My other love...

Hi guys

These guys are the reason I slacked a bit in the aquarium hobby the last few years. And there is a bit of a story to it.....
So it all started when the missus brought hom 3 little koi for my koipond one day. I never wanted koi and was planning on stocking the pond with all sorts of Tilapia so I was not too happy about the 3 baby koi she brought home. I put them in the pond to keep her happy but then the bug bit me very hard and I started buying small koi everywhere I saw one I liked.
So at some stage I had more than 100 smallish koi in my pond. (20 000 litre)

One day I bought 2 small Japanese koi and both of them seemed to grow much faster than the local stock I had. This intrigued me and I started reading up and doing research. I never knew there were so many Koi variety.
And every colour and every pattern of colour is named something. Genetics is everything in the koi hobby! And it gets very very technical.

In the koi hobby they say " it starts with Kohaku and it ends with Kohaku" . For those who do not know, Kohaku is the white and red koi.
I never liked them as there are so many, more exciting colours to choose from. So I did not care for them much....until I bought a 47cm Kohaku from Nagoshi Koi farm and I understood where that saying came from.
There is just something about Kohaku that no other koi posesses. I bought several after that. And they all have names...

Apart from the beauty of good koi, every koi has its own personality. Really!!!
My koi eat from my hands. Some took longer than other to get comfortable with it but its so exciting the day a specific koi you have been trying to feed decides to take a mealworm from your fingers.

I only have 25 koi and 1 albino grass carp but enjoy them more than the 100 I owned in the beginning. Less is more in this case...

Let me show pictures as I can get quite carried away with talking about my koi.






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Very nice !! , whats the monthly running costs ?

 

Let me introduce some of them:

This is Mika. Her name means "beautiful" in Japanese. She is a Menkaburi Kohaku from Nagoshi Koi farm

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This is Yumi. Meaning "to be superior" in Japanese. Yumi is a Sandan Kohaku but hopefully turns into a Yondan Kohaku when getting bigger.
I sold 22 of the bigger koi from the original 100 I had, to buy Yumi and Mika

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-Food is about R1000 a month as I buy decent Hikari food. After winter I normally buy Saki Hikari to supplement them after winter and then its a bit more for food but its worth it.
-10% water change a week
-And the pump is 1.1 kw so electricity is also a few rand

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This is Adan ("Little fire" in Japanese)
He is a Inazuma Kohaku from Torazo koi farm.
I wanted a Kohaku from Torazo for years and finally got one last year

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This is Tank!
Tank is a Doitsu Karashigoi from Yamamatsu Koi farm.
Tank is the fastest grower in my pond. Mouth like a bucket.
He got his name because he came into the country when there was confirmed cases of KHV virus in the koi industry worldwide last year. So she stayed in my 500 litre planted tank in the house for 2 months so I could monitor him. It is a deadly virus and can wipe my whole collection out

Karashigoi is also the koi variety growing the biggest.

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This is Rocket...no other fish gets any snacks when he is the vicinity. He will literally crash into them in order to get to a mealworm first.
Very friendly fish though.
He is a Doitsu Ochiba - belongs to the wife

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This is Violet - a "not too clever" but very beautiful Ochiba Shigure - Also the wife's fish.
Ochiba shigure means "autumn leaves falling on water" That is the patterns on their bodies normally
Ibhave had so many offers on this fish before...everyone wants her. (Might be a male koi I though...)




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This is Olive - She is a Olive Chagoi from Marudo koi farm.
Friendliest and hungriest fish in the pond.
Chagoi in general will be the first koi to eat from your hand. You can also use Chagoi to tame your koi if they are a bit skittish or wild.

 

This is Sweetcheeks. She is a Shusui. She is the most intelligent koi in the pond and believe she does not need to feed with the rest of the koi so she will move away from the rest so I can feed her seperately.

I have seen her actively hunt the mosquito fish at night. Herding them into a tight shoal and then swim through them with open mouth.

Her fav snack is earthworms

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Violet is a stunner. We had a small collection of koi for a long time when i was a kid, and my dad got super attached to them. He had a kohaku that was huge, almost 50cm (i think, 5 year old me is probably exaggerating)

 

They can get big yes
Kohaku, Chagoi, Karashigoi can get very big.
In 2017, S - Legend, a Kohaku from Sakai koi farm sold for $1.8 Million.
She is 101cm and 9 years old.

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