My Koi Addiction....

[CometKeith]

Well this thread is pretty surprising for me to start but I was asked by a few members on GPF to start it. Why me? First of all my name is CometKeith or CK for short and I have had exclusively a goldfish pond for almost 10 years. Last year I moved and was ably to substantially increase my pond by almost 2000 gallons and now I have plenty of room for a few larger fish. Also my view of the pond has changed and typically I look at it from our 2nd floor porch instead of sitting right next to it, and larger fish are easier to see from our second floor. Well in the last few months I have bought two Koi (a Lemon Hariwake and a Datsui Blue Kujaku) just because they were pretty and now that I am enjoying them I have gotten a lot more serious about learning about Koi in general. Thus my addiction Instead of watching my Chicago Cubs in the playoffs I pause the game so I can watch an hour long video about Koi shopping in Japan. I have looked at thousands and thousands of online listings of Koi for sale in the last month. I'm learning all the names of the types of Koi and how to recognize them and what makes some more valuable. Also naturally I'm on GPF posting lots of pictures of my Koi and talking to everyone I can about them and their Koi too.
Do you have a Koi addiction too? Well then lets talk about it!
Oh and in case you know everything already about Koi here is a nice little link about Koi that I dug up from my local pond club with some interesting information. http://mpks.org/category/deeparticles/

 

[audioenvy]

Keith, thanks for starting this thread!!

I too have a Koi addiction--and it's BAD! When I moved into this house 18 months ago there was a neglected backyard water feature (hard to call it a pond). Over the course of a year I improved it the best I could by removing rocks and sludge and adding filtration. About a year ago I added the first small koi from Petsmart. It was approximately 800-1000 gallons. This is what it looked like by the time I was finished cleaning it up:

The fish survived the winter (though the pond was full of muck and required LOTS of cleaning) and by late spring all I could think about was upgrading. Long story short I donated the Petsmart fish to a good home and completely rebuilt the pond as a DIY project this past August. I've posted photos of the finished product elsewhere but here's the current state of my ongoing addiction just before I put the winter cover on:

As the build approached completion I bought a bunch of nicer (but still definitely not show quality) Koi in various sizes.

I take photos and video of my koi nearly every day in good weather and bad, with and without the cover on:

I've now set my sights on going to Japan next October for the Koi harvest in Niigata but there is a whole year of obsessing and overspending to do between now and then. I'm sure there are things I'll do for this hobby that I haven't even thought of yet!

 

[Gemma]

@CometKeith thank you for starting this thread, I definitely belong here! I'm so addicted!
They say admitting you have an addiction is a big step towards recovery, but heck who wants to recover huh?

I started out much like many of you, with a small pond holding a mix of Shubunkins and a few koi, but the more I learned about koi and their different colors and patterns, the more I felt compelled to research and collect more of them!
So my pond went through a couple of renovations to make it larger, and larger, and when I ran out of room to expand, I started contemplating the idea of a second pond.

Those with this addiction know that it's not just about liking a pretty fish, and wanting to own more of them, it goes way beyond that!
I can feel a bond between my koi and I, that similar if not stronger to what I would feel for any other pet, and seem to keep growing!
I care for them, I miss them, I want to learn more and more how to best care for them, I spend most of my free time watching videos and images or talking about them....I am an addict, and I love it!

 

[Faebinder]

The bigger the fish, the more likely you will be able to bond with it as it wont be afraid of you... smaller fish may still bond but the size difference does remove some security in the relationship. The friendliest koi are usually the biggest koi.

 

[Tula]

Well, I belong here too We bought this house and it had a small pond with a few gold fish. It was poorly built and began to cave in

Met a super nice man at our fish hatchery and hired him to build this pond. it was supposed to be deeper, but we had large tree roots, so it's 3.5 feet deep.

I'd been reading about koi, but didn't have any, none the less, I asked the pond builder to make straight drop sides. We put the gold fish back in and added some shubunkin and comets

Of course, you already know how this story ends.....we added koi! I rehomed all the gold fish and now have 4 adult koi. I'm in awe of those of you who dig your own ponds! While the idea of enlarging the pond is appealing, it would be a daunting task for me and one hubby would not be thrilled with. He's a good sport about the pond, but it really isn't his thing.

 

[cas]

I will not buy any more fish... I will not buy any more fish... I will not buy any more fish....
I will read this thread and live my koi addiction through all of you!

 

[audioenvy]

I will not buy any more fish... I will not buy any more fish... I will not buy any more fish....
I will read this thread and live my koi addiction through all of you!

Haha! I definitely haven't maxed out my fish load but winter time is approaching so it seems an ill-advised time to introduce new fish--but I keep seeing all of these listings from the ongoing koi harvest in Japan and it's super tempting.

 

[Gemma]

I will not buy any more fish... I will not buy any more fish... I will not buy any more fish....
I will read this thread and live my koi addiction through all of you!

lol you keep telling yourself that!

Haha! I definitely haven't maxed out my fish load but winter time is approaching so it seems an ill-advised time to introduce new fish--but I keep seeing all of these listings from the ongoing koi harvest in Japan and it's super tempting.

Well, technically you are not a true addict unless you give in to temptation, so....

This thread is so much more harmful than I first thought! We're all in trouble!

 

[Tula]

Haha! I definitely haven't maxed out my fish load but winter time is approaching so it seems an ill-advised time to introduce new fish--but I keep seeing all of these listings from the ongoing koi harvest in Japan and it's super tempting.

I agree, harvest time postings, are super tempting !! I almost caved a year ago.

 

[addy1]

No Koi for me, never. My pond is a happy balanced pond, minimal care, the fish are beautiful, even if just shubunkins!

 

[sissy]

I just made a booboo when I bought my fish .Did not know anything abut koi .All I new that they were cheap at the koi farm and pretty from 1 dollar to 5 dollars .They were the ones he considered not good enough for the commercial market he sold too . .But people that visit love that they can hand feed them

 

[Gemma]

I think people look for different things when buying their fish, so even a low grade mutt, can turn out to be someone's favorite fish! Also some fish improve with age, where others do the opposite, so it's hard to know what a fish will look like

 

[sissy]

just like us some age like fine wine others age like prunes

 

[CometKeith]

I've now set my sights on going to Japan next October for the Koi harvest in Niigata but there is a whole year of obsessing and overspending to do between now and then. I'm sure there are things I'll do for this hobby that I haven't even thought of yet!

Audio. I think it would be fun to go the Japan to buy Koi too but I'm sure my wife wouldn't be into spending that kind of money. Until recently I had never spent more than $5 on a fish! Japan is definitely on our list of places to visit so you never know.... Re: Adding a fish in the fall I feel that's the safest time. It can be too hot in the summer and have to deal with possibly low oxygen levels, beneficial bacteria may not be built up sufficiently in the spring, so the fall makes total sense.

 

[Lisak1]

I love all my fish the same - koi, comets, shubunkins and our one little fan tailed wiggler. But I do worry more about the koi and shubunkins, as losing them seems like it would be more traumatic. They all have names and personalities. The goldies all kind of blend together into "they". We have one of our original three comets left and he has a special place in my heart too, even though I think he's single handedly (well, his "hands" aren't really the problem) responsible for all the babies we've added over the years! He's a romantic guy!