Taking koi and 3 goldfish inside for winter question

[Grandpa]

Hello. I just had my first pond this summer and things went fairly well. I
have 1 koi and 3 goldfish and I live in Canada where they would not survive
the -40 weather in January so I brought them in the other day. My question
is now what, how much, and often to feed the 4 of them. The koi is about 7
inches, the others are about 5. They are now all in a 70 gallon aquarium.
I have been giving them pellet food in the pond on occasion and they really
have been fattened up on all the crickets we had the last month that
committed suicide in the pond. Do I continue with the pellet food in the
house and feed them every other day, or what is the guidelines here? I
don't want to overfeed them and deal with all the poop they will be putting
out. By the way, I have a fluval 304 filter hooked up to the tank.

Thanks.

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

>On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 20:30:42 -0600, "Grandpa" > wrote:

>Hello. I just had my first pond this summer and things went fairly well. I
>have 1 koi and 3 goldfish and I live in Canada where they would not survive
>the -40 weather in January so I brought them in the other day. My question
>is now what, how much, and often to feed the 4 of them. The koi is about 7
>inches, the others are about 5. They are now all in a 70 gallon aquarium.
>I have been giving them pellet food in the pond on occasion and they really
>have been fattened up on all the crickets we had the last month that
>committed suicide in the pond. Do I continue with the pellet food in the
>house and feed them every other day, or what is the guidelines here? I
>don't want to overfeed them and deal with all the poop they will be putting
>out. By the way, I have a fluval 304 filter hooked up to the tank.
>
>Thanks.
>
I've got a 404 fluval on a 55 gallon. I started bring my goldfish in 2
weeks ago, 1 per week. I won't feed much but a couple of pellets the whole
4 weeks till I have all 4 fish inside, and the filter is clearly on its way
to being fully cycled. Let your test kits decide when and how much you
feed. ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

[Bill Stock]

"~ jan JJsPond.us" > wrote in message
...
> >On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 20:30:42 -0600, "Grandpa" >
wrote:
>
> >Hello. I just had my first pond this summer and things went fairly well.
I
> >have 1 koi and 3 goldfish and I live in Canada where they would not
survive
> >the -40 weather in January so I brought them in the other day. My
question
> >is now what, how much, and often to feed the 4 of them. The koi is about
7
> >inches, the others are about 5. They are now all in a 70 gallon
aquarium.
> >I have been giving them pellet food in the pond on occasion and they
really
> >have been fattened up on all the crickets we had the last month that
> >committed suicide in the pond. Do I continue with the pellet food in the
> >house and feed them every other day, or what is the guidelines here? I
> >don't want to overfeed them and deal with all the poop they will be
putting
> >out. By the way, I have a fluval 304 filter hooked up to the tank.
> >
> >Thanks.
> >
> I've got a 404 fluval on a 55 gallon. I started bring my goldfish in 2
> weeks ago, 1 per week. I won't feed much but a couple of pellets the whole
> 4 weeks till I have all 4 fish inside, and the filter is clearly on its
way
> to being fully cycled. Let your test kits decide when and how much you
> feed. ~ jan


I did about the same when I moved my indoor Goldies a few weeks ago. I
cycled the new filter (Fluval 304) on the old tank for a few weeks to
establish bacteria. Then I gradually introduced the GF to the new tank,
starting with the smallest fish and monitoring Nitrates and Ammonia as I
went. You could use some material from your pond's filter to seed the
aquarium's filter.

You might find one 304 a little small for a 70 gallon tank. I've got two on
my 75 gallon. Redundancy is always a good thing with aquariums. That way if
one dies (Filter/Heater/etc.) you still got some environmental control. This
also allows you to clean the filters on alternate weeks/months/whatever, so
that if you screw up and kill your Biofilter, you've still got biobugs in
the other filter.

[[email protected]]

once the aquarium is cycled then check the nitrates. if the temps inside is
significantly cooler (basement) dont feed them that often. high quality food has
less waste. 4-5 flakes of food twice a day is normal feeding of 5-7 inchers. if
you only want to change water once a week, then adjust feeding so nitrate levels only
reach 20 ppm per week.
be sure to keep top covered, that koi will jump.
it is possible to keep your fish outside in winter. I do with a heater, a bucket
filter and plastic cover on my pond. altho we only get -20oF here.
http://www.mu.edu/~buxtoni/mypond/winters/winter.htm Ingrid

"Grandpa" > wrote:

>Hello. I just had my first pond this summer and things went fairly well. I
>have 1 koi and 3 goldfish and I live in Canada where they would not survive
>the -40 weather in January so I brought them in the other day. My question
>is now what, how much, and often to feed the 4 of them. The koi is about 7
>inches, the others are about 5. They are now all in a 70 gallon aquarium.
>I have been giving them pellet food in the pond on occasion and they really
>have been fattened up on all the crickets we had the last month that
>committed suicide in the pond. Do I continue with the pellet food in the
>house and feed them every other day, or what is the guidelines here? I
>don't want to overfeed them and deal with all the poop they will be putting
>out. By the way, I have a fluval 304 filter hooked up to the tank.
>
>Thanks.
>



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

[Grandpa]

Ok, thanks for the advice. I guess I need to buy a testing kit of sorts to
check on the levels. We had an early winter storm here and I may have
jumped the gun and put them in the tank early. I did use half pond water
and some lava rock from my outside filter, so I hope they will do ok. My
koi did jump out when I was acclimatizing them to the new tank. I had them
in a 5 gallon pail sitting in the new tank to get the temperatures even and
my wife came across the koi laying on the floor. She yelled for me to come
and pick it up and when I did he was already drying out. I held him in the
water turbulence and a fin moved, then he sort of picked up and a week later
he is doing well, but not eating like the goldfish yet. I have been using
pellet food and he just doesn't seem interested yet.

> wrote in message
...
> once the aquarium is cycled then check the nitrates. if the temps inside
> is
> significantly cooler (basement) dont feed them that often. high quality
> food has
> less waste. 4-5 flakes of food twice a day is normal feeding of 5-7
> inchers. if
> you only want to change water once a week, then adjust feeding so nitrate
> levels only
> reach 20 ppm per week.
> be sure to keep top covered, that koi will jump.
> it is possible to keep your fish outside in winter. I do with a heater, a
> bucket
> filter and plastic cover on my pond. altho we only get -20oF here.
> http://www.mu.edu/~buxtoni/mypond/winters/winter.htm Ingrid
>
> "Grandpa" > wrote:
>
>>Hello. I just had my first pond this summer and things went fairly well.
>>I
>>have 1 koi and 3 goldfish and I live in Canada where they would not
>>survive
>>the -40 weather in January so I brought them in the other day. My
>>question
>>is now what, how much, and often to feed the 4 of them. The koi is about
>>7
>>inches, the others are about 5. They are now all in a 70 gallon aquarium.
>>I have been giving them pellet food in the pond on occasion and they
>>really
>>have been fattened up on all the crickets we had the last month that
>>committed suicide in the pond. Do I continue with the pellet food in the
>>house and feed them every other day, or what is the guidelines here? I
>>don't want to overfeed them and deal with all the poop they will be
>>putting
>>out. By the way, I have a fluval 304 filter hooked up to the tank.
>>
>>Thanks.
>>
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
> http://puregold.aquaria.net/
> www.drsolo.com
> Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
> compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
> endorsements or recommendations I make.