Can I get some Koi fish? intermediate to expert advice please.?

Question

I LOVE them, they are so beautiful, but here's the thing, I live in NYC. I know they are pond fish, but I waaaaaaannt them, a few of them and I know they can grow to be very large, I've seen a few pet shops selling them but they are tiny, but I want to order some like 6-7 inch koi fish. Is this a good idea because I'm willing to buy a huge tank like 250 gallons or so, What size tank would you recommend , and if I do buy it it wont just be Koi, it would be a mixture of Calico Shubunkins and they grow to be just as big, some Fantail Goldfish, they get big too. Can u help me out?

Answer 1

6-7 inch koi are considered small fish. They can grow to 2-3 feet or more. You need to allow, in a tank, for koi at their full growth, approximately 100 gallons of water PER fish. So, for a 250 gallon tank, you could only have two koi. People say, "well, the petstore has a tank FULL of koi!" What they don't realize is that those koi aren't in that tank for very long. They're either sold or they die. You can mix Commons, Comets and Shubunkins with koi, but you CANNOT put fancies (fantails) in with these fast fish. Fancies are slow and would never get any food. If you had a 250 gallon tank and were willing to go with ONLY Commons, Comets and/or Shubunkins, you could get away with 10 of these fish, allowing for 12 inches full growth size per fish. Please review this site well before buying any fish as there are a lot of steps that you need to take prior to putting fish in the water, i.e., "cycling" the tank. You are not really going to find any sites that speak specifically to keeping koi in aquariums because that's just pretty much a no-no, but goldfish are pretty much the same, so use the guidelines for a goldfish aquarium. Oh, and, with water, a 250 gallon tank weighs A LOT, like close to 3000 lbs.! and your apartment may not be able to handle such a load. This is something else you need to look at. I'm sorry, bleedseahawkblue is wrong. You CANNOT put in more than 2 koi in a 250 gallon tank. And that would be ALL that you would have in it. No other goldfish. If you want them to live and be healthy, you cannot. If you wanted one koi, then you could put in about 7 shubunkins. This would be a good compromise if it's a lot of fish you want. These are difficult to find, but you also could try a wakin, whose tail is split like a fantail goldfish, or a jikin, whose tail spreads flat outwards, so that would be more fun.

Answer 2

If you get a 250 gallon tank you could put probably 2-3 koi in there, that way you have room for goldfish. I would not put fan-tail goldfish with koi or shubunkins though. The fan-tail goldfish would get picked on. Shubunkins only grow about 1/2 the size of koi. You would probably be just fine with 2 koi and 5 shubinkins. Maybe 3 koi, but that might be cutting it a little close.

Answer 3

That aquarium is barely a house for fry. some koi attain over 3 ft long, so which you desire a koi pond. Do plenty learn on development koi ponds. The pond must be a minimum of 5,000 gallons. until eventually you like that plenty time and attempt, do no longer hassle with koi. Koi care is rather high priced, and time and capability eating. until eventually you prefer to grant the equivalent volume of time and attempt for the subsequent 40 years, do no longer hassle.