Mosquito fish and koi ponds

[Snooze]

How well do mosquito fish and koi play with each other? My current pond
system lay out is like this.

The pump sucks water out of the pond, and dumps the water into the veggie
filter + settling pond. From here a venturi nozzle mixes water and air, and
sends it to the biofilter. Finally the water is dumped into the waterfall
and returned to the pond.

Currently I have mosquito fish in the veg filter. The problem is the suction
on the venturi nozzle is sometimes strong enough to suck a juvenile or fry
mosquito fish into the bio filter. Once they make it to the biofilter, it's
easy to swim into the waterfall and survive the trip to the main pond. I've
attempted to put screens over the drain pipes, but it gets easily clogged
and I'm afraid of the pump overflowing the filter and draining the pond.

Should they make it to the main pond area, how good are koi at population
control? Or am I facing a situation where I will have a mosquito fish pond
instead of a koi pond?
At least if they are in the veg filter, I can regulate the population by
draining the filter, and keeping only a starter brood.

Sameer
--
Sameer

change the two in my email address to a 2, when replying

[Wendy Kelly Budd]

The koi will not eat the mosquito fish. You will have a million of them
when they make it to the main pond. They will make it to the main pond,
sorry. The up side is mosquito fish eat baby koi, so you won't have to
worry about culling babies.
--
Wendy* in N. California,
"Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of
its strength." Charles Spurgeon


"Snooze" > wrote in message
thlink.net...
> How well do mosquito fish and koi play with each other? My current pond
> system lay out is like this.
>
> The pump sucks water out of the pond, and dumps the water into the veggie
> filter + settling pond. From here a venturi nozzle mixes water and air,
and
> sends it to the biofilter. Finally the water is dumped into the waterfall
> and returned to the pond.
>
> Currently I have mosquito fish in the veg filter. The problem is the
suction
> on the venturi nozzle is sometimes strong enough to suck a juvenile or fry
> mosquito fish into the bio filter. Once they make it to the biofilter,
it's
> easy to swim into the waterfall and survive the trip to the main pond.
I've
> attempted to put screens over the drain pipes, but it gets easily clogged
> and I'm afraid of the pump overflowing the filter and draining the pond.
>
> Should they make it to the main pond area, how good are koi at population
> control? Or am I facing a situation where I will have a mosquito fish pond
> instead of a koi pond?
> At least if they are in the veg filter, I can regulate the population by
> draining the filter, and keeping only a starter brood.
>
> Sameer
> --
> Sameer
>
> change the two in my email address to a 2, when replying
>
>

[Kevin Carbis]

> Should they make it to the main pond area, how good are koi at population
> control? Or am I facing a situation where I will have a mosquito fish pond
> instead of a koi pond?
> At least if they are in the veg filter, I can regulate the population by
> draining the filter, and keeping only a starter brood.
>
Well, the good news is that they get along fine. The bad news is that
the Koi won't eat them unless they happen to find themselves next to a
tasty little Koi nugget. My big Ogon has eaten several but merely by
chance.

Population control of the mosquito fish is one reason why I haven't
introduced them into my new pond; but then I don't have any other
brilliant ideas for mosquito control. One thing about those mosquito
fish...they work!

Kevin