Shasta Koi & Water Garden Club

Zip a Dee do Dah, spring has sprung and it's a beautiful day !

This time of year is gorgeous as the trees and flowers start blooming and waking up from the dreary days of winter.  If your fish are like mine they are up and swimming and act as if they are starving to death.  Don't be fooled, until the water temperature is at least 55 degrees their metabolism is not up to the challenge of digesting food.  If you must give in, feed once very sparingly with Plain Cheerios every 3 or 4 days just to give them something to put in their slurpy little mouths that they can digest easily.  Do not begin feeding regular food until temperatures reach at least 60-70 degrees and start slowly, gradually increasing amounts and frequency.

Since they are up and about and the water temperature is getting a little warmer, this is the perfect time to give a spring cleaning to the pond.  Remove any leaves, branches or debris that may have blown into the pond during our last storms and dump the skimmer baskets.  Rinse your pre-filters thoroughly and check your bio-filter for debris.  If you have a layer of muck in your bio-filter you may want to rinse your filters lightly in a tub of water from the pond.  This helps to keep the good bacteria in your filter.

Increasing the oxygen levels in your pond can help your fish and your filter bacteria to get activated.  This can be done by adding an air pump and air stones to the pond.

By providing your fish a clean, well filtered and well oxygenated pond to start the spring, is a big step in preventing disease and problems with water quality.  Remember over-feeding and over-crowding are major causes of poor water quality causing the fish stress and stress causes disease by lowering the efficiency of the immune system.

Be sure to test for Ammonia and Nitrites during the spring and do water changes of either 10% per week or 25-30% per month to correct any problems you have in the area of water quality.  If you have a problem with nitrites, salt my be added at a 0.1% ratio or 1 lb. per 100 gallons to prevent harm to the fish, along with regular water changes as noted.  There are products available to help remove ammonia and nitrites from your pond, see your local pond or water garden dealer.

Adding Koi Clay is a big help to your spring time pond as it helps the fish by supplying minerals and nutrients that the fish need as well as absorbing toxins and improving the water quality.  It also helps to keep algae in check.

By incorporating the above advice in your pond you should have good water quality and healthy fish.  If you have problems despite implementing all these ideas, remember the club is here to help you, let us know and we will do what we can to help.

Here's wishing you Crystal Clear Water and Big Fishy Kisses!

Marilyn Swanson

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