When It's Time to Buy Your First Koi

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     After months of building your Koi pond, paying attention to all those little details, filling with water, setting out your range of aquatic plants, switching on the pumps and filter, everything seems ready. You've tested your water, the pH is right, the water is crystal clear, and everything says "Go for it." The time for buying Koi has finally arrived!

If you have a local store that sells Koi and stocks a large variety of fish things are a lot simpler. If your only option is to order online some things are a little different but the essential thing is to buy the best Koi you can for your money.

Why Some Koi Can Be Expensive
After mating a pair of Koi could produce one million fry. Fry is the term for fish that hatch from the eggs. While it may seem cruel the fact is that in an intensive breeding program a Koi breeder may in fact only take from this million as few as ten very select specimens. If the Koi parents are considered to be fine and valuable specimens then these ten or less Koi could be very expensive because so much care has gone into their selection. It is more than likely that these few Koi could end up show specimens and become very valuable. You do not need to think about buying such expensive fish but you do need to understand how the young Koi are priced.

However if from this breeding say a thousand or more fry are selected then you can expect these fish to be much cheaper. Not all the fry that hatch are good fish. A good breeder will very quickly destroy say 90% of the fry. And then continue to cull as the fry mature and the features of the fish become clearer. The selection of the chosen fish requires a lot of experience in understanding the characteristics that expert keepers of Koi demand when buying fish. If the breeder is just a hobbyist then his fish are likely to be cheaper than a breeder who is doing this work on a commercial basis. If you are looking for Koi with good coloration and markings you may need to pay more.

Choosing Your First Koi
The younger and the smaller the Koi, the cheaper they will be. If your pond is well maintained these smaller Koi will grow quickly. The colour, style and the type of Koi will also play a part in the price of the young fish. To start with just chose the colors and the shape of the colors that you find attractive. If you are buying from a store with an excellent reputation it will be hard to make a mistake. Your plan is to gain as much experience as you can from these first fish. Don't buy too many. Even if you have built a large pond four or five Koi are enough to both test your pond, and your experience.

Buying Online
You may not have the opportunity to make your purchases at a local store and so it will be necessary to make your purchase online. One advantage, you have a lot of stores to choose from. The disadvantage, you will not be there to make your own choices. However since you are new to the game don't be afraid to let the store make these choices for you. They may do a better job considering their experience. Find out as much as you can about the store you select, if the store has a bad reputation then find another store. It is not hard on the internet to search for those with a bad experience who will let you know how the store let them down.

A Twelve Hour Time Frame
In selecting your store once you are satisfied that it has a good reputation the next issue to determine is the ability of the store to send you the fish so that you receive them within twelve hours. Your store will know if this can be done to your area. The fish will be sent in a plastic bag that has been filled with oxygen. The packing should be able to keep the fish alive for twenty-four hours but to be on the safe side the plan for their transit should take no longer than twelve hours. A store selling on the internet will know how the fish have to be packed and which carrier can reach you within this time frame. Just make certain you check all this with them before proceeding with your order. Let the store know this is your first order and that you hope to develop an ongoing relationship with them.

Arriving At Their New Home
It will not matter how you have bought your fish there is a ninety-nine percent chance you now have a plastic bag of your Koi purchases and you are ready to introduce them to their new home. The first thing to remember is that your fish will be experiencing a degree of stress. Don't rush things. There is a high probability that the water temperature in your plastic bag is not the same as the water temperature in your pond. Just let the plastic bag float in the pond water until the temperatures are the same. If you are really set up and you have a smaller quarantine tank or pond then use this. The biggest risk in this entire undertaking is disease. If you are unlucky enough to have purchased diseased fish and you have introduced them to your quarantine tank then you have only this smaller tank to deal with. Putting sick fish into your main pond first up is the stuff of nightmares, not likely if you buy from a store with a good reputation but it does happen! Sometimes even the store may not be aware the fish have problems but the stress of transit brings this issue to the fore.

After a period of two to three weeks and you are satisfied that your fish are free of any ailment they can be introduced into their larger pond. Any subsequent purchases should be made via your quarantine tank. If possible stick with the same store for any additional purchase.

Keeping Koi has become a very popular hobby. Visit our web site http://www.koihowto.com to learn a great deal more on keeping Koi.