As temperatures and leaves drop, you should begin to heat up your own Fall preparation activities around your koi pond. Fall is an important time in beginning your preparation for the winter months ahead. You can mitigate the scale (and cost) of your impending koi pond Spring cleaning with even a little attention to the Fall preparation.
Plants
As the season changes (along with the leaves), it is a good idea to perform some maintenance on your aquatic plants as well as those plants that surround your koi pond. Dead leaves will eventually decay and this decay can lead to:
- increased nutrient levels
- microscopic algae (diatoms) proliferation
- higher ammonia count
- poor water clarity
- spring algae blooms
- lower oxygen concentrations
Ultimately, this means tougher times for your koi fish. The more stress you place on your koi fish, the more likely they are to experience illness and parasite infestations.
As the winter approaches, your aquatic plants will start to conserve energy in their root masses, so nutrients will stop getting to the flowering portions. Trimming back the yellowing and browning parts of your aquatic plants means that you are less likely to have them end up in (and eventually on the bottom of) your pond.
Some enthusiasts even recommend removing your floating and tropical aquatic plants completely.
A net (or some form of barrier) stretched over your pond will be extremely helpful in keeping leaves and other fallen plant matter out of your pond. It has the added advantage of thwarting those predators who are after a sluggish meal.
Food and feeding
If you are in a part of the country where fall temperatures give way to winter temperatures fairly rapidly, it’s time to change your koi fish’s diet. As water temperatures drop, so does your koi fish’s metabolism. As their appetite slows, your feeding regime should, too.
Lower the number of times you feed your koi to 2-3 times a week and concentrate those food types to low protein and high carbohydrate (wheat germ is a popular choice).
The colder it gets, the less you feed your koi fish until the water temperature hits 50ºF when it is recommended that feeding stops altogether. Once the temperature hits 50-55ºF for a week or more as Spring sets in, you can resume the high carbohydrates feeding schedule. (We will look at feeding schedules and types in another post).
Remember, all of the food that remains uneaten will end up on the bottom of your pond and eventually as waste, affecting the water quality and ultimately your koi’s health.
Cleaning and Additives
A general purpose bottom cleaning is a good idea to clear out some of the “gunk” that may have accumulated on the bottom of your pond. Muck-vacs are popular means of getting up sediment and leaves (and sometimes small pebbles!).
Clean your filters properly, too. Hosing off the filter in anticipation of the fresh sediment that will probably end up on it will help to maintain better water quality.
If you have a UV light, it’s time to turn it off or pull it up.
The topic of “what to add” (if anything at all) varies widely based on personal tastes and experience. There are a number of alternatives to choose from, but adding a “helper” (or something containing winter-resistant bacteria) to speed up the decomposition of organic material that accumulates can help to expedite the Spring clean.
No matter what season you choose to stock your pond, Next Day Koi can accommodate your tastes when you are ready to stock your pond or tank. We offer a wide selection of koi fish for sale sourced from some of the best farms around the world to help you stock it.
Coupled with a great selection of both sizes and types, we leverage our high volume of shipping through UPS to bring you some of the most competitive Next Day Air shipping rates in the industry.
Contact one of our representatives to see how we can help you stock your pond.