There’s nothing more relaxing that to stroll into your garden, hear calming sounds of flowing water and watching the koi swimming leisurely and gracefully without care in the world, especially after a hard day’s work. The calming effect their presence does wonder to sooth the soul. According to the Feng Shui belief, the five elements (water, wood, fire, earth, and metal) are worthy to be balanced when you plan the landscaping of your garden. For water, koi pond is a good choice.
A great deal of space and a specialized filtration system is pre-requisite for the Koi fish. The pone should be at least 4 feet or more. This is especially important for the fish to survive winter and in hot climate (where it provides cooler environment). A 4500 liters or 1000 gallons of pond is a good starting point.
How to Choose A Good Koi
“All Koi look alike”
Those are words which shouldn’t be uttered to an experienced Koi hobbyist. And, they are right. No two koi is identical as each has its own unique coloring and form.
How do you know which is the better koi then? Koi are judged mainly on body shape and luster, color intensity, and the pattern on their dots, spots, or stripes form against the background of the body color. The red and white colors variety are most sought after. According to Feng Shui beliefs, purity is represented by single-colored white ones while gold ones represent fortune.
The mark of a good Koi
Below list a few traits that you should take note of when choosing the koi for your pond.
- General shape of a good koi is torpedo, well-balanced throughout its build. It must be fat and round throughout, not just at the head, and tapers to a small tummy and tail.
- There are 60 varieties of koi, pre-determined by markings and colours, which are symmetrical and evenly distributed on head, body and tail.
- Each pedigree Koi comes with a certificate stating date of birth, year it entered the country, mother\’s breed and other details. All pedigree Koi is from Japan.
- Female koi tend to be preferred over males as the whites on males become yellowish as they age. Most koi enthusiast prefer colors with strong luster.
- Its movements must be elegant.
Before you buy Koi, consider these:
- Remember that you should have the koi’s habitat ready FIRST before you purchase your koi. They don’t come cheap (neither does the pond), so you will need to plan your koi pond project well.
- Also check the quality of the water in your area with test kits. Also allow about one tonne of water for one full-grown koi of about 2.5 ft long.
- Koi’s are prone to louse and fungi infection, but these can be treated. DO NOT physically pick up the fish to remove the lice and fungus.
