Koi lives to be 200 years old?

Koi will be fine in 24" in USDA Zone 4. I would recomend at least 30" depth with 36-40" even better. The filter does not need to be run year round, but some sort of areation near the surface needs to be employed. After the water dips to 40-45 degrees, feeding stops altogether so their will be less solid waste. Biggest concern is the gas exchange, and that is easily addressed. A pond of 3000 gals. is a good number to shoot for. There is no way you will only keep 2 fish. The pond will look sparce and my Koi seems to really like swimmming with his goldfish friends. If your friend breeds them, pick his brain for ideas. I'm assuming he is local?
 
some of the ponds in Japan that I have heard these stories were fed by stream/waterfall and also had a stream exiting the pond. filtration at its best.
 
A friend of mine had heat trace underneath his koi pond in the Canadian Rocky Mountains that ran through the winter and kept the bottom of the pond from freezing.... the same type you can run on your roof in a cold climate. The top of the pond freezes, but the bottom does not - so you get hibernation still but the fishies survive.

The koi were fine for a few winters... until the heat trace broke and he didn't notice until spring. :(

So that will work, as long as you actually check it. And it's fairly easy to deal with, as long as you actually deal with it!
 
Thanks for the link guys. I had heard this in conversation and doubted the statement, but I knew you guys would be able to come up with something.
My friend who breeds koi lived in a abondoned airforce base and turned the under ground bunker into a giant koi breeding scheme, so he never had to deal with the outdoor winters.
I think I will shoot for next year, I will have to figure out filtration and such. I want to have koi and then pass them on to my children when I die, that would be awesome!
 
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