I recently had an interesting conversation with one of the groundskeepers at the nearby Japanese garden about the fish in the pond there and learned a lot about the differences between koi and carp.

Koi are a domesticated, ornamental variety of carp that are the result of centuries of selective breeding for lighter colours such as orange, white, yellow and the mottled types as well. The behaviour of koi is also different; they are much less aggressive than carp.

Carp are a dull greyish brown and sometimes difficult to spot in the water; of course that is one of their natural defences, something that koi no longer have.

The fish in the Japanese garden pond are a mix of koi and carp; people have apparently been randomly dropping carp there after they become too big for their home fish tanks. In the pond they have been growing and multiplying rapidly because they’re eating everything in sight.

In the photo above, you can see quite a number of dark coloured carp; the groundskeeper says there are about 30 of them.

At the moment plans are in place to remove the carp from the pond in the autumn when their activity slows down; the koi will once again have their pond to themselves.

During the next winter the groundskeepers will also be on the lookout for otters. Last winter one started living in the garden and helping himself to the koi; apparently about half of them were consumed before the otter was trapped and moved to another location. That otter must have thought he was in paradise!

Happy Thursday.