Page 33 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 70

WHAT ARE THE

BENEFITS OF

USING CLAY?

I recall my experience of making a clay
pond and asked Kay of Kusuri Products
to outline the benefits of using clay in
our Koi ponds.
David Brown.

Over the years I’ve heard many comments about the
benefits of clay on Koi, I know Kusuri have supplied it
for years, more recently I’ve seen ‘Breeders Secret’ clay
advertised by Kitsu Koi and I believe Gary of Gatwick
FARMERS Koi imports it. Personally, I don’t have any long term
experience of using clay, so I cannot make any
USED TO GET comment. Still, ladies spend a great deal of money
THEIR CATTLE being pampered with face packs and other skin reviving
products often based on clay, so does it have any
TO WALK benefits for our Koi?
AROUND ON What I do know, back in the 1980s, I was trying to make

STRAW a natural pond with a clay bottom to grow my fry. I had
heard that farmers used to get their cattle to walk
around on straw, which had been spread on the wet
clay on the bottom of a pond, in order to make it
watertight.

It was a hot sunny afternoon in July, a large rectangular
hole had been dug by a JCB ready to create the pond
and a hose was running water onto the clay bottom. I
broke open the bales of straw, spread them on the wet
clay, but as I had no cattle to tread it in I put on my
swimming trunks and jumped into the pond.

I began stamping up and down the pond in a systematic
way then sat on the bottom punching straw into the
sides. The water was warm and it was quite a pleasant
way to spend the afternoon. I started filling the pond
and I looked forward to the mud pond holding water.
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