I find it ironoiic that folks use a blue tub to view a fish in yet
some folks can do it in a plastic bag complete with printing on the
bag.Koi bought at a true koi farm or breeder if just general run of
themill fish or show quality, are always netted and viewin a blue
tub.....no way are koi viewed in a glass tank from the sides, or
through a plastic bag with labels and printing. Why bag a fish only to
reject it......it should be readily inspected long before the decision
to bag it is ebven brought up..... No there is no quality koi no
matter what colors they may have on them that are available at the
varioius pet store chains. ts just that they do not exist......pretty
perhaps to soome folks ugly to those that know koi and acceptable to
most, but they are far form being a quality koi., I owuld use them to
cycle a filter perhaps, but they will nver amount to much more than a
big fat koi pickedup at a chain store.....no matter what it ocsts.

As Ingrid said, until you can differentiate in cheap or high end koi
your best odds are stick with cheap. besides those fish need homes
too.But then what does one do with those so called pretty young fish
that grows up to be faded out ugly deformed monsters with bullhead
catfish heads and bent spines............pitch them in somoneelses
pond or toss em in the comppost...Its best to let em in Petco or
Petsmart and not have to deal with those problems inthe first
place....There just is not any such thing as a quality cheap koi or
any fish as far as that goes....and its more to the profile and fish
itself than its pretty colors or the water quality its kept in at the
store.....I looked and looked and looked and yhave yet to find a so
called flame red koi.......see there we are, we think we know koi and
try to fool folks yet were all just as ignorant in what a red koi
really is its certainly not flame red......so my observations stand.
There is a difference in those $5 and 50 dollar fish if yu know what
your looking at in most cases. Those that b uy and continue to buy
form places that do not QT koi are destined to be bitten one day and
it will happen.......the problems with not QT'oing koi are numerous
but then most view that as a waste of time..there is just too much
time and effort put into a proper pond to take chances with cheap fish
or any fish not properly QT'd. Now if yur just starting up a new pond
that may not be much of an issue if all koi are fromthe same
seller.......but its russian roulette placing koi that is not QT's for
at least 4-6 weeks prior to placing in an established populated
pond...


I could have saved a bunch of money when I stocked my pond, when I
was asked what qulaity of fish I was looking for.....big box store
vendor quality or decent possible show quality or top end.......it was
easy to see differences in them even to an inexperienced eye when
someone that knew what was what pointed them out, so the choice was a
no brainer for me.....and did not cost any more actually cost less
overall than if I bought em from the big box stores.


On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 18:11:26 CST, "Reel McKoi"
wrote:


"drsolo" wrote in message
here.com...
until you can tell the difference between a $10, $100, and $10,000 dollar
koi, get the $10 one. HOWEVER.... what is even more important is to find
a
place sells healthy koi and you wont get one from petsmart for sure, and
it
is unlikely you will get one from any old pond store.

In defense of PetsMart. I have bought healthy goldfish and kio (and otos and
plecos) from both their Nashville and Murfreesboro stores. I still have the
beautiful flame red koi from there. She was $2 about 6 years ago. The
others were sold off as I'm replacing them all with butterflies.

You need to find the
place that quarantines their koi for at least a couple weeks after getting
them in, and before they sell them to the public. of course you dont tell
them you are looking for quaratined koi, you ask them when they got the
fish
in, or "when are you getting the fish in so I can be first in line to pick
the ones I want" and see if they bite on that.

Not one place here has the space or facilities to quarantine fish.

Now, if what you want is a pond with koi, then that is really all you need
to know. If what you want is a koi pond, then you are going to have to
search on the net for discussions about the different types of koi, color,
desirable shape, etc. there are a lot of badly bred and raised koi out
there with bent backs, huge heads, etc. If your pond does well then
consider that you are going to be looking at that same gorgeous (or ugly)
koi for 50 years. Ingrid

Ugly fish can always be disposed of. Better to examine them carefully in
the bag before handing over your cash. Checking not only for ulcers and the
larger parasites, but the shape and proportions of the fish as well.



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I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!