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The problem with koi is that they are expensive and they get big. Get 2 or 3 of the cheapie goldfish from the pet section at Walmart....they will eat the larvae, grow a little and can actually survive over the winter so long as they have plant materials to eat, such as the funky stuff which will naturally occur in the bottom of your pot. Even in winter...if the pot ices over, just break them an air hole and they will probably be ok. If they don't make it all winter, your monetary investment is small.
We had a nice koi pond in Atlanta, and our fish did fine all winter. We stopped feeding them in the fall as the temps dropped, and the fish's metabolism slowed. I used to have pics of my koi and goldfish under the ice, coming up to the air hole. Obviously they don't need to breathe the air like a dolphin, but they seemed to like it.
Yeah they do, like 2~3 lbm, 18 inch long big... All the way to 10 lbm size
^^^ Here's your answer right there ^^^
But watch out for neighborhood cats !
Yes and water snakes if you live in the south ...I had a friend of mine that had a pond and one day we were standing by it and a big black snake came out of a hole by it ..I had to go to the hospital she knocked me down so hard she snapped my ankle . I have never seen anyone so scared of a snake in my life that they would knock someone down that way , I felt like I had been hit by a linebacker in a football game LOL .
Yes and water snakes if you live in the south ...I had a friend of mine that had a pond and one day we were standing by it and a big black snake came out of a hole by it ..I had to go to the hospital she knocked me down so hard she snapped my ankle . I have never seen anyone so scared of a snake in my life that they would knock someone down that way , I felt like I had been hit by a linebacker in a football game LOL .
Well, I think the OP will be ok with his water garden in a pot, but yes, wildlife can be a problem!! We had a large hawk that perched on the side of our koi pond looking for a chance to catch his lunch. I would not have been surprised at all to see a snake. A funny story...we bought one of those standard algae eater fish at Walmart to help eat some of the algae, etc. It was a plecostamus, I think. Well, usually fish adapt their growth to the size of the tank. In our koi pond, which was about 10 ft by 6 ft and about waist deep in one section, that algae eater grew to about 2 feet long. And ugly!!!!!
For the neighborhood cats, you might consider a little "safe room" for the fish in the bottom of the pot. Anything you can put down there which will stay down, and with some openings in it for the fish to hide in down deep. I'm sure you could come up with something from a recycled water bottle and some stones, or something like that. We had a large flat rock on an upturned terra cotta pot for our koi to hide under when the hawk was around.
And if you have raccoons in the neighborhood, forget the fish. They will treat them like hors d'oeuvres and throw your plants out of the container while they're at it.
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