Misc ramblings...

[callingcolleen1]

I should also mention that I have discovered that if you place the cell camera phone on "night" settings during the day, you can get a better picture of the koi in the water .....

 

[sissy]

I was at the koi farm in NV and he had lots of new koi and ranged in price from 3 dollars up to 5 dollars and were about 2 inches to 5 inches long

 

[capewind]

I would much prefer to buy out of someone else's pond too, and I learned the hard way the importance of QTing.

I just want to be "fair" with whatever we sell the extras off at. I was happy with $25 ea for the pond spawn koi that we caught last spring/summer as 1/4-1/2" fry. Pretty fish, but nothing spectacular. I think $25 each is fair for 4-10" koi (the little guys are nicer than the bigger ones) .. I tried looking at Craigslist, and the prices were all over the place for typical fish under 12" ...

One ad, was 17, 2 yr olds, 6-13" at $20-100 each... Another says several 10" at $50... Another said 4-8" $35-65 ... All of these ads were for standard fin. One had some pretty fish (nicer than my pond spawn kids), and the others with pictures were IMO blah...

I have three butterflies of similar color, thus the reason two are on the place list (to make room for a few of the wee guys). I just went out to try to take pictures, and the sun isnt agreeing with the camera. Nice and sunny for clear pictures, but it washes out their color (light sky blue is the primary body color). Given the local Craigslist prices for smaller fish, what does anyone think sounds fair for these two fish ... I know the body structures are not the best, typical more slender "butterfly" bodies, and not correct to a color either, but pretty (I think) and different looking.

Not a flattering picture, but shows all three light blue butterfly koi ... the two I want to place via Craigslist are: lower left corner of picture. Guessing HIM to be about 14" (my adult long finned comets and shubunkins are all in the 7-9" range) and the biggest fish, on the right, I am guessing HIM to be 22" (he is just a bit shorter than two fish I know are at 23-24") ... I know some people are willing to pay more for females (dont know why LOL), but I am sure both of these fish are boys.



This is a close up of the little guy I want to place. The picture shows his coloration well as to what you see in person with him swimming around on a sunny day. The bigger fish isnt quite as blue.

 

[sissy]

He has a guarantee if the fish dies bring it back and he will give you a new one .I bought all of mine from him and so far never had one die .

 

[callingcolleen1]

I paid 45 Canadian dollars this year for those three new light colored goldfish that are about 4 inches from the pet store this year. Did not need them but I though the color would look good with all the deep red goldfish that I have. I bought them at the spur of the moment, they were shipped to that petstore all the way from Israel! The guy gets all his fish from Israel! Can't imagine how they can survive the long flight, but they looked good and are doing well now!

I think you can see them in the picture, they are light yellow in color ....

 

[callingcolleen1]

Capewind, how are you going to part with those very pretty Koi?? My guess is you are going to keep most of them and that is why you are building a bigger pond??

 

[HTH]

Thanks Howard, but I don't sell fish, that is the price I paid for a few koi several years ago at the pet store here in town. Everything in Canada is more money, and sometimes you can get a better deal buying in multiple's, like 3 small 2 or 3 inch koi for maybe 40 dollars. I will have to check the price again as I have not bought any for at least 3 or 4 years now.

Good thing in that I was not trying to buy any. I was only trying to say I would pay more for fish from a private owner then in a store.

 

[koiguy1969]

i charge in accordance to number bought, money spent, and numbers left. most of my customers are repeat or "recommended by" word of mouth. and i aint lookin to get rich.... just some extra cash and happy customers. about $10.00 is the most i've ever charged for a fish, in the 6" range. plus i throw in a couple when they buy enough.
and the biggest thing i have learned is: what i like or you like is not neccessarily what the next guy likes!! some people say "i dont care, whatever you catch is fine" and some people take 15 minutes deciding on 2 fish.

 

[capewind]

That's what I did last year. I had posted $25 to craigslist for 5-8" Koi, and gave a few away as a bonus for taking groups. One couple was funny. They told me on the phone they were only interested in 2 koi, which they did buy, but then when they saw my tote of comets (2-3" range), asked "how much" and told them I would GIVE them ALL of them (about 30 LOL) ... They took them

The gentlemen interested in the fish came back a little while ago .. was returning the container he brought the fish home in.. and he asked to see the outside fish again, and wanted to know which would be available ... Told him for now, both the blue ones, and the hana butterfly (she's coming up on about 18") ... These are the only "big" fish we are placing ... I was very honest with him that I didnt plan on posting them til the babies in the 750 got moved outside to the "lily pond" (no progress still just a 20 minute rough dig), so we could bring the available fish inside (will be placing the duplicates), so he had a while to decide before they could be offered to anyone else. I also told him that I had no clue of what to ask for them. He made an offer, which I'm going to accept, BUT, it is pending for the next week. He just wants to make sure whatever cleaned him out over the winter isnt back. I REALLY hope my two little guys he took yesterday dont end up as food!!! Also really looking forward to going over to his place to check out his pond

 

[sissy]

that would be me koiguy :cheerful: :cheerful: :cheerfulick out the hardest ones to catch also and only want them .

 

[capewind]

Capewind, how are you going to part with those very pretty Koi?? My guess is you are going to keep most of them and that is why you are building a bigger pond??

LOL ... I have a space issue. Or I will ... The "deal" with hubby is to either place a few of my koi, or place ALL of my comets and shubunkins (not happening). We thought we were going to be able to get the big ponds in this year, but need to do other hardscape projects first, and just cant swing it all this year. Hubby wants to complete the current ponds.

Our current main pond is about 6500 gallons, connected to another 2000-2500 gallon pond ... the smaller pond, water only would be about 2500 gallons, but hubby did get some gravel in there before I put fish there LOL ... The smaller pond is SUPPOSED to be all bog for HIS plants ... and he wants HIS space back LOL ... My fish in HIS BOG are getting "evicted" to the bigger pond ... Hubby says I can have as many fish as I want, AS LONG AS he NEVER gets an ammonia reading (the REASON why I am so interested in filtration and how it all works LOL) ... so far, so good, knocking on wood LOL ... But MY POND will be going from 8500-9000 gallons, back down to 6500 gallons ... with leaving room for growth and comet/shubunkins known multiplication rates, either I pick a few to place, or HE WILL.

The lily pond is only going to be about 4000-4500 gallons (whatever a 20 x 25 liner works out to be) ... We have 100 or so babies that I got late fall from ebay are going there to grow out, and be reduced in numbers... It is soooo hard to get "variety" here, so if I need to buy 100+ babies, and wait for them to grow, to get 10 different fish, so be it. AS LONG AS my baby koi dont mess with HIS lilies, they can grow in HIS lily pond ... I of course helped his lily pond be larger, so he was more agreeable to my babies moving in with his lilies (originally, he was going to make me a 1500-2000 gallon baby pond) ...

HIS plans for the KOI ONLY PONDS will be two 50 x 50 liners (will look like one pond, but two different systems) ... MY koi are welcome in HIS pond, but if I even THINK about putting ANY comets or shubunkins THERE, they will not meet with a good ending.

When everything is EVENTUALLY done, the 6500 will be ALL MINE for whatever goldfish varieties I want

 

[HTH]

Picked up a pair of old stock tanks from the neighbor for next to nothing. One is the long sort with rounded ends and the other is an 8 or 10 foot round tank. Both leak but they are good enough to use with a liner.

Still fighting to clean out the main pond. Ordered a trash pump that I figured would pump the sludge off the bottom but it is to wimpy. I pumped out all the water I could and the sun will have to do the rest. So I need to divide the lilies and get then into the sun before they decompose to sludge. Current they are packed into whatever I could find to keep them wet. Lots more self imposed work ahead. Still it will be nice one of these years when it is all sorted.

The fish are safe enough in the lifts but I have not been feeding them the past few days. Did a 75% water change twice so far. I hope the filter and green water get to where I dare feed them.

 

[capewind]

Score on the tanks

You have a FEW lilies ... so gonna take a bit of work LOL ... determined that hubby doesnt go down your path! I can only imagine what you are going through looking for containers to store them in LOL.

 

[sissy]

Get that spray rubber in a can I bought a stock tank at auction 300 gallons and it had a crack across the bottom and about 5 inches up the side sprayed it and let it dry and sprayed it again and so far 3 years and it has not leaked .I figure for only 25 dollars for 2 of them that was pretty good .They have them at just about every auction here .I use auction zip to find local ones here

 

[HTH]

Score on the tanks

You have a FEW lilies ... so gonna take a bit of work LOL ... determined that hubby doesnt go down your path! I can only imagine what you are going through looking for containers to store them in LOL.

I may have mislead you. If the lilies belong to anyone it is my wife....