Heh, methinks I know the store you speak of, and my first koi came from
there. Except that my local one has koi in three or four different
sizes. As an aside, I really love this place even though they're not a
speciality fish store, they really do fight the system to take proper
care of the fish. They're part of a chain that sets up a small indoor
pond for displaying the larger koi in pond season, and corporate wants
them to take the "seasonal display" down after pond season, which means
unsold fish (8"-12" koi) end up wintering over in a small display tank
meant for small fish. Local management finally won the fight and the
small pond is staying up all winter! It may not seem like much, but it
means a lot to me that they are willing to fight corporate for the right
to use floor space to keep a bunch of fish that are very slow sellers in
a proper environment. I buy most of my over-the-counter, pet-store type
supplies from them now, and that pond is part of the reason.

$20 is actually more than I've ever spent on a koi. They say koi are
living jewels; I tell people I have living rhinestones. Actually some of
my little ones have grown up to be quite good-looking! I like watching
the small fish grow, into beauties or into "great personalities", either
one. My understanding is that you are always taking a chance on how
color will develop and how it will "hold" over time. The smaller the
fish, the more it's likely to change.

For those of us who love watching them change and grow, this makes the
$1.99-$2.99 koi a no-brainer.

How do I select fish? Well, lately, I don't. I thought my babies were
too young to breed yet, and I certainly didn't see widespread evidence
of fishy orgies in the spring as I did in the goldfish section. However,
there are now several small Evidences swimming around to let me know
that I underestimated the teenagers. So now I have "free fish" and don't
expect to add any until the pond expansion project slated for --
hopefully -- next year. I would still like to get an all-white butterfly
koi (platinum ogon?) and a chagoi, when we have some more elbow room.

When I was still buying fish, I would watch them for a long time. There
would be one or two whose coloring and/or attitude just called out to
me, and I would watch them and the rest of the fish they shared water
with. The "callers" who swam normally, had nice happy high fins, and
healthy tank-mates are the ones who came home. Okay, I confess, once or
twice I gave in to a fish whose looks I really liked who wasn't looking
happy in the tank, or who looked fine but had sorry-looking tankmates.
Those are the ones I lost.

I guess my plan is to let my heart make the first cut, then try to use
my head when deciding whether to buy the fish I like, after watching
them for at least 15 minutes (and I usually spend more time than that).
And I'm definitely repeating the "buy them small, treat them well"
mantra!

I'm also wondering if, come spring, I trust that local pet store well
enough to ask if they'd like some fingerling koi to sell. I'd rather
find other ponders just starting out and give them away, but I don't
know how many I can find homes for that way. And I won't know until
spring how many I'll want to keep... There's several I'm already in love
with!


-----------------------------------------
Only know that there is no spork.