3000 G: How many more koi/goldfish?

Hi guys... I have a fully cycled 3000 gallon pond with 5 Goldfish and 3 Koi inside of it that has been running for upwards of 3 years now... i was planning to get some more fish and recently I saw some really really pretty young koi at my lfs... however, with my current stocking, I'm not sure how many more koi or goldfish I can add, if I can even add more at all... my koi are currently 20' and my goldfish are all around 7.5' to 8'... the pond has thorough filtration as well... i heard there was a rule of 500 gallons per koi and 50 gallons per goldfish... what do you guys think?(just a side note I'd rather have my pond understocked than overstocked)

 

My local landscape company has four or five Koi ponds. The smallest pond is probably close to your size pond. The largest is at least 40'' long × 15' wide - 2' - 3' deep. Boulders & gardens surround the ponds, making a beautiful display.
All the ponds are overstocked, jammed full of Koi & Koi fry. The company has a thriving Koi business.
Pump generated water falls & fountains provide plenty of aeration. Big moss covered rocks & aquatic plants are strategically positioned in the flow. This provides structure for huge populations of benificial bacteria. The plants feed on nitrate.
If your pond is biologically sound w/ ample water circulation there's
no problem in adding more Koi.
Look at your fish's proportions in relation to the area of the pond. That should enable you to estimate how many new Koi to add.

 

For Koi, and not worried about "show fish", 1 koi per 250 gallons. also can work in a pond setting with generic koi of average quality and a "natural" style pond setup.

If show fish, 1 female koi per 1000 gallons 1 male fish per 500 gallons, hope they breed and you get fry to sort and sell. you could do more fish with a more high tech pond setup and filtration otherwise for show quality fish, it's more of a hard rule to be a ton of water for a couple fish and breeding them for show quality offspring.

I won't get into goldfish, but it's less than what koi need. especially high quality koi. figure golds will be 2x-3x smaller than Koi roughly at full size.

Koi Eye candy.
High Quality Koi Archives

 

lol... it's certainly eye candy... i can't imagine buying anything like those koi with my allowance... i have to stick with those $20 petsmart koi lol... though I do admit, there are some good ones...

 

lol... it's certainly eye candy... i can't imagine buying anything like those koi with my allowance... i have to stick with those $20 petsmart koi lol... though I do admit, there are some good ones...

Just to point out the real reason the gallons of water per fish is what it is for show fish, those guys ain't cheap, you want them to have plenty of room and as clean a water as can be by not overstocking or even coming close to it, and well, their offspring are quite valuable also, you need room for that too. collect and cull defectives, select for top quality for sale or keeping, and the average or less go to petsmart.

When I was installing ponds in my teenage years (I was a worker, not a designer) for a landscaping company, most ponds were little oasis type holes with a waterfall fountain of rock, but we had a couple customers wanting ponds for these show quality Koi, and a show pond to match, some ponds in the 1500g category for a pair, some in the 3000-10,000g category for multiple fish and plumbed, waterfall/stream/walk over bridge to stand on and look down over the middle and feed the koi. Pretty much talking with those people getting the ponds opened my eyes to the Koi fish world, the crazy expensive fish, that they live 25-35 years, and their methods of maintaining them it top condition, I picked their brains about their passion at every opportunity. their fish are like babies to them, and with what they spend for them, I see why they feel that way! LOL

 

do you think next day koi is a good place for slightly higher quality koi?... there are some young ones there than only sell for 20 something dollars...

 

do you think next day koi is a good place for slightly higher quality koi?... there are some young ones there than only sell for 20 something dollars...

they look good, maybe not highest quality possible from the pictures, but these are also small and young fish still mostly 4-5" size. the other site I posted were adult sized 1+ year olds.
The have a discount system where its 60% off if they don't sell by day 16. looks like a good place to sit and watch and maybe catch a good deal on something nice nice. that site looks as good as the others as far as legitimacy, They have a facebook and posts about BOGOs and Black friday and Cyber Monday sales.
They are located in North Carolina. not too bad. telephone number is on their facebook too. their business address isn't really hidden either. Looks legitimate and looks like they hustle to move fish also.
i like that site, but koi and golds tend to change color or pattern as they grow, it's not necessarily a fixed thing from when the 4" fish to it becomming a 20" fish.

I wouldn't think of having fish shipped until after the holidays have passed though,too much delay possibilities, and you might want to wait until winter breaks and it warms up some honestly, you are correct though the coloration isn't quite up to show snuff on them, and could just be the age/size of the fish, but still really nice koi and better than the bland very average ones from Petco. just saying, all the breed names are represented. I like the site but never used them.

 

thanks... i think i will hold off on buying koi online until after new years... for now, I might just raise a few of my lfs koi in my 125 and release them to my pond after the winter...