new user checking in

just heard about this site and checking it out! pretty neat so far!

welcome!

thanks, what's MFK? i don't know much about fish. i built a pond about 8000+ gallons and have a bunch of koi. i'm not into showing or breeding, just like to watch them grow!

MFK is another fish website.. Monsterfishkeepers is what it stands for, there's a few of us that are members on there also. wafishbox is great for meeting and helping or local fish peeps.

Welcome to the site, we're very glad to have you!

thanks, there's a lot of information here

MFK is uber nation-wide site. It has it's purpose.

WAfishbox (like hbluehunter said) is great when you want to deal locally and meet up with peeps!

BTW, Welcome to the BOX!

Hey welcome. I would love to build a pond with koi. Looking forward to pics.

i'll try to load some pics soon, it was my first one and i dug it out with a shovel and pick ax! it doesn't look professional, but it's not too bad. especially with all the vegetation getting established.

i'll have to check out MFK too!

if you're looking to build a pond, go to Russell Water Gardens in Redmond. they have the best equipment and awesome customer service. they have everything for the koi enthusiast! and they stock koi exclusively from Kodama Koi Farm. the Kodama Koi Farm has very nice quality fish!

you can't talk about an amazing fish or a really cool pond you dug out without sharing pics. I think it is a law or something.

Welcome to the box.

Welcome, curious how do you keep the fish warm? Or are koi coldwater fish?

they can handle the cold really well. they just hang out towards the bottom of the pond, it's about 5.5 ft. deep. they're nice and plump from the summer, so they have plenty of fat stores to get them through the winter. but i do worry about them, i have a lot of money invested in them and there's not much i can do for them against mother nature. last year my pond almost froze completely over and all of them made it, so i'm confident that they will be fine

You are correct, mine freezes over every years and haven't had a loss yet, except to coon's

Welcome

welcome to the site,

as for racoons i hear if you have verticals walls on the sides of your ponds they cant reach down to your water, i dont know what a racoons reach is but its just something i remember hearing.

the best defense against herons and raccoons is a deep pond. anything over 4 feet is good, the herons can't stand in it and the raccoons can't reach them either.

Good to know. I don't know anything about koi or ponds so it was insightful.

i got a crash course on koi ponds at the washington koi association koi show