How to keep koi from eating your Philadelphia aquatic plants

Local pond owners love two things most of all: their Philadelphia aquatic plants and their beautiful koi. Yet koi and pond plants aren’t so happy to live in unison. Is it possible for there to be harmony in the same pond?

Your picked through waterlilies? Eaten away?

Your first issue? You may have too many fish. The key to the plant-eating koi dilemma is to make sure you have the correct koi-stocking density for your water garden. If there are too many koi, there will not be enough food and the hungry koi will then eat the plants. If there is enough food, there’s a better chance they will leave the plants alone.

In general, the rule for koi stocking is to have no more than one inch of fish per 10 gallons of water. You can have 150 inches of fish in 1,500 gallons of water, which is about five koi.

Remember, when buying small fish, they’re going to get bigger. Choose fish based on how large they’re going to grow. If you don’t provide koi with enough room, you risk plant health, water clarity, and the fish will suffer.

Understanding and Feeding Koi

Koi are quite the “Kurios Koi”

Koi like to look for things and tend to explore with their mouths. If you see the koi eating around the base of your Philadelphia aquatic plants, try installing large rocks around the base of the plant. Fish can’t move rocks as well!

If your koi are well fed, they won’t eat many Philadelphia aquatic plants. What will they eat beside your plants? How about koi food? Koi love food pellets.

Although they love dining on your favorite waterlily, they prefer koi food even more. Given the choice between a pelleted food and green vegetation, they’ll opt for the taste and high-energy of a pelleted food.

When choosing fish food , the pellet size should be close to the size of the fish’s pupil (the black part of the eye). Feed your fish once or twice a day, no more than they can eat in two minutes or less.

Excess food is caught in the skimmer and will decay, which isn’t ideal for the water quality of your pond. This is why it’s preferably to toss in a few food pellets at a time, as opposed to a large handful.

Aquatic plants and fish are made to go together. When they are combined, the result is a cleaner, healthier pond that’s easy to maintain. Pond plants remove toxins better than any chemicals and also offer coverage against predators and oxygenate the water during the day.

Your job? Don’t overstock the pond and feed your koi a quality fish food on a regular schedule. Your reward, a beautiful place for your Philadelphia aquatic plants and your koi. Living together. In harmony.