Plants for Koi pond – Mexican Sword plant

The Sword plant (Echinodorus palaefolius) grows easily in pots half-submerged in the pond. It can be grown under strong sunlight and will produce white flowers on a long stock. It propagates easily. Young shoots will appear  (left photo) after the flowers wilted. These can be cut and replanted. Else, they will continue to grow, droop and be submerged under the water.

This plant can also be grown in an aquarium. Grown underwater, the leaves are longer and sharper in shape. It will form a beautiful specimen plant or used as background plant in a planted fish tank. As an aquarium keeper many years ago, I had this plant as part of my underwater landscaping. I did not realised, until recently, that they are of the same plant species!

Meeting with an old friend

I was driving along in my car one day when my mobile phone rang and I answered the call (using the speaker phone of course).

A loud voice greeted me with “My 3 Ponds! Are you the author?” I instantly recognise the voice as that of an ex-colleague of mine although the caller did not identify himself. “Yes, my dear friend xxxx”, I answered. “How can I help you?” I have not kept in touch with him since he left the company many years ago. It is amazing that we get re-connected again through this blog.

As it turns out, my friend was searching through the internet for solution to his Koi pond problems and was looking to buy a pondvac. He had stumbled upon my blog in the process.  I told him that my site has links to online stores that sells such equipment but I suggest that he first should try getting them from a local Koi farm in Singapore that I know of.

“Come to my house next week and we can have a few drinks together”. I accepted his invitation.

The visit and the pond

My friend has just moved into his new home a few months ago. He has done some additions and alternations to the original house that he bought and has built a koi pond during the process. The pond was built by the contractor who did his house and is probably not a specialist Koi pond builder.

The layout of the pond is nice, close to the house for easy viewing and appreciation of the koi and waterscape. There are water plants and stepping stones that allow you to real close to the plants and fishes.

However, the depth (about 1 foot) is too shallow with a surface area of about 100 square feet. There is only one bottom drain. He was telling me that dirt was collecting at the bottom of the pond and not being directed into the bottom drain. Hence the need for a pondvac. In addition, the original filter that was provided by the builder is probably meant for a swimming pool. My friend was telling me that the filter media is too fine and chokes easily. One solution is to replace the filter media with filter mats specially designed for Koi pond filters.

He did the right thing by adding an external biological filter and also a UV light as well. Apparently, the pond was green with algae earlier (looks like the biological filter is working – converting fish waste to nitrate which feeds the algae). The UV light filter did kill off the algae, so the pond water was crystal clear when I visited. He had also bought the pondvac and spent the weekend cleaning his pond, which now looks in pristine condition. Unfortunately, the shallow depth of the pond would mean that the pond is unsuitable for housing larger Koi or he has to keep the stocking level low. Else, his pondvac will be seeing a lot of action.

We spend a couple of hours chatting about his koi pond, gardening, and catching up on old times.

Soon, it is time to go and he pops me a question. “Should I build a new Koi pond? Over in that corner of the garden?”

Talking about being Koi crazy. But that’s how I started out too.