Whether you just installed your new koi pond or just inherited one with a home purchase, you may be wondering how often and how much should I feed your new koi fish. It's a common concern and important question! After all, it could change the entire maintenance plan and longevity of your fish.

Well, wonder no more because we’re here to teach you all about feeding your fish. Whether your pond has koi fish, comet goldfish, pond sharks or shubunkins, we have one simple method that works for them all.

We recommend that you feed your fish once a day or every other day when your pond water is healthy and clean. This will provide enough nutrients for healthy fish and a healthy pond. Feeding them too often can put an excess amount of nutrients into your pond which will promote the growth of algae. If you want your fish to grow faster, feeding your fish twice a day will help to promote growth, and give you happy plump fish but will require more maintenance. By getting into a feeding pattern (i.e. same time and place at pond) your fish will learn when it is time to eat, and they will begin to look for you at to the location where they’re familiar with you consistently feeding them.  After some time they will get so familiar with you and the feeding place/time that they will eat right out of your hands!

At this point we should raise awareness to the seasonal differences of fish food feeding. Seasonal fish food feeding? Is there really a difference? YES! There are different types of food contingent on water temperature and even a time to stop feeding entirely.

When feeding fish we like to give them a few small handfuls at a time, following the five minute rule. The 5 minute rule is only giving the fish as much food as they can eat within a 5 minute time period. If they eat everything you give them within 5 minute, you can consider giving them more. If after the first 5 minutes there is left over food floating around, its time to put the food away. Be sure to pull the excess floating pellets out of the water so they don’t decompose in your water.
It is important to mention that fish food is NOT a fish’ only source of food! Fish can thrive off of eating the algae and plant matter that surrounds them and will do so if you miss a regular feeding time. While koi tend to eat more algae than goldfish, goldfish have been known to nibble here and there. Pond Sharks, on the other hand are ONLY algae eaters! Keep in mind, the fish are given a small amount of fish food at a time for a few reasons. One reason is so that they are encouraged to eat the algae growing in your pond, because it will help keep the algae growth in check. Also, large amounts of food that don’t get eaten would then flow into your filtration system, break down and then can cause algae growth from the excess nutrients that are broken down.

Located in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Dreamscapes Watergardens installs koi fish ponds and pondless waterfalls (disappearing waterfalls) all over the Central Pennsylvania area. For more information on koi ponds and waterfeature installations, please contact us directly!

Dreamscapes also carries a full line of pond supplies from water treatments and fish medications to pond pumps, heaters, fountains, plants and fish! Tadpoles and snails are also available at our Aquatic Retail Center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania seasonally while supplies last from May-August.  If you think you need it, we have it!

Retail Hours:  April 5th-October 27th 2018:
                           Monday-Wednesday: By Appt
                           Thursday-Friday: 10am-5pm
                           Saturday: 9am-12pm
                     October 28th-April 2019: HOURS BY APPT


Contact Us
2155 State Route 343, Lebanon Pa | 717-272-6555 | [email protected]

Dreamscapes Watergardens services the city of Lebanon, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Cleona, Cornwall, Fredericksburg, Indiantown Gap, Jonestown, Kleinfeltersville, Mount Gretna, Myerstown, Newmanstown Palmyra, Quentin, Reistville, Richland, Schaefferstown of Pennsylvania,

This is one of the most popular questions we get at Dreamscapes Watergardens. Warmer weather gets everyone itching to plan out their summer.  When determining what size Koi Pond is best for you and your family, there are different factors that should be taken into consideration. Keep in mind that having a professional pond builder onsite can help design the layout to include various vantage points for your new water feature.  If you are a Do-it-yourself kind of person, consider a few important factors, such as:
            A)  Proximity to the house.
            B)  Where if your favorite spot to unwind inside?
            C)  Budget

To some, this may seem obvious but surprisingly it's not! So we will point it out more---
  Might you enjoy the pond more often, if it is closer to your outdoor living space?
The lay of the land close to your house will help determine what size Koi Pond you can have. Ideally, close to where you sit often or spend a majority of your outdoor time. Consider the space around your patio chairs to be ideal. Imagine this: your family around your patio set (table/chairs) enjoying a summer evening bbq meal with the pond next to you.

Often homeowners don’t think about the fact that a pond can also be (and should be!) enjoyed from inside of the home gazing outward.  Is it the sun room you enjoy breakfast in or your family room that you unwind in after work with your glass of wine?  If so, you may want to consider putting the pond with visibility from the window of your favorite spot. Why? Fall and winter seasons are just as beautiful as spring and summer. Don't forget those rainy summer days or even those blisteringly hot ones that leave you inside during the hottest part of the summer day. Once again, what is the available space just outside that window or door?  If you are fortunate to have a view of your koi pond from inside, it will provide enjoyment year round, during pleasant and not so pleasant weather conditions.

In the end, most of the time, when trying to figure out what size pond works best for you, the deciding factor often comes down to budget. Minimally, for maintenance purposes, we recommend that your pond should be at least 8’ x11’ because anything smaller will prove to be harder to control algae and the health of the ecosystem. Large Koi need space to swim, as well as, more water volume to balance out the ratio of their poop to clean water while it goes through the filtration system. For more information on the balance of the ecosystem, read our blog:

On average, most pond owners install three ponds in their lifetime (more if you move houses).  They start with a small pond based on budget, then expand to the pond they think they want; and often enlarge it again to finally achieve the “right pond” for their setting/needs. Sometimes this is motivated by amount of fish stocked and sometimes this is motivated by the ultimate viewing angles. There is nothing wrong with this process, but if budget allows, it is best to consider all of these factors the first time around.

If you have any other questions, or need help figuring out what size koi pond is best for you and your home please contact us here.
Check out some completed koi pond designs to help generate ideas today!

Located in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Dreamscapes Watergardens installs koi fish ponds and pondless waterfalls (disappearing waterfalls) all over the Central Pennsylvania area. For more information on koi ponds and waterfeature installations, please contact us directly!

Dreamscapes also carries a full line of pond supplies from water treatments and fish medications to pond pumps, heaters, fountains, plants and fish! Tadpoles and snails are also available at our Aquatic Retail Center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania seasonally while supplies last from May-August.  If you think you need it, we have it!

Retail Hours:  April 5th-October 27th 2018:
                           Monday-Wednesday: By Appt
                           Thursday-Friday: 10am-5pm
                           Saturday: 9am-12pm
                     October 28th-April 2019: HOURS BY APPT



Contact Us
2155 State Route 343, Lebanon Pa | 717-272-6555 | [email protected]

Dreamscapes Watergardens services the city of Lebanon, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Cleona, Cornwall, Fredericksburg, Indiantown Gap, Jonestown, Kleinfeltersville, Mount Gretna, Myerstown, Newmanstown Palmyra, Quentin, Reistville, Richland, Schaefferstown of Pennsylvania, PA

By: Aquascape, Inc.

Quite a few of the koi connoisseurs think of butterfly koi as “mutts,” and some say that butterfly koi aren’t even koi. Others, however, happen to think butterfly koi can be the finest koi in any collection, depending on several factors – size, pattern, and finnage.

First, let’s consider where butterfly koi originated. In the early 80s, a population of common, brown and grey carp with long fins were found in a series of canals and ditches in Indonesia. A company in New York took an interest and brought the fish into the U.S. and sold some. They did not sell well because they were ugly. However, an enterprising and curious group of breeders at Blue Ridge Fish Hatchery placed an order for a dozen of these fish to see what the heck they were. Ugly, with long fins, is what they discovered. Over the next several years they bred these large, long finned mutations with their finest regular-fin koi and made several discoveries.

• Long-fin genes are dominant, so breeding the fish back to color would not breed out the long fin gene.
• Long-fin koi are robust and disease resistant.
• The fish could be bred back to color and many colorful lines of long-fin koi have been created at Blue Ridge Fish Hatchery.

The original breeder at Blue Ridge Fish Hatchery who spearheaded the cultivation of long-fin koi was a man named Wyatt LeFever. His son Randy made his way to the tanks to see the fish. As he regarded the fish with interest, he observed, “Dad, they look like Butterflies!” The name stuck.

As Butterfly koi grow, they become more and more impressive because the fins keep growing until the blood vessels can’t sustain the fins to be any longer. The older the fish, the longer and more impressive the finnage. So, a full-grown butterfly koi looks like a long, slinky dragon moving through the water. Their barbels (whiskers) even grow long and can fork into elaborate designs.

Butterfly koi seem to lack some of the body size of regular koi, but the overall fish can run as long as 36 to 40 inches in the right pond with plenty of food. They are graceful and pleasant to watch swim.

Since pattern seems to mean a great deal to the value of a regular koi, it makes logical sense that a good, standard pattern with bright colors would increase the value of a butterfly koi too, but there are a few notable additions. While a butterfly koi is more valuable when it has a properly defined and positioned pattern in the color, beautiful fins can often make even a poorly patterned fish look beautiful.
In addition, lemon and platinum ogons (solid color) in the butterfly category are awesome as adults. When you grow a metallic yellow or platinum ogon butterfly to an impressive, large size, their body movement is more graceful and slow. The fins are long, but the uniform gold or neon-white color is brilliant in the water and such fish look like fireballs or comets moving through the water with their “fire” (fins) streaming behind them. Gorgeous!

Sorogoi are incredible as adults in the butterfly class, as well. A sorogoi is the overall grey fish with the “fukurin” or black fish net pattern over the body. So, taking that color and putting it on a large, impressive adult butterfly koi gives you what rather appears as a grey sea monster moving through the water. Its subdued colors don’t attract the eye at first, but then you see its graceful, lengthy body and fins moving around below you and you are taken aback by both the robustness of the fish (they grow huge) and its mysterious, grey color.

Even better than that are black butterflies – which are, by far the coolest fish. They are seldom found, so the effect is rare and special when it happens. The black butterfly may be with or without scales. The rarest and most valuable of this type is the doitsu, karasu butterfly. This fish is black, has no scales, and has long fins.

Black butterflies grow up and become very large because their genes are not as strained as some of the brighter colored fish. And if they have no scales, the body is a glistening jet-black. The fins keep growing until the entire fish is broad, and streams long black robes behind it. They look like a jet-black dragon.
And when a visitor to your pond is feeding your fish at the side of the pond, suddenly, a large black shadow looms up from the depths. Larger it gets, until they realize that there is no color, the fish is just a shadow and when the fish takes the food, it turns and swirls down out of sight with a flourish of long, black fins. “What was that?” they usually stammer. “That is the shadow. He’s our black fish, which the Japanese have always regarded as a lucky fish,” you reply. The fully mature black butterfly koi is surely one of the most memorable fish a kid could ever encounter or feed. With such a fish, you own a living breathing shadow dragon.

In a discussion of butterfly koi, we should talk a tiny bit more about the fins. The butterfly koi fins are long because of a genetic aberration resulting in the length growth gene failing to turn off. In fish, the fins are supposed to grow to a genetically specified length, and then stop growing. But in the high fin mutation the fins don’t get the “stop growth” message and they keep growing. This happens in individual fish of many species from time to time. Some notable examples are Siamese fighting fish, Simpson’s hi fin swordtails, long fin oscars, and long fin black tetras. Any time the mutation is encountered and identified, it is bred into a species to see if it would make that species more economically important commercially.
Like any other koi, the fins of the butterfly koi are made up of dozens of rays of cartilage that radiate outward and support the fin. These rays generally grow very straight, but past the point of normal length they can grow wavy. The fish that grow straight rays even into the lengthier parts of the tail are more impressive looking and would be more valuable.
One problem with butterfly koi is that they are often handled the same way as regular koi. Broken fins and tails are par for the course by the time the fish is an adult. So, it’s normal to see bends and waves in the fins and tail of butterfly koi partly because of growing that way, but also because of netting-damage as a juvenile. As an adult, a split tail or fin often does not heal well and remains split. All of the above is irrelevant to the casual observer, the impact of the fish is exactly the same, but you might notice variations in fin quality and you may care enough to choose one fish over the other based on that.

The butterfly koi is a true koi. Despite this fact, the Japanese have shared some American purist’s distaste for these long fin beauties. Truth be told, the Japanese have usually reacted to any new color, at first, as an abomination. Eventually, they get used to it and accept it, and eventually love the diversity.
And it has been that way with the butterfly koi. At first, Mr. Suda was the only breeder in Japan producing butterfly koi. His fish have been gorgeous, and he even bred them for prodigious size. But the rest of the Japanese breeders declined.
Mr. Suda’s fish became so popular in the U.S. that they became scarce; making Mr. Suda realize his decision to breed them was a good one. Over time, as other breeders watched Mr. Suda sell everything he had very fast, they eventually overcame their resistance to butterfly koi and started producing them, too. Today, there are domestic breeders who compete in the butterfly koi market. They are very popular fish – and for good reason.

Located in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Dreamscapes Watergardens installs koi fish ponds and pondless waterfalls (disappearing waterfalls) all over the Central Pennsylvania area. For more information on koi ponds and waterfeature installations, please contact us directly!

Dreamscapes also carries a full line of pond supplies from water treatments and fish medications to pond pumps, heaters, fountains, plants and fish! Tadpoles and snails are also available at our Aquatic Retail Center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania seasonally while supplies last from May-August.  If you think you need it, we have it!

Retail Hours:  April 5th-October 27th 2018:
                           Monday-Wednesday: By Appt
                           Thursday-Friday: 10am-5pm
                           Saturday: 9am-12pm
                     October 28th-April 2019: HOURS BY APPT


Contact Us
2155 State Route 343, Lebanon Pa | 717-272-6555 | [email protected]

Dreamscapes Watergardens services the city of Lebanon, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Cleona, Cornwall, Fredericksburg, Indiantown Gap, Jonestown, Kleinfeltersville, Mount Gretna, Myerstown, Newmanstown Palmyra, Quentin, Reistville, Richland, Schaefferstown of Pennsylvania, PA

10 years is a long time for fish to grow and eventually for them to OUTGROW their home. This couple in Lebanon, Pennsylvania LOVE their fish---they're massively HUGE!

If you know anything about pond ecosystems, you should know that the general rule for thumb for the amount of fish in a pond is 1" of fish for every 10 gallons of water... which means a whole lotta water for this family who have accumulated hundreds of inches of fish over the years.


So that's JUST what this couple decided to do for their fish-- expand their pond so that they have enough room!

Using a 18'x25' liner in one week, we turned this narrow 7'x20' backyard pond with waterfall into a beautiful 14'x21' pond with a showstopping waterfall. Increasing the size of the pond to this size required a few changes to the pump and plumbing to accommodate the water volume. First, a larger pump is needed to be able to properly filter this pond's water volume, so we equipped this pond with a stainless steel Tsurumi 5PL made by Aquascape Inc on their pro-line side. The increased volume of water coming down the waterfall also meant the need for a check valve assembly to keep water from washing back down during an electrical outage. So we added one of those, too.

We broke up the repetitive original rock work by adding some larger chunky boulders, which also created a little more natural look/feel to the aesthetics of the watergarden.

Underwater pond lights take a water feature to a whole new level of enjoyment because of the capability of night time viewing. That's why we hooked this water feature up with seven 3-watt lights and three 1-watt lights made by Aquascape Inc.

Aquascape Inc. lights are top of the line under water lights that are fully encased to prevent water leaking into the fixtures. Because it is fully encased, they are backed with a 5 year warranty. If you haven't considered pond lights in the past--- what are you waiting for!

Dreamscapes sells Aquascape Pond and Waterfall lights in our Aquatic Retail Store from April-November!

Having finished this pond in late-October of 2017, we can't wait to see what it looks like once the plants mature and add one of the most beautiful aspects of back yard water gardens.

After 10 years, this homeowner's pride and joy fish finally have a pond that's worthy of these beauties.

Dreamscapes installs and renovates ponds and waterfalls all over the Central Pennsylvania area. We also have a full service maintenance program that travels all over the Lebanon, Lancaster and Dauphin County areas for different spring, summer and fall maintenance packages. We also carry a full line of pond supplies from water treatments and fish medications to pond pumps, heaters, fountains, plants and fish! Tadpoles and snails are also available at our Aquatic Retail Center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania seasonally while supplies last from May-August.  If you think you need it, we have it!

Retail Hours:  April 5th-October 27th 2018:
                           Monday-Wednesday: By Appt
                           Thursday-Friday: 10am-5pm
                           Saturday: 9am-12pm
                     October 28th-April 2019: HOURS BY APPT


Contact Us 
2155 State Route 343, Lebanon Pa | 717-272-6555 | [email protected]

Dreamscapes Watergardens services koi ponds and waterfalls in the city of Lebanon, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Cleona, Cornwall, Fredericksburg, Indiantown Gap, Jonestown, Kleinfeltersville, Mount Gretna, Myerstown, Newmanstown Palmyra, Quentin, Reistville, Richland, Schaefferstown of Pennsylvania, PA

Sure, it’s chilly and your pond is probably the last thing on your mind right now. But it’s actually a perfect time to start thinking about any changes you’d like to make to your backyard pond or waterfall.

At Dreamscapes Watergardens, we don’t just install new ponds, we also rehab, renovate and restore ponds that have fallen into disrepair, too! We upgrade ponds that could use a little more flare by bringing new life with the addition of driftwood, boulder work or even waterfall “facelifts”. Whether you need to upgrade your filtration system or you’d like to expand your water feature to house some big fish, we’ve got you covered.

When you’re thinking about next steps for your pond, consider its current state:

• Do you normally handle a maintenance nightmare?
  
• Is there often stagnant or gunky water?
  
• Does it leak, leaving you to refill the pond more than usual?
  

If your water feature is working well but you’re just looking to change things up a bit, the next step is to daydream. What would your ideal backyard paradise look like? Here are some things to think about when plotting your pond makeover:

• What do you enjoy the most about your pond? Is it the relaxing sound of running water, or the visual appeal of the plants and scenery. Maybe you love the interaction with the fish, birds, and other wildlife. Whatever brings you the greatest joy, build your dream pond around that.
• What do you like (or dislike) about your current pond? What would make you want to spend more time around your pond?
  

Spring is here and summer will be here before you know it. Planning now can help make your backyard dreams a reality – and Dreamscapes Watergardens can help. Give us a call at 717-272-6555 or contact us online to explore how to make the most of your outdoor space.

Located in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Dreamscapes Watergardens installs and renovates koi fish ponds and pondless waterfalls (disappearing waterfalls) all over the Central Pennsylvania area. For more information on koi ponds and waterfeature installations, please contact us directly! Dreamscapes also carries a full line of pond supplies from water treatments and fish medications to pond pumps, heaters, fountains, plants and fish! Tadpoles and snails are also available at our Aquatic Retail Center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania seasonally while supplies last from May-August.  If you think you need it, we have it!

Retail Hours:  April 5th-October 27th 2018:
                           Monday-Wednesday: By Appt
                           Thursday-Friday: 10am-5pm
                           Saturday: 9am-12pm
                     October 28th-April 2019: HOURS BY APPT


Contact Us
2155 State Route 343, Lebanon Pa | 717-272-6555 | [email protected]

Dreamscapes Watergardens services the city of Lebanon, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Cleona, Cornwall, Fredericksburg, Indiantown Gap, Jonestown, Kleinfeltersville, Mount Gretna, Myerstown, Newmanstown Palmyra, Quentin, Reistville, Richland, Schaefferstown of Pennsylvania,