Let’s take a look at some of the causes of cloudy water.

Causes of Cloudy Water

A common cause of cloudy water is poor water quality. If there is too much ammonia or other pollutants in the water, this could be the problem. This could be caused by a bad filter. Check to make sure your filter is working properly and that the water you use for the pond is of a good quality.

The clay you use could also have affected your water. Montmorillonite clay gives a cloudy appearance when mixed with water. If you frequently add this clay to your koi pond, then it could be giving it the cloudy look.

However, the amount of clay it would take to cause this problem is quite a lot. If clay is the problem, it’s likely to also be involved with your filter. It’s possible that the particles are so small that they’re simply getting through your filter.

There are ways to test if clay is the cause. You could add a flocculent to your pond, which will cause small particles to cluster together. These grouped particles will then be caught by your filters and filter brushes. If your flocculent is effective, then you’ll have your culprit.

These particles shouldn’t be floating around anyway. So why are they? You’ll want to check your air diffuser. There is a chance that it’s causing a dead spot to form in your pond, which could be causing the filtering problem. You can try switching to an air dome.

Your air diffuser could be putting a dead spot in just the wrong spot and causing the entire problem. An air dome’s mixing movements will help encourage your clay to settle and more toward your filter instead of float throughout the water. Additionally, you’ll want to check your pond for other dead spots.

These steps alone may not fix your problem. So what are other long term solutions to cloudy clay water?

Add a Sand Pressure Filter

If you find that the clay is your problem, then you may need to get a sand pressure filter (in addition to your existing filter, not as a replacement). These are much better suited to capturing fine particles and will clear your pond water.

Sand pressure filters are surface-mounted pumps that do not rely on biological means to operate. Additionally, because this isn’t affected by your permanent filter, you can remove the filter as your water clears and put it back when it fogs again.

Over time that endearment gets even more pronounced, as they start to recognize your face, your voice, including the sound of your footsteps! Trust us, you can spend hours just watching them swim gracefully in the water.

Small wonder that Koi are so popular the world over, and look like they’ll be getting even more popular over the coming years…

A little bit of Koi history…

Did you know Koi carp were originally kept by Chinese peasants for food for millennia? But it was the Japanese who started the art of breeding these “carps” solely for ornamental reasons in the early 1800′s.

The Japanese developed over time such popular Koi varieties like the Kohaku, Taisho Sanke and Showa Sanke. Of course, these are only the most popular varieties. Other breeds include Ogons, those eye-catching metallic fish that look like they are wrought out of gold or platinum; the Gin Rin Koi, whose scales sparkle like diamonds; and the Butterfly Koi, with its long fins, looking like a butterfly that lost its way into the water.

Koi were also traditionally regarded as a variety of goldfish, which also shares a common ancestry with carp but, is now accepted as separate species.

Those amazing Koi colors and lifespan!

Koi come in all colors and are classified accordingly. The most common colors are red, white, orange, black and cream. Some purists, particularly the Japanese, dismiss some of the more modern variations as koi, refusing to accept the butterfly koi with its long fins, and other scaleless variants.

Still, others thoroughly enjoy the unlimited variety of colors and features that show up in the breed.

Although koi are bred for certain patterns and colors, the offspring may be of different patterns and colors far removed from their parents. Breeders regularly cull their fish, using rejects as feeder fish or selling them off as pond fish. If allowed to breed freely, koi will return to their natural drab coloration after only a few generations. But a koi retains its distinct colors throughout its lifetime.

But what a lifespan it is! The oldest known recorded koi in Japan is a female named  Hanako, which lived to a ripe old age of 226 years old and died on July 17, 1977. But Hanako lived in the wild, in a pristine pond deep in the mountains with lots of fresh water all year round.

You can, however, expect your koi to live up to 20 or more years in captivity and it may even outlive you, given the right living conditions.

Start keeping your Koi in an aquarium by all  means, but…

You may well keep your koi in an aquarium to start with, many do. But if you are really into keeping your Koi in their optimum environment, you’ll soon decide to build an outdoor pond because koi are cold water fish by nature and do best when they live outdoors.

They go dormant and hibernate in winter and as such, require very little or no food. They stay comfortable even in cold temperatures but will need a water depth of 4 1/2 feet to survive low temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Koi fish are fun to keep,  beautiful in your garden pond, and relaxing to watch. What’s more, they will even reward you by breeding successfully in healthy environments so your initial investment may wield great returns!

If you’re looking to expand on your Koi collection, or even just get started, we have some amazing Koi fish for sale in our online store. And feel free to contact us with any questions, tips, or feedback – we value your input greatly!

1. Koi are not for everyone

Koi fish are the most expensive pets; today, the most exclusive Koi fish can command up to $100,000. Some koi fetch up to $10,000; most koi are reasonably priced within a few hundred to a $1,000. Check out some of our amazing koi fish for sale in the shop – don’t worry, none are priced at over $100,000!

2. The Big Three

There are three main types of Koi you’re likely to see everywhere: the Kohaku, with its distinctive white body and red patterns, is known as the King of Koi and form the cornerstone of any serious koi collection; the Sanke, with its peculiar white body, red and black patterns are much admired for their strong and striking colors; and the Showa, with its jet-black color base, white and red patterns are sought for their powerful, heavy and magnificent appearance. Together, these three are renowned as “Gosanke” or “The Three Families”. In the US, they are often known as “The Big Three”.

3. The origins of Koi

The carp we know today as koi were originally bred as fish food by Chinese peasants. They were first brought to Japan, also to be used as food, by returning Japanese rice farmers of the Niigata Prefecture. Around the early 1800′s, the Japanese began to breed koi for their aesthetic beauty. After years of careful breeding, several color variations and patterns started showing up. One of the first color patterns were recorded in Niigata Prefecture in Japan as early as 1805. Today, there are thousands of color variations available. The most well-known colors are white, red, black, orange, yellow, and blue.

4. Koi can outlive you

Koi are also known for their long life. The oldest koi on record was a female and lived to a ripe old age of 226 years old. However, on average, koi can live up to 20 years in your garden pond. If you can accommodate a healthy habitat for your koi within your own backyard, be prepared to pass down your beloved koi to your children and even your grandchildren because they are known to live up to 60 years old in captivity.

5. Indigestion but no stomachs

Putting aesthetics and longevity aside, koi do not possess stomachs. But they do have expandable intestines that function as pseudo-stomachs. This is why you should be careful feeding your koi in winter  while their metabolism slows down almost to a halt, most especially with protein based diets, because this will only rot inside their intestines and make them sick.

6. An appetite fit for a king

Koi have insatiable appetites. They love eating and eat almost anything. Their appetite is so huge that they can consume up to 2% of their overall body weight in a single day.

7. Koi have their teeth, too

For those wondering whether koi have teeth, you may be surprised to know that, yes, they do have teeth. Those teeth, small as they are, are neatly lined up round the back of throat and are used to crush crustaceans your koi may happen to ingest.

8. Koi are socialites

Koi are gentle fish.  They can live with such other fish as goldfish and comets. They will even recognize you if you feed them regularly. They are so friendly that, in time, they will eat food from your hands.

9. A healthy Koi is all about water

Koi are integrally linked to their water environment. This means that the overall health of you koi depends largely on the quality of water in your pond. You should check your water once a week to make sure it remains within safe levels.

We hope to have some awesome images and videos of many of our new Koi fish for sale coming to market in the coming days, and Facebook and Twitter seems like the best place to post the latest updates, so the EVERYBODY gets a chance to see them.

In the future we also plan on having some giveaways and contests, but for now let us find our feet a bit! Don’t worry, we’ll also be posting these contests and goodies through all the mediums available to us, so hopefully you won’t miss out!

Catch us on Facebook here.

Catch us on Twitter here.

Looking forward to catching you online, wherever that may be!

We have a lot of things lined up and will be updating you regularly on our news and latest koi fish for sale. You might want to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too, as we’ll also be updating even more regularly over there with pics, videos, interesting stories, and, of course, news of our latest fish.

Until next time!