(too?) cheap Koi

[vertigo72]

I saw an advert from a guy close to where I live, he had over 50 of own grown small Koi for sale, for, basically nothing. Prices ranged from 3 euro (thats like 5 dollar) for the smallest fry to 5 euro for the bigger ones (still small at 10-12cm or 4-5 inch). On the pics they looked pretty nice, perhaps not price winners, but good enough for me. Here is one:



And in real they looked even better. Some very very nice specimen. Quite amazing. I also saw some of the 'forefathers' in his garden pond, and while Im no expert, they looked, well, extremely nice. Huge too, Im guessing 70cm.

Now, this is not a professional. At all. He just has a huge natural pond (if I understood correctly, several in fact), where his father introduced Japanese Koi years ago, and they bread like mad and still do. He does nothing for it (he doesnt even know how). Every year he draws a net to keep the population under control and sells them for peanuts. Money doesnt interest him (and it looks like he doesnt need it either). He even had no idea what a regular price for Koi is.

Now, this all sounds too good to be true, no? Still, I couldnt resist, and I picked 10 of the nicest looking Koi. At the rate his phone was ringing and people where lining up, I think he sold out the same day.

Now, what should I be wary off? I have them in a separate little pond for now. Is there anything I can or should check for before putting them amongst the others? Im no fish doctor, but what I can tell,they look perfectly healthy. He also had them stored in huge tanks with plenty of aeration. They eat normally, they dont seem stressed, I dont see white spots or anything indicating a decease. Would it be a big gamble to add them to my pond?

 

[koiguy1969]

if its those...theyre looking pretty good to me!...is he using that pic just get ya there?...the old bait and switch?

 

[DrCase]

You did well !!

 

[vertigo72]

if its those...theyre looking pretty good to me!...is he using that pic just get ya there?...the old bait and switch?

No its really those. I already saw and bought 10 of them, and really, some of them are even nicer in real than on the pics. Though not all, there are also plenty of what I call "pink elephants", I got some of that myself, home grown, well, really not very pretty Koi, or perhaps a mix of Koi and gold fish Im not even sure. They got no color at all, just grey/white with a shade of pink. But hey, I could just pick which ones I liked, and I got 10 really nice ones

 

[fishin4cars]

If you have the room to keep them separated for a while watching them for three to four weeks is a great idea. If nothing shows up by that time I would start adding them to you pond area that you want them to call home. When adding to your main pond add three or four and wait a week or so then add some more. Even if you split the whole bunch by adding them a few or half at time it lessens the chance of a ammonia spike, and it relieves the load on the holding tank making it more stable. As for what you got, Those look good and sometimes you can find some REALLY nice koi that way as people that are clearing them out to be able to keep enough room aren't picking through them for the best. they just want to find them homes and sounds like your getting first shot at some of the best of his babies. GREAT JOB!

 

[addy1]

Very nice you did well, now post pictures of the ones you got!

 

[talal101]

omg i hate you guys lol, why do you do this to mee {addy ahem}, i check like 100 times a day to see if i can find anyone selling good koi for decent pricing but no luck unlike some people.

 

[vertigo72]

Very nice you did well, now post pictures of the ones you got!

I tried. But heh. I had to move them to my main pond as my airbrush compressor used as air pump finally began failing. Excuse the lousy quality, the water is covered with pollen and light isnt helping, but I tried:

Here only the small one bottom right is new, one of those 5 euro fish, the others I already had:



These are new:



Same (ones) here:



Happy family:


Please dont mind the mess the pond is right now, just had to put those plants and rocks somewhere and the pipes and hoses are all temporarily as Im still busy setting things up properly.

Last pic, all small ones are new. Aside from that not so nice albino, which is, as you can tell.. is homebread. No one would buy such a fish, but I cant kill it either lol.
Particularly note the ones on the right, also 5 euro and also nicer than you could tell from my lousy camera:

 

[sissy]

Thats a bargain for those pretty guys and gals .I know the guy here in North Carolina sells what he calls ugly fish for a dollar ,I have picked up a few and they turned out to be really pretty fish ,ugly no more.Isn't that funny when ever you want to take a pic of something in your pond it is after you have messed it up .You should see mine right now had to really clean the bottom ,koi are messy critters lol

 

[vertigo72]

I tried again after putting on my state of the art, patented surface skimmer.
Check it out, it beats all commercial models in the market Im sure. Just not when it comes to looks or easy of use lol:



And yes, that hose is from a vacuum cleaner LOL. But it sure does work! 20 minutes later most of the floating stuff is gone.

Anyway, take 2:





Again all the small ones are 5 euro fish, except for the less than spectacular on the second pic thats in the center of the picture swimming up, and slightly reddish. Thats another homegrown, well, not price winner

 

[sissy]

ok now need to ask you about your surface akimmer lol want to steal the patent

 

[vertigo72]

LOL, its just a container with a pump in it, and I position the container so one edge is barely below water level. Add some rocks for stability and pump the water right back in to the pond since I dont have a long enough spare hose to do anything else. Works fine until water level goes up or down a few mm, then it either floods and throws everything back in the pond, or sucks dry, starts floating, tilts over and all is for nothing . For quick ad hoc skimmer with a half empty pond and while under supervision, it does work.

 

[sissy]

I was thinking of a laundry basket with some rocks on the bottom to way it down .When I saw what you did look similar to what I was going to try .I thought of tieing a rope through the middle of it and going to each side of the pond tied to stakes in the ground so it can float slightly and be able to move up and down may work .That way it would stabilize a little ,not sure it will work but going to try it ,with quilt batting and lava rock to weight it down

 

[vertigo72]

I was thinking of a laundry basket with some rocks on the bottom to way it down .When I saw what you did look similar to what I was going to try .I thought of tieing a rope through the middle of it and going to each side of the pond tied to stakes in the ground so it can float slightly and be able to move up and down may work .That way it would stabilize a little ,not sure it will work but going to try it ,with quilt batting and lava rock to weight it down

The problem with such a setup (if I understood correctly) is that its inherently unstable. If for some reason water flow is lowered just a bit, the basket will empty a bit and float more, thereby further decreasing waterflow, until its going dry, while it should do the opposite, sink a bit to let more water in.

Im going to try to and make one with a weir door (if thats the english word). You make the door floating and angled to the inside of the basket. If the water level lowers in the basked because of the pump, the door automagically opens further to let more water in and vice versa.

 

[sissy]

what i was thinking of is using my pump with a float valve that will turn the pump off when water level is low and could be done with out cutting the liner to only be used when surface water is dirty .put it under bridge to hide it in my pond