Most Expensive fish you or someone you know has paid

[DrDave]

One of my customers who was the former Director of Astronaut training at NASA, invited me over to his home for a glass of wine. We drank 2 bottles of $125 french wine and he gave me one to bring home.
Wealthy people can spend like that and don't care the cost. He is enjoying his retirement and that is part of the cost.
Oh and he also bought some of my best Koi for his pond which is spectacular.

 

[koikeepr]

When fish have fry, the culling process is very important. And it's not just done once, it's done many times over. Culling is done by experts who look at fish with the eye for potential for the future, these people are so good at what they do that they can start to tell at a young age if a fish has potential or not.

There are rules about pattern as well. For example, in some breeds of fish, there should X% that is covered on the head, or how it wraps around the fishes torso, etc. And of course, a koi can change many times over when it is young. They look for color deep within the skin that hasn't even shown up yet.

A bit of it is explained in plain English here by Brady, owner of Lotus Land Koi Farm here in my neck of the woods. He's got these three articles that are easy to comprehend on this subject:

http://www.lotuslandkoifarm.com/Articles/articles.html

 

[DrDave]

I like his comparasin of Ogons to classmates. When I look at facebook I see some that time did not do so well for them and others that Ogons.

 

[BennyLava]

Well once you had some show koi, couldn't you just breed them with other show koi and get a few show koi out of that batch? And then, breed the show koi from that batch, with show koi from another batch, until you had done that so many times, that the only thing you were ever going to get was show quality fish.

That way you could just breed and sell show quality fish, and make more money?

 

[koikeepr]

I like his comparasin of Ogons to classmates. When I look at facebook I see some that time did not do so well for them and others that Ogons.

HA HA HA HA!!! Too funny, and indeed true! Which is even more amusing because he says that Ogons are the only koi breed that pretty much look great from the day they are born and through the rest of their lives. So, if you're an ugly ogon--boy you must really be a dud. LOL!

 

[DrDave]

It is not that easy. Every spawn has a variety of fry. All my Kohakus and Sankes were imported and near show quality but they produced a lot of not so good fry.

 

[koikeepr]

Well once you had some show koi, couldn't you just breed them with other show koi and get a few show koi out of that batch? And then, breed the show koi from that batch, with show koi from another batch, until you had done that so many times, that the only thing you were ever going to get was show quality fish.

That way you could just breed and sell show quality fish, and make more money?

You are thinking about it like horses, which is accurate in a way. So you have a horse that wins the Kentucky Derby, and now his sperm is worth a heap of money, and there are many who will buy and inseminate their mares with this "winning" semen in the hopes that the offspring will also some day be a Derby winner.

Of course, there is no guarantee that any of this horse's offspring will win anything (and that's been proven time and time again with horses). It's the same with koi. Just because you mate a prized fish with another prized fish, it does not mean that any of the offspring will be Champion of anything. However, the breeder will make money hand over fist selling these young fish as potential Champions to those that are willing to pay the price. And there are many people that are willing to pay.

Even if you are not into showing fish, if you mate two very high quality fish--you of course have a greater ability to get quality offspring. Certainly better chances than mating two $7.99 Petsmart koi. LOL!

But with koi, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Many of us with pond grade fish feel that each of them is a champion in their own right.

 

[CliffandJoann]

I agree with koikeeper, my koi are mutts, but to me they're champions.

Someone told me a story about a guy that bought a koi for 10K...the koi died,
and the poor guy was so upset that he couldn't part with the fish, so he kept him
in the freezer. :lol:

When he had guests, he'd open the freezer and show them
his prize Koi. true story....

 

[CliffandJoann]

I agree with koikeeper, my koi are mutts, but to me they're champions.

Someone told me a story about a guy that bought a koi for 10K...the koi died,
and the poor guy was so upset that he couldn't part with the fish, so he kept him
in the freezer. :lol:

When he had guests, he'd open the freezer and show them
his prize Koi. true story....

 

[DrDave]

A $100K koi will die just as easy as a $1 koi.

 

[DrDave]

A $100K koi will die just as easy as a $1 koi.

 

[CliffandJoann]

Yup! ... However, the 100K koi hurts more.

 

[CliffandJoann]

Yup! ... However, the 100K koi hurts more.

 

[koikeepr]

LOL! It hurts 99,999 times more!

 

[digginponds]

I agree with koikeeper, my koi are mutts, but to me they're champions.

Someone told me a story about a guy that bought a koi for 10K...the koi died,
and the poor guy was so upset that he couldn't part with the fish, so he kept him
in the freezer. :faint:

When he had guests, he'd open the freezer and show them
his prize Koi. :fish: true story....

I did my mother in law like that..........j/k