#koi koi koi

[samson-draws]

Hello intersex community! Happy pride month!

I'm a queer artist and in the process of designing pride koi stickers, like the one here.

Right now I'm in the process of designing the intersex flag koi and I think, as I have no intersex friends (that I know of), I'd best ask your opinion. Which of these drafts do you prefer?

I'd love your input on this. Intersex people only. Everyone is welcome to share

Feel free to specify in the tags! Aight, gotta catch a train aaaargh

[specsthespectraldragon]

How To Protect Your Koi From Predators While Still Looking Aesthetically Pleasing

requested by @gallusrostromegalus

Firstly, a quick point about netting before I start. Netting is a bad idea. Several predators (raccoons, herons, and otters) will simply pull it up and get in anyways, and depending on the mesh size you're likely to injure and kill juvenile koi, frogs, and other animals that you do want in and around your ponds. Also, leaves caught in it in the fall can impede water flow and create stagnant areas, damaging plants, preventing oxygen circulation, and providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Finally, you're very likely to have to cut out injured or killed predators from it; the last thing you want is to have to remove a very angry, half-decapitated cottonmouth from your pond. Netting is a bad idea, don't do it.

With that said, let's dive in!

Aerial predators (seagulls, kingfisher, osprey, herons, idiot teenage bald eagles, etc.)

The best defense against aerial predators is making sure they can't see the pond in the first place.

Evergreen trees that can be trained to spread branches out over the pond, and aren't prone to fighting each other for space or breaking into the plumbing with their root systems, are good choices for year-round pond protection. Just make sure you know how big the root system is going to become and prepare accordingly- just because california redwoods can work for this purpose does not mean you will necessarily have a pond in 20 years if you use them!

This does mean that you're going to get needles, twigs, cones, and the occasional branch in your pond. With biofalls and a good filtration system, these shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as you're taking the time daily to clean things out (excepting mature redwood, but that's really just another reason not to use that species). You'll want to pick species that don't produce fruit or cones that the koi want to eat, because they will, even in winter when they can't digest food properly. Uncontrolled fruit bacchanals in spring and summer aren't necessarily harmful on their own, but will lead to massive spikes in ammonia and other waste products, which will in turn make your filter sad and give you a massive headache.

2. Land predators (cats, raccoons, foxes, also herons because it's complicated, etc.)

You're not going to be able to hide your pond in any meaningful way from these guys, so the goal is to make the koi as inaccessible to them as possible. A planted ledge before a sheer "drop" into the rest of the pond provides a lovely viewing point while keeping predators from having an area to hunt from. Ponds should be about three to four feet deep; as a rule of thumb, you want to be six or more inches below the frost line, or three feet, whichever is deeper. If you've got great blue herons, you want to be four feet deep at least, because they're lanky bastards.

Speaking of plantings, lily pads, irises, and cattails make beautiful additions to a pond while giving the koi hiding places. Planting cabomba on mesh shelters hides the appearance of the mesh, gives the koi a tasty treat, and provides shelter all in one go. And of course, smaller bamboo tubes or a nice plastic skull give the fry hiding places as well. You can also try duckweed, but many people don't find the appearance attractive, and koi are very good at de-establishing duckweed by eating all of it.

Otters, while land predators, are an exception here because the little bastards can dive and have hands. If you are getting otters in your pond, your problem is far larger than anything landscaping can help you with.

3. Aquatic predators (snapping turtles, water snakes, alligators, etc.)

Offer your koi plenty of hiding places. Otherwise? If you see one of these guys in your pond, you are just going to have to remove them. Put them in your car, drive them to a body of water you deem far enough away, and release them. That's all you can do.

This brings us back to the above point about netting; snakes will wriggle under or through the netting or kill themselves trying, and snapping turtles will just bull right through it. I don't know if netting helps against alligators, but I would not want to take that bet.

Bullfrogs are often considered aquatic predators. They will indeed eat juvenile koi. However, they're no more likely to than the adult koi, and the koi will eat juvenile bullfrogs, so my personal consideration is that it evens out. If you're breeding koi, your calculations are going to be different, but you should have a separate pond or indoor tank for raising the fry anyways.

(bullfrogs will also stop eating the juvenile koi if given regular meals of koi food, but I'm not sure this is healthy for them. I also haven't figured out how to prevent jeremiah from eating the koi food, so it's probably a moot point.)

[raccoonskoodilypoopdungeon]

if you told me flower cardians had a card that said they win the duel i wouldn't even read their cards and accept it

[unstablecryptid]

accidentally hitting unfollow in the middle of a boop spam is the equivalent of slipping out mid thrust sorry about that

????

[weirwoodweb]

The whispererrrrrrr

[yuumei-art]

For those who missed it, I just opened an Etsy shop and I'm having a 20% OFF sale storewide :) there are 3 days left of the sale before prices return to normal.

Get them here YuumeiArts.Etsy.com

[happyheidi]

[shoujo-dreamland]

[tellioari]

Koi for an upcoming project :3

[mangafascination]

[cheezitofthevalley]

ALL THE FISH/OCEAN STAMPS

my

other

fish

posts

[dinchenix]

Fish for Pixel_Dailies

[0nelinerwordplay]

https://kimonocatsoncups.etsy.com

[alenagerashchenko]

TOKYO, JAPAN

[joy-drops]