Beginner's Corner (an introduction)

This 'Beginners Guide' is to try to help the novice and beginner to be able to understand a little more about these wonderful fish we call Koi .... and we hope that is will help make the Hobby of Koi Keeping and Koi Collecting a little easier to understand .. First of all ... Koi are not just overgrown Goldfish ... far from it ... the Koi is a very special fish which has been bred especially for the Ornamental ponds all over the world ... The Art of breeding Koi, and that is exactly what it is, an 'Art'... has been mastered by the Japanese over many hundreds of years, and of late, one or two other countries, Koi can be extremely expensive and sometimes the prices need a lot of understanding by the novice to the hobby ...

But what you have to bear in mind, that Koi are, if you like, similar to that very rare Painting or pieces of sculpture ... the higher the rating of the Artist, or in the case of Koi, the Breeder, then the higher the price .. but the name of the breeder alone does not completely govern the price, the body shape of the fish, the patterns, depth of colour all play a roll in determining the final price of that particular Koi ...

How big, how old, how expensive?

The average Koi can grow to 24 - 36 inches, with some jumbo varieties growing up to 52 inches - but that won't happen if the conditions within the pond and if the pond is not large enough ... and to get a Koi to grow to those larger sizes is never going to be an easy task to achieve ...

Where did Koi Originate from?

Initially it was the Chinese that first perfected this art of introducing colour to what was then the Common Carp - that happened perhaps as long ago as 2000 years ... and many early Koi, or coloured Carp can be seen on very old paintings - porcelain and other pieces of art dating back many hundreds of years ...

Today most of the Koi we import are from Japan where the art of Koi breeding has been perfected to such extremely high standards now for a great many years and although Koi are now being bred once again in China, I feel sure that it will be many many years before the Chinese can produce Koi with such high bloodlines as the Japanese...

Where do we keep these fish?

Koi can be kept both indoors or outdoors - and you may have seen examples of Koi being kept indoors and even in the foyer of some of the worlds finest hotels ..

But you are never going to be able to keep Koi unless the conditions are right .. and the most important part of any Koi pond is without any doubt the filtration system that is installed on that pond of a size that it can cope with the copious amounts of waste products produced by these Koi .. which is far greater than the common Goldfish or similar pond fish which are available in most countries ..

There are many ways to have a pond - you may just want to have a simple small pond with just a few Koi, and perhaps a couple of Goldfish - or you may be thinking of something on a more grand scale ... either way the principles are the same .. and the same amount of care should go into building a small garden pond as with the more elaborate ones ...  and before you even consider building a pond, or putting a spade into the garden - then our advise would be for you to do a lot of research into what is needed - what equipment you are going to need and how much it is going to cost you .. those are all important matters and we suggest that perhaps you may start by taking a look at a few of the ideas we have placed on our website under the heading of 'Pond Construction' ..

We are always available to give you the advice you need .. and a big 'Golden Rule' is seek advice first before you try to do the job if you are unsure .. mistakes are hard to rectify and can cost you a lot of money and heartache ...

Do Koi Have any Teeth ?

That is one question we are very often asked .. and the answer is YES ! If you have never seen any Koi Teeth then click here and we will show you a few ..
 

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