Keeping koi with goldfish?
- Thread starter coldwatercrazy
- Start date
They can live together without problem. Some people use goldfishes to train koi fishes to come up to the top for food. I wouldn't put them with higher end koi because of possible disease issues.
Thanks. Have these two ever had a hybrid spawn?
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Koi grow too large for most home aquariums. Koi will also out compete the slower moving fancy goldfish for food. Koi and comets do hybridize.
I agree. I would be careful not to keep them with the plumper, fancy goldfish as they cannot compete for food with the leaner, faster, more robust koi.
Koi and goldfish do well together but as the others have said only with the hardier goldfish. Koi get very large quickly, easily reaching 3- 4 feet in just a few years. I have raised several in my 300 to put put within one year in the pond. Raising them to 15" indoors gives them the food and temps they need to really grow fast so they do not fall prey out side. We have cold/ cool winters in the NW. What was interesting I found was that the koi can become quite aggressive with the goldfish really going after the comets tails. I had many that would grab on and get tugged around the aquarium and not let go. that was indication to me to put them outside.
I can't give a per month grow out, but at two years (in a pond) they can hit 18 inches. Growing up I had a teacher that kept a 125g tank in the classroom with koi. He had that thing overstocked too. The fish were overfed as well, us kids fed them multiple times a day. All he ran was a HOB filter like an Aquaclear but he kept up water changes too and we never saw fish die or get sick. The koi may have stunted themselves out but I don't remember any over 8 inches. I know he would put the bigger ones in his pond at the end of school, but anything smaller than 8-10 inches stayed in the tank all summer (we had summer school too).
I have two fingerlings from this past spring and a yearling in my tank. One hasn't grown since pulled, he is about 3 inches including tail. The other is about 4 inches, the yearling is about 7 inches. They are in with some fancies for now, and are doing good, but they are exceptions too. Most koi seem to get more aggressive around 3 inches.
My largest here was an unusual case though. He was pond raised until I pulled him in this fall from a friend. He had gotten stuck to the pond filter intake and it tore the bottom of his tail off this summer. It had been healing but I took him in because she was afraid he wouldn't do well. He's a veil finned koi she thinks, or maybe just a longer finned butterfly koi. His tail is healing pretty nice, he has a small kink in the ray though. His left pec fin is also twisted from the filter too we think. When I got him in the tank he was scared from being able to see through the glass and darted wildly for the first couple days. The fancies taught him the ropes of the tank and now he's a big old cow grazing with the rest of them. He no longer scared of the lights or when we walk by the tank and is quite mellow. The 4 inch koi I have in there is also a butterfly koi, pulled because he's black and white with a small amount of yellow coming in with Ginrin patterned scales.
I do like the butterfly koi more for tanks, they seem to have better personalities and are more mellow.
I have two fingerlings from this past spring and a yearling in my tank. One hasn't grown since pulled, he is about 3 inches including tail. The other is about 4 inches, the yearling is about 7 inches. They are in with some fancies for now, and are doing good, but they are exceptions too. Most koi seem to get more aggressive around 3 inches.
My largest here was an unusual case though. He was pond raised until I pulled him in this fall from a friend. He had gotten stuck to the pond filter intake and it tore the bottom of his tail off this summer. It had been healing but I took him in because she was afraid he wouldn't do well. He's a veil finned koi she thinks, or maybe just a longer finned butterfly koi. His tail is healing pretty nice, he has a small kink in the ray though. His left pec fin is also twisted from the filter too we think. When I got him in the tank he was scared from being able to see through the glass and darted wildly for the first couple days. The fancies taught him the ropes of the tank and now he's a big old cow grazing with the rest of them. He no longer scared of the lights or when we walk by the tank and is quite mellow. The 4 inch koi I have in there is also a butterfly koi, pulled because he's black and white with a small amount of yellow coming in with Ginrin patterned scales.
I do like the butterfly koi more for tanks, they seem to have better personalities and are more mellow.
Koi and gold fish emit hormones that prevent one another from growing if they are overstocked, thank god as most ponds would totally become a cesspool in just a few years. They are also the only fish that have pain and pleasure nerves so they can be trained using electric shock therapy. In the United Kingdom they actually have rights... Very hard to enforce from what I understand.