>>>> You would need to go to a good pet store or fish store but I think you can >>>> buy Koi >>>> that can winter in a pond even in the harshest of climes - you would just >>>> need to >>>> check - but your local Wal-Mart variety wouldn't make it through the >>>> winter.
Oh I don't know about that! We've tried Koi in our goldfish pond, and the longest any lived was just a few months. Cary built this pond for us in 2000 and we still have some of the original plain-old-pet-store goldfish, and we get a few babies every year. Since we can find regular old goldfish in basic gold, red, gold/white, red/white, we quit wasting the money on the more expensive Koi. I've had a few of the really pretty "calico" goldfish - the tri-colored black/white/gold ones. Unfortunately, they don't show up so well in the pond shadows, so the less exotic gold, red or white/colored ones are now my favorites. Seriously, though, we haven't bought a fish for the pond in at least five years. It's really self-sustaining. It's about six feet by 18 feet, with two pool sections and a couple of waterfalls. >>> I think I would opt for stocking it with trout or somehting like that. If Virginia is talking about a full-sized pond, I'd agree to use a typical pond fish - here, that would be bass or bream most likely. That said, our neighbors released some goldfish in our big pond, and we still see them occasionally. They've gotten VERY big. Karen Thomas, NC
