Koi lives to be 200 years old?

Reframer

Reframer

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Feb 22, 2009
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Minnesota
Has anyone heard about this, how can that be true? How long does the average koi live?
Also, my husband's friend breeds koi and I was somewhat thinking about making a pond. Would they be able to live in MN outside in the winter? I just want to make a pond big enough for 2, in which they would be able to grow up in. How big would that need to be and how deep?
 
Reframer said:
Would they be able to live in MN outside in the winter?
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As long as the pond is deep enough,and it does not freeze solid,they should survive the winter.I know people in Iowa who keep them in their outdoor ponds for the winter.They keep their filter running so there is enough movement in the pond so it does not completely freeze.I'm not sure how deep it needs to be though.For 2 koi,I would think it would need to be at least 100 gallons.
I do not have a pond or keep them myself.Hopefully someone with more experience with them will chime in.
 
The gallons per fish rule is not going to really take effect in the case of keeping them in the pond through the winter because you are going to go way above the required gallons just by making that thing deep enough to keep from freezing. Remember the below -20 week we had last winter? Considering our crappy summer I would really be surprised if that did not happen again.

I do not know the depth, but you could get a lowish pond heater and have a good depth to the pond and your koi should be fine. You will need to find out what the lower temperature range for them to go dormant for the winter is and then find out how you'll go about keeping it at that. You will of course have to keep the filter running through the winter, which may be an issue all its own, but so long as you keep it clean and keep things flowing you should be alright and able to keep lines from freezing.

Thats just my view from another person in MN.
 
67chevelle said:
As long as the pond is deep enough,and it does not freeze solid,they should survive the winter.I know people in Iowa who keep them in their outdoor ponds for the winter.They keep their filter running so there is enough movement in the pond so it does not completely freeze.I'm not sure how deep it needs to be though.For 2 koi,I would think it would need to be at least 100 gallons.
I do not have a pond or keep them myself.Hopefully someone with more experience with them will chime in.
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100 gallons is WAY too small - think more in the 1000-1200 range.

Kristina
 
yes, a koi in a PERFECT environment can live to be 200... there are a few cases of this in Japan in Natural stream feed ponds. also, koi can get MASSIVE in a PERFECT environment. well beyond 36"...
 
I find the exceptional life-span stories a little "fishy", given that these fish will have the chance to reach their maximum size several times in a 200 years. Add that we are forced to rely on the accounts of multiple family generations to determine it's the same fish, and these families are more than likely to stock several koi in their ponds. It may not be nearly as interesting, but is it not just as likely that two (or more) different fish are involved?
 
I find it hard to believe koi can live for 2 centuries. How do you figure that out? I have never heard of this and I will be very surprised if such extraordinary feat is actually achieved, not to mention as pointed by Josh, it has to be recorded from the start when the same fish got born.

Just to point one thing out, no matter how you attempt to keep their environment clean, a fish is bound to get hit by health issues, whether the issue itself can endanger or cut down the life of the fish or not.

"Perfect" environment? I am not sure with koi, you would consider the environment "perfect". "Ideal" perhaps is a better term as "perfect" is misleading. The water itself cannot and will never be totally clean enough especially when you are housing something that excretes an extraordinary amount of wastes.
 
There is a way to determine age in fish which is similar to counting rings on a tree. I don't remember if the growth rings were measured on a scale or on a bone post-mortem. The fish in question was named "Hanako", and supposedly his age was determined at 200+ with a 10%-15% margin of error. It was in an issue of TFH I believe, a few yrs ago. I remember that the pond was fed by a waterfall fed by snowmelt and the temp never exceeded the mid to high 50s.
 
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