Question
In the fall, I had a very large pond or should I say 4 descending ponds, built.  Mother Nature was generous enough to fill all the ponds naturally for me since having it built.  I have a BioFall at the top and a skimmer at the lower pond.

I have just added 5- 3 inch Koi to my lower pond, which holds about 8,500 gallons of water.  I have been an aqaurist for over 30 years, so I am no stranger to raising fish in a freshwater environment.  I AM a stranger to raising Koi.

I added the fish yesterday, floating their bag in the pond for around 30-40 minutes and slowly adding the pond water to the bag, to get them acclimated.  I then released them.  We haven't had much sunshine today, so the pond was rather dark.  BUT, I have not seen the little critters swimming around since last night.

I have no turtles or other predators to hurt my new fish.  My question....Will the new Koi's eventually show themselves or will they stay hidden?  I have two water lilly's in the pond in a place where the water stays rather quiet, despite my waterfall from the top BioFall.

I would appreciate any help you could give me.  I am new at this, as you can tell.  I was great with my aquariums, but this new pond has me asking alot of questions.

Very Sincerely, Heather

Answer
Heather,

Not to worry, they are just hiding.  I get this complaint, nearly every time I build a pond.  They are going to stay hidden probably for a couple of weeks.  Small fish like that immediately go into the crevices between the rocks.

Be patient.  Feed just a few bits of food in the same spot everyday.  They will eventually come out of hiding and start taking the food.  Koi will get VERY tame with a little patience.  Mine in my display pond will take food right off the tips of your fingers.

If you want to speed up the process, get several large fish that are too big to hide in the rocks.  They will swim around where you can see them and the smaller ones will follow them.

Good Luck,

John