pleco in koi pond

[adagiolove05]

K. So i live in San Diego, and I've decided that my pleco (who is nine inches and currently living in a 20 gallon by himself) is going to be moved into a koi pond in my friend's yard. The pond as a sensor so if anything (birds mainly) gets near it, it'll be sprayed. He'll move probably in June, when the weather is warmer, so he he can adjust before next winter comes. My friend said he's been having a lot of trouble controlling the amount of algae in his front pond. I'm wondering, first of all, is there anything wrong with this plan at all? And second- should my friend continue to feed him his algae discs, or will living outside produce enough food for him? Thanks! *GOLDFISH*

 

[colesea]

Well, I have seen a fair number of common plecos released into koi ponds. Hopefully your friend's pond is deep enough for him to over-winter there, plecos are not much for very cold, frozen water. I would watch him closely and see how the algea does. You probably don't need to feed him additional algea disks for a few days, but as he eats up everything in the pond, if it doesn't grow back fast enough for him, you'll have to feed him the additional algae. Nine inches is a it small for a pleco for release, I might wait until he was a good 12"-15", at least so the koi aren't tempted to pick on him.
~~Colesea

 

[adagiolove05]

Hi- any other suggestions? Thanks!

 

[wayne]

As for feeding him , I don't know I can't see the pond, and how much algae there is.

As for algae in the pond, tried water changes? Pondkeepers try all sorts of nonsense to fix green water and blanketweed and so on, but normally ignore the fact that there waer is just filthy by indoors standards.