Thread: Where have all the koi gone?

Originally Posted by Lindosbay

I have a nice 2500 gal pond with 12 koi and 5 gold fish. Sizes 18- 32 cm. My adviser has told me not to buy any more, let them grow.

Fine

but

Looking at all those fish breeders and importers, they seem to be vast quantities of fish coming up for sale this spring.

Most koi keepers probably are like me, having a full pond, so do not really want to buy many more.

So

WHERE DO THE ALL GO.?

a lot grow koi to get a high quality collection of fish, either for showing or just thier own personal satisfaction.
probably less than 1 in 10 koi bought at nisai or smaller turn out really well...
so they move on those that don't develop as they wish, and buy new fish in.... that is 99% of the japanese hobby right there.
buy, grow, show, repeat.

plus there are always new people coming into the hobby starting from scratch.

also for every consciencous uk style koi keeper on internet forums and social media trying to give the best environment for thier fish...
there are probably half a dozen that have what is realistically a garden pond with inadequate size or filtration, and just replace the dead ones each spring...

Originally Posted by davethefish1

a lot grow koi to get a high quality collection of fish, either for showing or just thier own personal satisfaction.
probably less than 1 in 10 koi bought at nisai or smaller turn out really well...
so they move on those that don't develop as they wish, and buy new fish in.... that is 99% of the japanese hobby right there.
buy, grow, show, repeat.

plus there are always new people coming into the hobby starting from scratch.

also for every consciencous uk style koi keeper on internet forums and social media trying to give the best environment for thier fish...
there are probably half a dozen that have what is realistically a garden pond with inadequate size or filtration, and just replace the dead ones each spring...

The more I go on Facebook the more that last comment ring massive alarm bells

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Originally Posted by Ajm

The more I go on Facebook the more that last comment ring massive alarm bells

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sadly it's nothing new...
they see small young koi and treat them the same as goldfish....
i remember starting to build my first pond back in 1991,
i started off digging by hand as a 8ft x 6ft x 3ft deep oval intending having a pumped square box filter at the side of the pond,
as you saw in all the garden centres...

but after looking into keeping koi and reading lots of books ect.. (no internet back then lol ), and what you actually need,
i hired a digger and it ended up being a kidney shaped pond 14ft x 9ft x 6ft deep, with 4 x100 gallon bottom drain gravity fed DIY filter chambers... vortex, brushes, and 2 x jap matting.

I have been asking the same question as OP for years and still don't have a satisfactory answer.

It gets worse as you discover the scale of the industry, I would suspect over a million koi being imported annually.

Just like OP I built pond, put koi in it, although I extended pond to fit a couple more, moved house and brought the koi with me, made an even bigger pond to squeeze in a couple more, and now at 15 koi in 15k litres and don't see a way forward to get more koi, and struggle to move them on for the reasons Dave mentions - I can't live with the fact I'm probably sending them to their deaths, because someone somewhere is buying these million imported koi every year.

And to add even more confusion, over the last year all we've seen is people closing down ponds due to energy bills, and with the amount of bargain second hand filtration readily available I can't believe for a minute there's more new people entering the hobby compared to the amount leaving.

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It's not just the imported koi but also the UK koi breeders who sell thousands each year and it does make you wonder where they all go.

Brings back memories Dave when I used to loose koi each year as I didnt know about keeping water and just filled up out of the tap.
I have sold a lot of koi in the last few years growing them on,and I allways ask them their water params and they look at me oddly.

Then spend an hour showing them how to check their water especially kh which is zero in our area.