playful and fearless over time.
the view from the bench overseeing the pond
Another trick that I have been using is hanging out at the pond for at least a few minutes before feeding the fish. This allows the fish to associate human with feeding, and over time can lead to bolder kois. Hope this works too.
the 2-tier, 3-stream waterfall
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wow. your waterfall quite nice man! i hope to build a koi pond at my home one day. maybe can get some tips and pointers from u then. eerrr, just so i can budget. RM2000-3000 enough ah?
KY: that’s exactly how much I spent in building the pond, labor not included though
what ever you do.. never EVER introduce cheap fish like talapia into your pond. Your koi’s will turn into a pack of hungry wolves but those damned talapia’s will breed like rabbits! u’ll end up getting a sort of mixed breed that look hell ugly. U’ll probably have to disinfect the pond to get rid of them.
Another words, anyone thinking of screwing up your pond just needs to throw a couple of talapia’s in.
KY: tilapia is only good as food, read on the Rawang Tilapia entry, hehe.
Shouldn’t that be a double-overlapping, triple-tier waterfall?
Also, shouldn’t there be a n00b map showing the way to the koi pond?!
i love grilled fish
getting better and better KY…..u must be damn proud of urself…
dude…im in awe…speechless…
impressive.
if i’m incharge of KLCC park, i’ll let u fill up the lake.
the fountains are getting boring.
Beautiful koi, I have 18 of them but one big one recently died and sank to the bottom of the pond, close to 18 inches about 6 years old..
Do u think it is too old or something else.. I have changed water and the rest are fine.
will be replacing one more, 18 is lucky number, right?
feeding viagra to them????? :X
Robin. Obviously 18 was not very lucky for your poor ol’ 18″ koi. duh. DOWN WITH LILLIAN TOO!
hope your chargoi is bold enuff to be able to lead them to freedom !
KY – your new Chagoi will also be the easiest to tame – should feed from your hand in a few weeks if you spend time as you have indicated – just don’t tell suanie if you want to keep it off her dinner table – all the best and yell if you need help.
KY: yah, fish are getting bolder, hopefully all goes well.
you are rite Michael, keep them away from suanie. she will be happy when there’s a lot of FOOD!
It’s chiHUAHUA noob.
we have a 15×20 pond all fish are skiddish we are goinig to buy a 5 inch chagoi…
how long will it takeand what shall we do to get him to eat from our hand>>>
caleb branhrm,
It will probably take a couple of weeks for the fish to get comfortable enough to eat from your hand.