Plants in a Koi pond
Q What are the advantages and disadvantages of plants in a Koi pond? Would a Koi pond be better with no plants at all?
ANSWER
The advantages of plants in any pond or pool that has been planted up in the way you would plant a traditional garden pond, with a complete range of different types of water plants in aquatic baskets are:
submerged oxygenators would oxygenate your water during the day whilst providing a spawning mat for the fish.
Deep water plants like lilies and floaters would provide protective
surface cover and shade that would help the fish and inhibit algal growth, but above all in a koi pool they will be using up those nitrates and other compounds that many biological filters fail to break down.
Marginal plants too would join in this task whilst softening the edges
and blending the pool into the rest of the garden. All this with the added bonus of flower, growth and movement.
*****The disadvantages are:
that Koi carp have a tendency (not always) to wreck the whole shebang.
They are inquisitive fish that love to graze, rummage, rub and play with plants.The water just seems to be permanently murky with all the mud they stir up.
Also, this helping hand from nature all but fades out in
October as the plants die back and the serious koi keeper has to rely on the technology of his filtration units and a keen eye on the quality of the water to keep his or her charges healthy through the winter months. Milder winters keep the Koi metabolism ticking over at a rate that is hovering on a stop/go level that makes them particularly prone to disease and stress particularly in a well stocked pool. The last thing that is required in a koi pool is rotting vegetation.
*****Having said this there is generally no problem if the stocks of fish are kept well below the 2inches per square foot of surface area, an active biological filter system,there is methodical dredging, leaf nets in Autumn, and routine water changes as pollutants build up in the Spring.
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