Koi Food Guide

Archive for the ‘FAQ’s’ Category

It is not that easy to create high quality Japanese Koi. Several thousand fish are inspected and discarded for every one Koi that a dealer finds acceptable.

So how can you look at a baby Koi and tell that it have the potential to become a champion? To answer this you will need to advice of two different Koi professionals, a Koi breeder and a Koi dealer. Koi breeders maintain high quality parent stock in large mud ponds.

In order to get a large amount of fertilized eggs Koi breeder must bring the males and females together at just the right time. This breeding period will results in tens of thousands of fertilized eggs. These eggs will then go through an intensive culling process, with only a small few being selected and the rest discarded. Koi dealers purchase these fish from the Koi breeders, and then sell them to you for your home pond at a mark up.

Most people should be able to find a quality Koi dealer within about an hour of their homes. Once there you will find several display tanks, giving you many options to choose from to select the perfect Koi. Any reputable dealer will be very knowledgeable about Koi and be willing to spend time teaching you the fine art of Koi keeping. This education will help you make informed decisions during the early years of your Koi ownership experience.

Koi fish are a wonderful pet to have. They can be trained to eat from your hand, and will even recognize you and greet you as you near the pond.

We would like to welcome you to the wonderful world of Koi. While many people don’t view fish as pets, they can indeed become treasured members of your family. Koi will let you feed them from your hand, and can even be let you pet them once you have earned their trust. These are all behaviors that you would expect from a pet.

Koi is a domesticated pet that was actually bred by man. The wild relative of the Koi is the black common carp, which can be found throughout Europe. These black common carp, Cyprinus carpio, are thought to have been brought to China, Korea, and then Japan to be used as a general food source.

Carp began to be transported to China approximately 2000 years ago. As time passed they continued to move east. The fish did not arrive in Japan for about 1000 years. Carp were kept in rice patties to serve as an additional source of protein for the farmer and their family.

Being confined to rice paddies soon caused a certain amount of inbreeding in these fish, which in brought about the brilliant colors we now associate with the Koi. Since they were beautiful and interesting the carp with beautiful colors would be kept by the farmers.

The Japanese term nishikigoi, which translates brocaded carp, was given to these fish. The short form of nishikigoi is Koi. Koi soon began to be seen as a symbol of strength. There is even a legend that King Shoko gave Confucius a Koi on the occasion of the birth of his first son.

Koi can now be found around the world. You can find thriving Koi industries in Southeast Asia, the United States, and Israel. Koi’s bred outside of Japan do not come with the official Japanese nishikigoi pedigree and are therefore less expensive.

There are two main factors to be considered when determining the value of Koi: their shape and the way they look when viewed from above.

Koi were specifically bred to be viewed from above, as they were created to be pond fish. Koi that are for sale at aquarium shops will usually be small and displayed in tanks. A store that specializes in Koi will usually display them in ponds. This enables you to get a good view of the shape of the Koi while it is swimming.

A Koi has the ability to grow up to 40 inches in length, although a baby Koi starts out as a little fry of only about 1/16 of an inch. Some Koi are as big as a large salmon. Koi are not naturally aggressive fish, although you will some jostling about during feeding.

Koi fish do not have a true stomach, just a long belly. This means that any food that is consumed that is too much for their belly just comes back out. Those who have Koi will tell you that they are always ready to eat, as there is no off switch when it comes to consumption. Koi do have teeth which are located in their jaw areas.

Koi are fairly discriminating eaters and will actually pull food into their mouth before deciding whether they really want to eat it. Food they like will go on to be chewed while anything they don’t like will just be spit out. Koi’s have two sets of barbells on each side of their months, one large set and one small set. These are feelers which operate just like they do on a catfish. Koi have big mouths which face downward, as they are bottom feeders. The design of their mouths is perfect for hunting around the bottom of the pond for food.

If a Koi is spooked or doesn’t like the water it can actually jump. In often takes a Koi quite a while to adjust to new water. Koi can actually jump right out of the water and die during the adjustment period to a new pond. A new Koi pond should always be covered with a net to prevent this from happening.

Often Koi at a show will flip around in the water and jump, a behavior called flashing. This is typically due to the change in water environment, even if the new water is of perfect quality. Sometimes jumping Koi is a sign of fish desperately trying to escape water of poor quality.

It is important to test your Koi’s water regularly to ensure that there is very little nitrate, and no ammonia or nitrite. You can pick up a simple to use water test kit at just about any aquarium shop. Flashing could also indicate the presence of parasites on the fish which are irritating their skin.

Koi fish are a very popular variety of the common carp fish that originated in China and then spread through Japan as a domesticated ornamental fish to be used in garden ponds.

You most often find Koi used as ornamental fish in garden ponds. They are a variety of carp and their domestication originated in China and then quickly spread through Japan.

With the exception of their large size they closely resemble their relative, the goldfish. Koi are considered good luck so people love to have them in their gardens, or even tattooed onto their bodies.

The term Koi is actually Japanese even thought the fish originated in China. Koi is the Japanese word for carp, and is used for any carp, whether beautiful and colorful or dull and grey. In Japan they actually use the word Nishikigo, which means brocaded carp, for what we commonly call the Koi.

Back in the 19th century in the Niigata prefecture of Japan breeding carp became a popular hobby. Colorful carp were captured by farmers working in the fields and then bred to become the highly ornamental fish we know today. The colorful carp were actually quite vulnerable in the wild, as their color made them easy prey for a variety of predators. Their lot in life changed dramatically as they become the prized possession found in garden ponds.

The most noted type of Koi by the 20th century was the red and white Kohaku, although there were a wide variety of patterns and colors established. The popularity did not really begin to spread beyond Asia until the Niigata Koi was placed on exhibit during the annual exhibition in Tokyo in 1914.

Once it become safe and easy to transport Koi around the world keeping and raising Koi become a popular hobby all over. You will probably need to purchase your Koi fish at a store that specializes in Koi or exotic fish species, as they are not usually available from your local pet store.