It’s been a while since I posted anything regarding the home-made koi pond, so I’ve decided to take some pictures on the big fat koi fish swimming in it. It turned out that focusing fish under water isn’t exactly trivial, but I think I’ve managed to captured some decent photos anyhow.

As usual, the fatter ones are most likely female, while the more skinny and graceful kois are males. These kois are approaching 2 feet in length, and getting pretty heavy too. It’s been a little less than two years since the completion of the koi pond project and thankfully the fish are growing healthy and fat. Shouldn’t you build a pond too?

More photos at my flickr set.

two kohaku (red and white koi)

tancho (white koi with a red dot on its head, in this case not a perfect tancho)

showa (red, white, and black koi with some black color on its head)

chagoi (olive koi)

yamabuki ogon (metallic yellow koi)

Tags:  chagoi,  kohaku,  koi,  Koi Pond,  showa,  tancho,  yamabuki-ogon

Posted by KY | 13 Comments »

This is the 2nd video of the Koi Pond posted since it’s completion more than a year ago. Since the first video was of me and my house mate swimming in it, I thought this time it’ll be best to show you noobs the beautiful kois that lives in the now plenty matured pond.

The are six kois altogether, with the average size of 16-18 inches. They were less than 10 inches in length when I got them from the farm, with the exception of one Kohaku and the Showa donated from Mr. Lee (Thanks!) after I lost the Shiro Utsuri. With the Chagoi still being the champion, the kois are pretty friendly and not easily intimidated by people. Other than the three mentioned, there are also a Yamabuki Ogon, a not so pure Tancho, and another Kohaku from more than a year ago.

Glossary on types of koi:

• Kohaku - red and white koi
• Tancho - white koi with red dot on its head
• Showa - red, white, and black koi, with at least some black color on the head
• Yamabuki Ogon - solid yellow color koi
• Chagoi - olive color koi, also usually the bravest of the pack

Tags:  chagoi,  feeding,  kohaku,  koi,  ogon,  pond,  showa,  tancho,  video,  yamabuki

Posted by KY | 8 Comments »

As I was doing the regular filter flush out in the morning over the weekend for the Koi Pond, the tap for the 3rd flush out tap busted. Luckily the knob was in the “closed” position when that happened, no panic.

the busted tap, fixed

I happened to have a spare tap on hand, however, the PVC glue that was used from the project has ran dry, so a trip to the hardware store was inevitable. I also bought a tube of silicon sealant to better seal the connection between the PVC pipe adapter and the fiberglass filter. The actual fixing didn’t take more than half an hour.

the material used

I took the opportunity to clean the filter too. While waiting for the PVC and silicon sealant to dry, I had to transfer the filter material to the spare fiberglass tank (the same one we used for the chap gor meh boat rowing.) This is essential as the filter material contains living micro organism whose job is to breakdown the harmful organic waste produced by the fish, without the bacteria, the water will quickly turn toxic. An airpump was used to airate the filter material.

dry waterfall and temporary filter material housing

For several hours, the waterfall was dry. By nightfall, the filter material was moved back to the fiberglass filter, and everything restored back to order. Happy fishes again =)

Posted by KY | 5 Comments »

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

Posted by KY | 16 Comments »

This is the first time I appear in the newspaper (with my name on it and spelled correctly, too.) If you happen to have a copy of Kosmo dated 23/2/2006, turn to Rencana Utama page 19, now!

cool or not?

The article talks about Koi and I was one of the keepers interviewed. One of the reasons yours truely was chosen is the fact that most Koi keepers are not exactly young. I guess I gave them a fresher face, as I quote this gem

“Kecantikan ikan koi membuatkan ramai insan yang terpesona dan ingin memeliharanya sebagai hobi. Salah seorangnya ialah anak muda, Teoh Kar Yeong.”

Translation:

“The beauty of Koi fish captures the heart of many and makes them want to keep koi as hobby. One of them is the young man, T### K## Y####.”

Interesting isn’t it? There was no link to this blog, however, my best guess is that some of the entries posted might not be very halal for the target audience of Kosmo, a Malay newspaper. Now if only we had started the whole rowing thing before the reporters left..

Posted by KY | 30 Comments »