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backache · 01-17-2010, 07:46 AM

Koifish, Do you have any of the butterfly ones? I think that is what they are called. The ones with the flowing fins. They are beautiful. I am hoping if I put them in the lake they will be okay. I have mostly bluegills, but I have my goldfish and 2 cat fish, which must be the same sex since they have been in there for years and no babies yet. When I go by the lake they all come swimming towards me to be fed. It is a wave of fish. I only feed in warm weather also since I read you are not suppose to feed them when the water gets below 55 degrees. Is this true?

jayne · 01-17-2010, 10:40 AM

backache we were told catfish wouldnt have babies if they didnt have something to back into and hide them we threw some old tires to the middle of our pond and we now have lots of babies

backache · 01-17-2010, 10:52 AM

Thanks Jayne I will try this. I am going to try and get a couple more catfish for the lake. I love them, they are so cool looking when they are feeding.

koifish · 01-18-2010, 08:50 AM

backache Wrote:Koifish, Do you have any of the butterfly ones? I think that is what they are called. The ones with the flowing fins. They are beautiful. I am hoping if I put them in the lake they will be okay. I have mostly bluegills, but I have my goldfish and 2 cat fish, which must be the same sex since they have been in there for years and no babies yet. When I go by the lake they all come swimming towards me to be fed. It is a wave of fish. I only feed in warm weather also since I read you are not suppose to feed them when the water gets below 55 degrees. Is this true?

Yes we have butterfly koi, we also had some albino catfish, unfortunately they thought that the koi was there dinner so after missing a few babies we discovered that the albino's were in fact eating them. We had catfish that were about 2 feet in length and we had to give them away since i rather have the koi. I feed my fish til december and then start again in march when they come up and the pond is not frozen. Of course we clean the pond once a year and have an exterior filter with a uv light and the uv light helps control the algae so my pond is clear all year. Hope that answers the question.

backache · 01-18-2010, 09:09 AM

I wonder now if I should get any more catfish?????? If they eat the young of the koi I may not. Now I am putting them in a lake so there is a great deal of room so this may help. I notice I don't have many baby goldfish so more than likely my other fish are eating them. Everything goes after that flash in the water, where the bluegills are camouflaged because of their drab color the goldfish are easily seen. I guess I could put them in our decorative ponds out back until they get bigger and put them in the lake when they are too large to eat. I had a uv light , but prefer natural vegetation coverage. They recommend at least 80 % of the pond be covered by floating plants to keep the algae down. Now when you want to see the fish it makes it difficult, but the fish eat it so I don't mind. Thank you for the answer.