How to Choose a Great Design for Your Koi Fish Pond

Backyard Mamma is pleased to welcome Ryan Holmes from KoiBids as a guest blogger to help explain how to choose a great design for your koi fish pond. Ryan is an award-winning pond, water garden, and water feature builder.

In the suburban scene, providing ambiance in one’s home is now a necessity. The idea is a presentation: just by entering a person’s residence, you are pulled into a state of relaxation. Over the years, landscaping and home design have given the world unique ways of making this possible – and koi ponds are a tried and tested method to liven up the residential atmosphere.

Koi, or more specifically called Nishigokoi, are a variety of Amur carp known for their colors and scale patterns. The fish was first bred for its color mutations in Japan in the 1820s and before long, the interest in them spread on a global scale. People began to seek out koi for sale in aquarium shops to keep them as pets as well as use them to beautify their homes.

Keeping koi happy in their own little habitat requires a properly managed koi pond. It shouldn’t be just a designated area in the house meant to stash them in – it’d be an ecosystem for them to thrive and give ambiance to the immediate environment. Thus, certain factors have to be kept in mind while selecting designs for the pond itself.

One, you have to consider the basic requirements for any koi pond – the intricate designs will follow afterward. For the most part, its depth must pass 3 feet or more, there has up to 25 sq. ft of pond per fish and the environment must be able to accommodate no less than 1,000 gallons of water (if you’ve already found koi for sale on a pet shop nearby and you haven’t met any of these specificities, better not buy them yet).

Koi fish in a natural stone pond

Two is making areas of shade. These places are beneficial for a reason. They can hide the koi if an animal might try to attack them. Another is that it can protect them from harmful elements like direct sunlight. The areas of shades can either be constructed into the pond’s natural design – or it can be made possible with the addition of water plants.

Three is the viability of water plants in the pond. Floating plants like water lilies or other forms of submerged vegetation make the habitat livable for the fish. Without them, there won’t be enough oxygen in the water for the fish to breathe – and as mentioned before, it’d serve as a haven against the sun and possible predators. Also, some water plants are a part of the koi’s diet, so they can be added as another source of food.

Four is aeration. Simply put, there has to be a stable process in which oxygen circulates in the pond water. This depends on the number of koi and water plants as well as the pond size. Putting up fountains or waterfalls is beneficial because not only do they look pleasing to the eye, but they keep water running for the oxygen in it to flow. Equipment such as aeration pumps or jets can be placed as a bonus.

Five is filtration. To rid of koi waste and keep the pond sanitary, there’d have to be at least something to clean it – and koi ponds need a large filtration system. Using biological filtration (in the form of cleaning bacteria) turns all the toxins in the pond into harmless matter, while mechanical filtration traps the fish waste and needless debris through pump baskets and pond skimmers.

Six is the final prerequisite – the designs for the rest of the pond would have to depend on where it’ll be made. If it is indoors, the koi pond is enjoyable at any weather. Humidity would have to be taken into account, so fans or a dehumidifier will be a requirement. Outdoor koi ponds tend to be more flashy and unrestricted in space.

With all those in mind, an ideal koi pond can now be made. It can be a zen garden feature complete with boulders and Japan-inspired theme, or a raised pond with glass windows so anyone can see the fish swimming contentedly. It can even be positioned by the pathways going to the person’s house or give additional lighting for the place to look pretty at nighttime.

It takes a whole lot of preparation to come up with a grand koi pond design. But put some effort and dedication to it, and the design will be a reality. The fish to live in it will not only be happy but so will those who are to own it and those who will come to see and feel refreshed around it. Ambiance and satisfaction will be guaranteed.

So if you’re up to creating that koi pond, find some koi for sale, keep in mind the needed factors, and get to work.