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This guide is not intended to act as guidelines for judging koi for competitions, just as a basic guide on selecting a good koi/goldfish at your local fish shop.
When selecting koi, a little bit of thought must go into the process. Of course you want to introduce new fish that will compliment the ones you already have/plant to have, but there are some things to keep in mind. Namely you want to avoid the risk of overstockng your pond, a very common and often detrimental mistake.
– All ponds have a maximum number of fish suitable, based on the size of the pond. We normally reccomend no more than 6 koi per 1000 litres (keeping in mind that koi grow BIG)
– Koi and goldfish produce a lot of waste, and as such require a good filtration system. If your pond is at capacity (or over it) you may need to invest in a more powerful filtration system to keep up with the waste being produced. For more info on proper pond filtration please check out one of our filtration FAQ pages, or get in contact with us for some free expert advice 🙂
So if you can only have a limited number of koi in your pond, you might want to consider getting a range of different colours and varieties. It is also better to choose fish of similar size so that the smaller fish don’t get bullied during feeding time!
Now you know how many fish you want, and what size, here are a few things to look out for when selecting some new guys for your pond.
Fish health is the most important factor to consider when choosing your koi. You want a koi that is robust and active, that has all its fins intact.
You don’t want any fish that shows signs of disease such as small white spots, sores or any fish that have ratty fins or tails.
The fish should use its pectoral fins a lot, rather than having them clamped to the sides of the body, and the fish should swim confidently with strength, rather than listlessly.
Koi, like most animals, should ideally be symmetrical. The fish’s gills should not poke out and should conform smoothly to the shape of the body.
The Fish’s mouth should not hook down, and there shouldn’t be any redness in the gill area. The fish will also probably put up a bit of a fight when being caught, rather than just lounging back in the net when scooped up!
This is where it gets subjective.
Basically, get whatever you think looks nice! It is worth noting however that colours tend to ‘solidify’ as the fish gets older and larger (i.e you have a better idea of what a fish will look like as an adult at 15cm than 5cm. At 30cm even more so).
If you are after more traditional types of koi, as many are, then there are many different strains to suit your tastes. Most of the championship koi in Japan are red + white (kohaku), like the japanese flag, or red + black + white (showa and sanke)
In these fish, we look for vibrant whites, deep reds and distinct blotches with absolutely black blacks. The best fish will often have a white nose to define the face.
Deep reds are often hard to come by… even if you breed two champion koi together, many of the young will only have orange colouration, which is just the luck of the draw. And it can sometimes take a couple of years for the orange to flare up into a feep red hue. The patterns are completely random! This is why championship koi are quite rare, as they are a combination of good breeding, years of growth and lots of luck. Hence the price difference.
This is not to say that you can’t be lucky
When choosing your koi at The Fish Works, you can rest assured that we keep all of our fish healthy, and only have quality gene stocks. That little koi you buy may just turn into a champ!
Whatever koi you choose however will turn out to be a great pet, who will greet you every time you come to the pond…
To see our range of quality koi for sale please click the button below. Keep in mind that we do not post all of our koi online and will always have a greater selection available in store.
All of our koi are carefully selected and imported from a few select breeders in Western Australia. We do this to ensure all of our fish have a strong bloodline, vibrant colours and are perfectly healthy and disease free. Although this costs us a bit more for shipping, we find that the NSW market has been plagued by diseases such as ulcers (koi herpes virus). We only purchase the top 10% of their premium koi, therefore ensuring our customers only recieve the best.
Unfortunately for this reason we cannot accept koi offered to us in store as we cannot run the risk of contaminating our stock.