Greetings Earthlings

[cs2cats]

Just crusin' thru & testing.
1st time here...checking it out.

[Byron]

Greetings my Fellow Earthling

Welcome aboard on mother ship. May this be a wonderful and enriching trip for you and your pets. http://petshub.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Garfield]

Greetings to you too.

Do you own any cats? Or any other pets?

[cs2cats]

Originally posted by Garfield:
Greetings to you too.

Do you own any cats? Or any other pets?

Yep, I have 2cats..
A 2 1/2 yr old orange male tabby-very large..
names Jules & a 6 mth old calico Julie.

How bout you...cats & others ?

[Garfield]

Hello,

I do not own any cats, but i do have some fishes - Kois. I love all pets. They are just as adorable.

What do you feed your cats? How about playing? What toys do you give them? Are they long fur or short fur?

[cs2cats]

Originally posted by Garfield:
Hello,

I do not own any cats, but i do have some fishes - Kois. I love all pets. They are just as adorable.

What do you feed your cats? How about playing? What toys do you give them? Are they long fur or short fur?

Jules, I feed something call WD from the Vet
...it's low in fat. Jules has a blood problem
..this seems to work for that and he likes it
ok.

Julie, I feed her (forgot the brand)-'growth'
food from the Vet while she's lil'...at 9 mth
I'll switch her to a 'maintenance' type food
from the Vet.
Toys: practically anything amuses them: their
favorite toy at the moment is 'each other'..
right now they're flying thru the house chasing and wrestling w/ea other. My youngster Julie's favorite toy is a pecan she
bats around the house like a soccer ball.

Both are short hair cats.

Kois ? I plan on having a pond in my back yard in the future. Are yours inside fish or
outside ? If outside in a pond...do you have any wisdom or sites to share about Kois for a pond ? I used to have a 55 gal tank ..now I
have an empty 20 gal...guess I'm getting old
in the head or something (going soft). My
goofy thoughts on fish in an inside tank these days are like: don't want them to feel
too 'trapped'...silly to think that way ..so
I guess I'm just silly.

[Garfield]

Hello,

It is nice to know that your cats' favorite toys is 'each other'. Interesting term.

My kois are inside fishes. Nah... you are not old or getting soft. http://petshub.com/ubb/smile.gif I agree with you about the "being trapped" thing. At times, i look at my fish and wonder if i am trapping them. I think i am rather silly to think that way too. I intend to change/tranfer them to a bigger tank. But still on the process of searching a good and big one.

Here are some pointers for kois in pond.

*First and most importantly make it as big as you can. Most of kois owners start out with a pond from 500 to 2,000 gallons, and then build another one that is 10,000 to 50,000 gallons. The reason is more and more Koi can be kept. There are hundreds of combinations of colors and varieties, and we want one of each. We can't put more than about 20 full size Koi in a 2,000 gallon pond, and to do that requires a lot of filtration and aeration.

*Second, do not put any goldfish into your pond. Many of kois owners/keepers spend their lives trying to get the gold fish out of there because they breed so easily.

*Third, make it at least 4' deep; 4' keeps out a lot of raccoons who love the taste of Koi; 8 feet doubles the size. 8' means you can't stand up in it without taking out a lot of the water, but it will make it a little more difficult for Great Blue Herons, Kingfishers, etc to clean out your pond.

*Fourth, just in case, have a geometry that will allow you to put a bird net over the pond. A single Great Blue Heron can eat a hundred or more Koi (6") in just one meal. They are a very serious threat, and they can cost you thousands of dollars, particularly during May and June (in Colorado) when they are feeding their young. Sometimes they will just kill a 2 foot long Koi, and leave it around your pond.

*Fifth, locate the pond out of direct sunlight all day long. Koi need shade from direct sunlight; you can provide plants (like water lilies) with plant stands, or clay drain tiles, anything that will give them relief. Keep it away from overhanging trees if possible so the leaves and needles don't blow in. However, sometimes we just have to deal with an imperfect location. http://petshub.com/ubb/smile.gif

*Sixth, you need a properly sized water pump, filtration system, and an ultraviolet sterilizer.

*Seventh, an inexpensive cattle trough heater will keep a hole in the ice during the winter hard freezes. They are available in 1,000 and 1,500 watts. Moving water or aeration will also keep it from freezing. You want to avoid a solid ice cap over the entire pond.

*Eighth, a gas pond heater for cold climates is recommended. Koi don't eat when the water is much colder than 50 degrees, and they don't grow when they don't eat. A pond heater will greatly lengthen the growing season, which means they will get bigger faster. It will also reduce the fluctuations in temperature between a hot day and a cold night.

*Ninth, very few ponds have a protein skimmer, but they are very useful to reduce the organics causing the foam under your waterfall, etc.

*Tenth, be ready to easily replace 5-10% of the water every week to keep the water fresh, and to reduce the buildup of organics. Of course that may require replacement of some of the chemicals more often.

*Eleventh, never forget that chlorinated water will kill your Koi. You need to buffer the pH, and continuously monitor the ammonia and nitrite (that's different from nitrate) levels. They can kill your Koi, and will also tell you about over feeding and over crowding. It is also important to test the chlorine, pH, alkalinity, hardness, salinity, nitrate, phosphate, copper, and oxygen.

All the best to your pond with kois!

[fatcat]

Hello cat lovers, moew...........

[bobo]

Cat A: Moew Moew!!
Cat B: Moew a MoewMoew!!
Cat C: Stop Moewing!!!
Cat A: But we cat wat...

[Garfield]

Meow... to you too, fatcat.
You have a lovely nick.

bobo, i had a good laugh after reading that short cat dialogue. Thanks for sharing.

Any pet cats?

[cs2cats]

Originally posted by Garfield:
Hello,

It is nice to know that your cats' favorite toys is 'each other'. Interesting term.

My kois are inside fishes. Nah... you are not old or getting soft. http://petshub.com/ubb/smile.gif I agree with you about the "being trapped" thing. At times, i look at my fish and wonder if i am trapping them. I think i am rather silly to think that way too. I intend to change/tranfer them to a bigger tank. But still on the process of searching a good and big one.

Here are some pointers for kois in pond.

*First and most importantly make it as big as you can. Most of kois owners start out with a pond from 500 to 2,000 gallons, and then build another one that is 10,000 to 50,000 gallons. The reason is more and more Koi can be kept. There are hundreds of combinations of colors and varieties, and we want one of each. We can't put more than about 20 full size Koi in a 2,000 gallon pond, and to do that requires a lot of filtration and aeration.

*Second, do not put any goldfish into your pond. Many of kois owners/keepers spend their lives trying to get the gold fish out of there because they breed so easily.

*Third, make it at least 4' deep; 4' keeps out a lot of raccoons who love the taste of Koi; 8 feet doubles the size. 8' means you can't stand up in it without taking out a lot of the water, but it will make it a little more difficult for Great Blue Herons, Kingfishers, etc to clean out your pond.

*Fourth, just in case, have a geometry that will allow you to put a bird net over the pond. A single Great Blue Heron can eat a hundred or more Koi (6") in just one meal. They are a very serious threat, and they can cost you thousands of dollars, particularly during May and June (in Colorado) when they are feeding their young. Sometimes they will just kill a 2 foot long Koi, and leave it around your pond.

*Fifth, locate the pond out of direct sunlight all day long. Koi need shade from direct sunlight; you can provide plants (like water lilies) with plant stands, or clay drain tiles, anything that will give them relief. Keep it away from overhanging trees if possible so the leaves and needles don't blow in. However, sometimes we just have to deal with an imperfect location. http://petshub.com/ubb/smile.gif

*Sixth, you need a properly sized water pump, filtration system, and an ultraviolet sterilizer.

*Seventh, an inexpensive cattle trough heater will keep a hole in the ice during the winter hard freezes. They are available in 1,000 and 1,500 watts. Moving water or aeration will also keep it from freezing. You want to avoid a solid ice cap over the entire pond.

*Eighth, a gas pond heater for cold climates is recommended. Koi don't eat when the water is much colder than 50 degrees, and they don't grow when they don't eat. A pond heater will greatly lengthen the growing season, which means they will get bigger faster. It will also reduce the fluctuations in temperature between a hot day and a cold night.

*Ninth, very few ponds have a protein skimmer, but they are very useful to reduce the organics causing the foam under your waterfall, etc.

*Tenth, be ready to easily replace 5-10% of the water every week to keep the water fresh, and to reduce the buildup of organics. Of course that may require replacement of some of the chemicals more often.

*Eleventh, never forget that chlorinated water will kill your Koi. You need to buffer the pH, and continuously monitor the ammonia and nitrite (that's different from nitrate) levels. They can kill your Koi, and will also tell you about over feeding and over crowding. It is also important to test the chlorine, pH, alkalinity, hardness, salinity, nitrate, phosphate, copper, and oxygen.

All the best to your pond with kois!

Thanx much for alllllllll the info on the
pond bit....really...sounds like you're up on
your pond knowledge....you must have had one
or still do ?....did you have good luck ?

I'm lucky I'm not to have much worry with the
ice ...since I live on the coast of Miss.

I had no idea such needed attention to so
many details were involved with a pond for
the back yard !...again thanx for the info.

[Garfield]

Hello cs2cats,

You are welcome. I am glad that those information are of help to you.

Well, nope! I never had a pond before or even now. I wanted to have a pond before and went to search and read up a lot of it. But in the end, i didn't get one, but i am still considering getting one though. http://petshub.com/ubb/smile.gif