Here is the final head count for the 2010 ponding season.

Top pond:

Since this was the last pond to winterize I was going to leave it till spring, but fumble fingers McGoo dropped the pruning shears in while pruning the water lilies. Upon draining the top pond I found ten six/seven inch koi, so I put them in the big pond to overwinter.

Settlement pond:

I found twelve 2-3 inch butterfly koi. Two were platinum ogon, and one was a beautiful gold ginrin. I placed them in a bucket and called the pet store who rescued the ones I couldn't find homes for this summer. They said, "sure bring them up, we'll love to have them." Oh no, should I keep the beautiful yellow butterfly? Like I need another koi in my pond. I had to make a quick decision. When I walked through the door of the pet store that is the first fish the owner wanted. He has a 3 acre farm pond and rescues unwanted koi. He told me I could have my pick of any koi in the pond next spring. I thanked him and told him I had already have more koi than I can handle. He told me the Metroparks just contacted him and they rescued a 3 ft koi from the park ranger someone caught while fishing. He said it was huge and beautiful. Sometimes I get stuck on stupid. He would have gladly taken the larger koi I found in the top pond. Oh well, I didn't know this beforehand. All they have in the store is a 75 gallon pond. In addition to the koi I found two dragonfly larvae and ten leopard frog tadpoles. These were placed back into the settlement pond after I drained it and filled it to clean out the bottom of the large pond.

Skippy filter:

One seven inch white koi with black spots that I threw back into the large pond for the winter.

My plan for next year is to drain my large pond to remove the fry from this summer. I made arrangements with the owners of the pet store to take them. All I have to do is schedule a date they are able to drive the koi to their rescue farm. I don't even want to think about that till next spring. I just hope everyone makes it through the winter. I made arrangements to get supplies and wh/wl with the pet store in exchange for the koi next spring.

Jenny

I can't imagine dealing with that many extra koi. I have two comets from last year and one (that I know of) from this year and it just seems like too much. hahaha Though one year I did have about 30 fish to relocate. Fortunately one person took most of them.

Anne