I scored yesterday!

[Holldoll]

DH and I have been looking for a day care for our daughter so we went to visit one lady yesterday and she had a 20 gallon fish tank with 3 8" koi an 8" (at least) oscar, 2 4" plecos, 4 - 3" gold fish and 1 cichlid. I just happened to ask if they were koi (I knew they were - but wanted to see what he would say about them) and she said "yes they are, but I want to donate them to someone."
"Donate them to who?"
"Someone that has a bigger space for them."
"It's too many fish for that small tank"
"I have a 3000 gallon pond with only 3 koi and 2 goldfish in it right now." 
"Will you take them!?!?"

I ran right home and got a bucket to bring them home in. 

I ended up with the 3 koi, the two plecos and the 4 goldfish. The goldfish went into my 24 gallon fish tank along with the plecos.  I might let one of them into the pond, but definitely not all of them - no babies for me!  All the fish are really jumpy!  Every time I walk past the tank they freak out - I'm sure it's because they were living with an oscar - they all have missing fins from him biting them.  They koi are JUMPING out of the water they are in - just straight up, not onto the land but they are ALL freaked out!

I think the two plecos is too many for my tank - how warm does the water have to be in the pond to put them in?

[Julles]

Well, you really lucked out there, Girl!  Not to mention gave a better life to all those fish.  Koi in an aquarium, indeed! 

What colors are the new koi?  Any pics?

Just a word of caution... I learned the hard way, especially at spawning time, but it can happen at any time of the year - koi JUMP!  Two years ago, I lost THREE fish, all at spawning time, including a very large and gorgeous platinum female.

Now I have my pond covered, to preven the fish from jumping out, and the varmits ('coons & cats) from getting their paws in.  I used frames made of PVC pipe, spray painted black, and covered them with chicken wire, also painted black.  The chicken wire pretty much "disappears" from view.

It's not the most scenic way to view my pond, but it's not bad, and it's much better than loosing fish.

[purplepshn2004]

Wow, you did score!  How lucky!

I had a pleco in my fish tank once that got too big, moved him into the pond and he got huge.  He lived for a couple years.  That was when I still lived in South Dakota - zone 4 - and our ponding season is shorter then yours and of course it gets much colder.  So I'm sure you could one or both of them in your pond safely.  Not sure what the water temp. was all the time, but know it fluctuated a lot!  I'm sure they will all calm down in no time.

[Holldoll]

One of the koi is yellow (the sparkly kind - can't remember the real name) the other two are orange and white.  They aren't the prettiest koi but they sure are happier now!  Poor things were miserable not only in an aquarium but that oscar was really mean to them! I've never had my koi jump but these ones sure do! They haven't done it in the last couple of hours so I hope they are calming down.  I will probably put one of the plecos in when the water warms up to see how it does. The water is only about 60* now but it gets warm by about May so we'll see what happens.  I'm VERY happy about my luck yesterday!

[PondmaninAL]

Zone 9 is borderline for plecos. Where we lived in Florida, some people kept them in the pond successfully and some people lost them. I think the temps have to stay between 70-80*F.

[Jonna]

I have plecos in my ponds here but I noticed that they were much less active this winter when the water temps got down between 70F and 72F.  I see them out and about more now that the water is back up in the 80's.   I don't think they ate much when it was colder either, I have a huge algae bloom right now. 

[Kat]

It is good that you saved them.  I put a few bristlenose pleco babies in my ponds last summer when the temps were warm/hot.  Brought them in as soon as the cooler fall temps started up.