How to Buy Koi?

I was wondering how the porgs here select their koi? Now I am talking about
the under $20.00 fish that us real people can afford. *laugh* What I am
getting at here...We bought 4 Koi from a Smart Pet place that I probably
shouldn't mention, and they had Koi in two different sizes, say lik 6
inchers and 3 inchers. The price difference was like double for the larger
models. We opted for the smaller ones, assuming they would grow quickly. We
dumped them into Orange Pond and didn't seem them again for months. Once we
got the water cleared up, we were amazed. Our little Koi, had grown up to be
less little Koi. Now, I think a few are nearly 8-9 inches long judging by
the looks.

So it seems, by small treat well is a good mantra.

Any thoughts?

Post amongst yourselves.

--
BV.
WebPorgmaster
www.IHeartMyPond.com
Help Support IHMP by shopping at Amazon.com thru our associates link,
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/re...ome/dcg8118-20.

BenignVanilla wrote:
I was wondering how the porgs here select their koi?

Any thoughts?

Post amongst yourselves.


Hi BV,

I usually purchase whatever pleases my eye. I've
learned that they may change, you just have to expect
that especially if you purchase young fish.

--
Bonnie
NJ

"BenignVanilla" wrote:

I was wondering how the porgs here select their koi? Now I am talking about
the under $20.00 fish that us real people can afford. *laugh* What I am
getting at here...We bought 4 Koi from a Smart Pet place that I probably
shouldn't mention, and they had Koi in two different sizes, say lik 6
inchers and 3 inchers. The price difference was like double for the larger
models.

It just buys you another year of growth. It may be easier to see their
coloration when they are larger.

For buying "just plain ole' koi" for the pond, I go for the bright
colorful ones, so that they can be seen.

So I got an white and red koi, and a solid golden one, and a tri color,
red/white/black.

JPOK, that sounds like a good term to add to the porgers dictionary, for
non-show koi.

Good question.

Been doing lots of reading about this, and it hasn't become easier.

Best advice in the beginning is to find a place you "trust". Inspect the
premises, look at water quality, are the fish sulking or coming towards you,
jumping towards you, that kind of thing. If possible, take a more
experienced ponder with you. You can get rather lost in all this tosai,
nisai and tagegoi hoopla.

Still, even then it's a (sorry for language) crapshoot. Some ponds/stock
tanks can look dirty, but that can be the result of adding clay/minerals in
the morning (you of all people should appreciate that statement :-p )

I have always only bought "baby" koi, 3 inches, one year old. One of the
joys of my pond is seeing them grow. The largest ones are now 45 to 50 cm
after 3 to 4 years. That's no way "jumbo" but they will still keep on
growing, especially whilst I will continue to feed (moderately) this winter.

Some of these koi certainly don't look "show quality", but they survived all
my mistakes, so they are staying. Sure, I see some gorgeous fish at the
dealers, and it's very hard to not say "ah, just one more".

My most expensive fish cost me 150 EUR/USD. And it's strictly speaking not
even a koi, it's a magoi. Next to that I paid 100 UKP for an ochiba
shigure (I didn't even know the name at the time, just thought "cool fish!)
and she is everyones favorit. We named her Betty, and she turns out to be
male :blush: (needless to say, the magoi grows like crazy)

Small koi are a good test for your water quality (they are more vulnerable
to most diseases in general, except for lack of oxygen), and if they do
well, it's almost certainly a good sign for the water conditions. Trick
is to keep these conditions the same when they grow up to be 15 inch pigs.

It's not just a question of money or being skint, but I just read a thread
about a guy spending a months income on a tancho, only to see the red spot
go away after a few months. This could be genetical, this could be water
conditions (even things like KH can have a serious impact on this), he was
thinking to use a lawyer against the koi outlet... that's the kind of stuff
I never ever want to get into. I rather spend money on improving water
conditions, and I don't think I enjoy my "cheap" koi any less than the
guys/girls with a small fortune in their ponds. (Imagine Mr. Heron seeing
your prized kohaku as a light snack )

What I also did this year is buy 3 three inchers from the same tank (all
looked exactly the same) in May. Same conditions, same feeding, and still
one grew to 10 inch, one to 12 inch, one to 9 inch. So this sounds like
the genetical make-up is quite important too.

Right, just babbling... I'll finish with "if you don't know the bloodlines,
have a full understanding of potential, skin quality, the way some varieties
change color & pattern each year, you should never spend silly money on a
koi".

Finally, the book that provided me with the most "understanding" about
buying koi, why they cost what they cost etc was Koi Kichi by Peter
Waddington.

Theo

"BenignVanilla" schreef in bericht
...
I was wondering how the porgs here select their koi? Now I am talking
about
the under $20.00 fish that us real people can afford. *laugh* What I am
getting at here...We bought 4 Koi from a Smart Pet place that I probably
shouldn't mention, and they had Koi in two different sizes, say lik 6
inchers and 3 inchers. The price difference was like double for the larger
models. We opted for the smaller ones, assuming they would grow quickly.
We
dumped them into Orange Pond and didn't seem them again for months. Once
we
got the water cleared up, we were amazed. Our little Koi, had grown up to
be
less little Koi. Now, I think a few are nearly 8-9 inches long judging by
the looks.

So it seems, by small treat well is a good mantra.

Any thoughts?

Post amongst yourselves.

--
BV.
WebPorgmaster
www.IHeartMyPond.com
Help Support IHMP by shopping at Amazon.com thru our associates link,
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/re...ome/dcg8118-20.

Buying koi is a crap shoot. You can buy many small ones and watch them grow
and see if any develop into a true beauty, or you can spend more on one that
has already developed. It is fun to start with the small ones and watch
them grow, see them change year after year, and it is relatively
inexpensive. If you are trying to get quality koi, then starting small
means that you will end up giving away a bunch of fish that just didn't
develop the way you thought they would. Even buying a large fully developed
show quality koi, for several thousand is no guarantee that you will end up
with a beautiful fish. Even they will change with age. Sometimes for the
better, sometimes for the worse.

Whichever approach you take, establish a price limit that you can afford,
buy the fish that really sticks out to you, for whatever reason. Don't buy
a fish just to have another fish, wait for that special one to show up. Not
every fish is great, and even within the expensive fish tanks, not every one
will strike my fancy.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"BenignVanilla" wrote in message
...
I was wondering how the porgs here select their koi? Now I am talking
about
the under $20.00 fish that us real people can afford. *laugh* What I am
getting at here...We bought 4 Koi from a Smart Pet place that I probably
shouldn't mention, and they had Koi in two different sizes, say lik 6
inchers and 3 inchers. The price difference was like double for the larger
models. We opted for the smaller ones, assuming they would grow quickly.
We
dumped them into Orange Pond and didn't seem them again for months. Once
we
got the water cleared up, we were amazed. Our little Koi, had grown up to
be
less little Koi. Now, I think a few are nearly 8-9 inches long judging by
the looks.

So it seems, by small treat well is a good mantra.

Any thoughts?

Post amongst yourselves.

--
BV.
WebPorgmaster
www.IHeartMyPond.com
Help Support IHMP by shopping at Amazon.com thru our associates link,
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/re...ome/dcg8118-20.

I was wondering how the porgs here select their koi? BV

My koi range in price from $1.50 to $80, with the majority being in the
$30 price range. Since butterfly are my fancy I look at the fins first,
coloration 2nd. Buying at the end of the season will score you better deals
than the early season, but you have to take into account quarantine time
when purchasing late.

Case in point, my $80 purchase was for an 8" pure platinum butterfly,
purchased in June, so I had plenty of time to quarantine and use a canary
fish. 7 weeks total in a 70 gallon tank. Unlike another club member who
purchased in late August a similar butterfly only 3" for $10, but she'll
have to keep it inside for 9 months in a 55 gallon aquarium. That's a long
time to keep the water quality and food amounts just right so it isn't
stunted. ~ jan


See my ponds thru the seasons and/or my filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Defrosted~
Tri-Cities, WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

in general koi 7" and bigger are more likely to survive and thrive than smaller koi.
INgrid


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

I prefer to buy from a specialty fish store as they seem to care for the
babys better and have a slightly larger selection. yes I do buy from the
smat pet place if they have an especialy pretty one and the smaller
ones too they do grow fast

John Rutz

BenignVanilla wrote:
I was wondering how the porgs here select their koi? Now I am talking about
the under $20.00 fish .

John,

How did your disease sithuation finally work out? How many made it/died?

Jim


"john rutz" wrote in message
...
I prefer to buy from a specialty fish store as they seem to care for the
babys better and have a slightly larger selection. yes I do buy from the
smat pet place if they have an especialy pretty one and the smaller
ones too they do grow fast

John Rutz

BenignVanilla wrote:
I was wondering how the porgs here select their koi? Now I am talking
about
the under $20.00 fish .

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.