koi are messier, they get much larger, and are not as hardy. They come in prettier colors and lots of varieties though. Koi need at least 250 gallons each, preferably 500 gallons. Koi can grow to over 36" in length. Their ponds should be a minumum of 36" deep, with 5' deep preferred. There is nothing quite as beautiful as a well deaigned koi pond stocked with a selection of koi. It is like looking into a living painting. Goldfish come in lots of varieties too. Fancies (ryukins, orandas, lionheads, etc) are not has hardy but are very cute. The hardy ones, like comets and shubunkins are inexpensive, hardier than koi and very colorful. Goldies can do well in shallower ponds. They need 50 gallons each.

missa7, I ran this a week or so ago. Same old story... working on solving it. Gerbils, rabbits, mice...call it what you want; just make them stop ! lol. my spirits shrink when I see my gold colored critters racing around my pond; doing the dance. I wrote this in my thread: "Under the "If I were to start over again regarding first fish" category. No goldfish - just a couple of inexpensive koi." LP Here is a link that might be useful: To Catch a ... goldfish(s)

I have overwintered fish before, successfully, but it needs to be done in the basement on a cement floor. Filtering is easy, the only cost is a pump. 1. You find a large heavy plastic container, a Rubbermaid storage container is perfect or a tall barrel often sold as a rain barrel. 2. Set this container onto something that raises the bottom of it as high as the side of the pool. I used cement blocks to build a stable base for mine. 3. Put a drain hole in the bottom of the side of the container so the water can drain out into the pool. I put my cement blocks and the entire thing inside the pool but you can put it beside the pool as long as the water drains out the hole in the side bottom and into the pool without leaking onto the floor. 4. Fill the container with filter media of some kind. There are a lot of things you can use for this. Plastic dish and bath scrubbies work well(ones without soap), as does clean lava rock with no additives. Anything to increase the surface area for bacteria to grow on. (Quilt batting is too dense). You want to establish a good bacteria culture in the media. It is this bacteria that removes the ammonia from the water as it flows through the filter. This really doesn't take two months. Two weeks is more like it, especially if you seed it with bacteria from another fish filter, either pond or aquarium. 5. Run the pump inside the pool sitting on a brick, with an output hose that runs the water into the top of the plastic filter container. If you are indoors and there's not a lot of splashing, you won't need a lid on it. The outflow hole in the bottom side of the filter container needs to be four times the size of the inflow hose. If it is not that large, the filter will slow the water down enough to cause it to overflow. Filtering a pond is really very simple. You don't need anything more complicated than the pump. Get a pump that moves the gallons through the filter about four times a day. That will be your biggest or only expense. I use this type of filter for my outdoor pond too. An out-of-pond filter like this one works much better than an underwater pump filter. It doesn't have to be ugly plastic. I had one that was in a huge terra cotta pot and I put a few impatiens in the top. (yes, ordinary garden impatiens love growing bare root in water). It is called a "trickle tower" filter. Google it and you will get a lot of information. Rule of thumb for fish is this: one gallon of water for every inch of fish, including tail. If you have a super filtration system, you can get away with more. They will grow through the winter if your water is warm enough. I would also add a lot of plants to the water to help keep it healthy. One that I like a lot for aquariums, doesn't need much light and the fish don't eat it: Creeping Jenny! (Yes, the same ground cover with yellow flowers in the garden). I grow it in my pond too, in the pots to hide the rims. Just root pieces in a glass and stick in water bare root with a little rock to hold them in place. One word of caution: Putting koi in a 2' new home will usually cause them to jump out. If they have been sitting out on the floor, even overnight, just put them back in, even if they look dead. They will probably recover (here speaks the voice of experience).

Hi. Can you give me the dimensions of your pond? Length, width, depth. Approximate is fine. Koi CAN get up to 3 feet long if given everything they need. Both koi and goldfish breed worse than rabbits. So be prepared to find homes for babies. Ideally when adding new fish to a pond they should be kept in a quarantine tank/pond for at least 3o days before adding to your existing pond. BUT most people don't want to wait that long. Quarantining your new fish helps prevent bringing any parasites to the pond and possibly killing your existing fish and prevent you having to spend a bunch of money on meds to rid your fish of the parasites. Now for the fish in the bucket. I hope they are not still in that bucket now. If so I hope you have a filter and air for them. If you want to keep your fish healthy and happy please get a fresh water test kit and test your water. At minimum you will want tests for Ammonia, PH, Nitrites. There are other test available : KH , GH, Nitrates, salt, ....Those are basics. Ammonia should always be zero PH between 7-8 Nitrites 0 Sorry, I could ramble on all day about the world of ponds, koi & goldfish. If you have more questions just let me know.