Koi Fish:

The obsession starts here.

There are koi, and there are other pondfish. What makes koi special? It is an affair of the heart, an inevitable passion that begins with your first sight of these "living jewels" swimming in crystal-clear water. You cannot help but be captivated by their sparkling vitality, or marvel at their vivid colours as they rise to be hand-fed.

Koi-keeping has made huge advances in the past 20 years. In response to rising demand, a wolrdwide support industry of dealers, distributors and manufactures has grown up to offer quality fish at reasonable prices. The enduring appeal of koi is that no two are alike. There are gaudy fish and subtle fish, koi with a full complement of scales and others that are scaleless. They maybe metallic or matt or sparkling, of one colour or several. The impact of these colours, on an individual fish or in the company of others, determines the mood of the collection.

Japan remains the homeland of top-quality koi and that is where Sandton Aquatic imports from. Come and view them at our shop.
We got a Dealer Indemnification Certificate which proves that the imported Koi is Healthy, Disease free and of top Quality.

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Buying from a reliable dealer

Choosing a good dealer is even more important than deciding which fish you will take home. Your relationship should not begin and end with the sale of the koi. Ideally you will be returning for advice, our top quality imported koi food (Aquamaster) and more fish to build up your collection.

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The Value of Quarantine

Before you consider a first purchase, set up a quarantine facility and ensure that your main pond is ready to receive koi. Home quarantine gives latent diseases or parasites a chance to manifest themselves. Most can be successfully treated. This is far better then compromising the safety of existing fish. However, there are untreatable viral infections around, such as koi herpes virus (KHV). With this no matter how long you quarantine, you cannot be certain that your new fish are not carriers.

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Stocking Levels

Do not exceed recommended stocking level (25cm/10 in fish length per 454 litres/100 gallons maximum). Safe stocking density depends on the efficiency of your filtration, but as your aim is to grow koi at the optimum speed, it is not a good idea to fill the pond to maximum capacity. Add the fish gradually, so that the filter bacteria can keep pace with the steady rise in generated waste products.

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Keeping Koi Healthy

There is no secret to keeping koi in good health - it is down to vigilance and common sense. It is human nature to want to build up a collection quickly and see the different koi varieties interact. Poor water quality is the root of 90% of koi health. Problems and water clarity alone is no indicator that it is safe for fish. Above all, fish require a stable environment, with ph between 7.2 and 8.5, zero ammonia and nitrite, dissolved oxygen levels of 8ppm minimum and nitrate below 25 ppm. If you use chemical test kits, make sure that they are within their sell-by date, and you use digital meters, keep them properly calibrated.

The best health insurance for koi is to look them over daily while they are feeding or swimming past. don't always be netting out your fish for inspection without good cause. Netting bring about stress, however carefully done. If an otherwise healthy koi has a small, uninfected abrasion, and the water is warm and good quality, it will usually heal itself without any intervention from you.

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Transporting Koi

Whether to koi shows or to your dealer for examination it is vital to do this correctly. Transporting koi incorrectly can be highly stressful and may cause opportunist diseases such as those caused by parasites to become a problem. Temperature change can cause the greatest stress to your koi. Try to regularize the temperature between the water into which the koi will be put and that of the transport bag. A transport bag has much thicker plastic than the normal bag and it is double sealed to make leaks less likely. Then box the bag with fish in it. It is less stressful for the koi. When arriving home remove the bag from the box and float the inflated bag in your quarantine pool to allow the water temperature to equalize. Placing a sheet of newspaper over the bag will help reduce the shock to the fish when exposed to light. Float fish for at least an hour particularly if oxygen has been used. Then open the bag and let the water from the pond slowly mix with the water in the bag. Now you can release the fish. The fish will often sulk for a while before beginning to swim normally. If it feeds quickly this is a good sign.

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Building up a Koi Collection

Buying koi should be a pleasurable experience so set aside plenty of time. When you have seen a fish you like the look of, ask the dealer to "bowl" it for you so that you can examine it at close quarters. Check for any damage and if you are unhappy about any aspect of a koi, reject it. When arriving home with your new koi net over the pond for a couple of days because newly arrived koi are prone to jumping and leave them in peace to adjust to their new surroundings. A couple of days with out food will do them no harm.

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The Koi Diet

Koi do not have stomachs, digestion takes place in the long gut and the more food that is offered at a sitting, the smaller the percentage assimilated. The remaining food passed, partly digested through the digestive system to place an unwanted loading on the biofilter. Some of the least digestible ingredients in commercial foods happen to be cheap/ This partially explains the great difference in price between similar looking koi foods. High protein formulas are more likely to contain fish meal, which provides desirable unsaturated lipids (oils). Other ingredients common to most foods are ash (a source of minerals), fibre (value to koi), moisture and vitamins. Also present may be immune stimulants, probiotics and colour enhancers.

See our Aquamaster (koi food) imported from the best koi farms in Japan. Bags are packed in small, medium, large pellets.

You can also feed koi fresh foods like a whole lettuce. Koi will enjoy nudging at it around the pond and pulling off the leaves. Fresh green matter is beneficial to them. Koi are also attracted to any food coated in minced garlic. It can be used to entice them to feed by hand. Prawns they thoroughly enjoy and it is a good source of protein. However feed prawns in summer. The vitamin C in fresh oranges is good for them and boosts their immune system and helps reduces stress. Wholemeal or ganary bread you will feed sparingly. It is a rich source of wheatgrem and vitamins and rich in carbohydrates. Bloodworms koi also like but it's best to feed it frozen as live food carriers the risk of introducing diseases into your pond. Offer bloodworms in summer.

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How and When to Feed Koi

Koi have to fit in with our busy work schedules and and share our mealtimes two or three times a day. However, this gorge and starve regime does not promote the best growth rate. Invest in an auto-feeder, and the koi will come closer to nature with several smaller meals over a 24 hour period. Otherwise twice a day is normal.

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In Unheated Ponds

What and how much you feed koi is temperature dependent. Start in spring, when the water reaches 10 degrees plus, with small amounts of easy digestible, sinking wheat germ pellets. As the water warms further move to higher protein floating foods and then when the pond begins to cool down again in autumn, revert to wheat germ before ceasing feeding altogether. By then the fish's metabolism will have slowed and they will use their stored energy reserves through the winter.

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In Heated Ponds

Koi can be grown on more quickly, with no checks as they can be fed right through the year. Recommended amount of food is between one and two percent of body weight per day. However, young koi grow faster than large fish and require more protein.

Always feed your koi in the same place. In this way they will be very tame and learn to eat from your hand, By bringing in the fish close you can monitor them for any loss of condition or diseases.

It is vital that the correct foods are feed at the right times of year to avoid problems.

Koi are omnivorous which means they will eat both meat and plant matter, which will be found in koi pellets. It is vital that the correct size pellet is fed to the different size of koi. Also consider feeding a certain amount of sinking food which encourages your koi to feed at different levels of the pond.

When feeding koi, the main objectives are to build muscle keeping the body firm without making the fish fat and to maintain and enhance the fish's colour. Koi benefit from being fed a wide range of foods as possible but they sometimes take a little time to get used to new foods.

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Koi Varieties

We have top quality imported koi. Please visit our shop to view them close up. Our staff will be on hand to answer any questions you have.

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Basic Koi Anatomy

Please place you mouse on the area of the fish you would like to know more about

Kidneys, spleen, liver/pancreas. All these organs clean or supply new cells to the blood and have other functions, such as the production of digestive enzymes. The kidneys, in particular, control the amount of water retained in the body and play a role in the immune function.

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Koi Varieties

A major fascination of koi is the variety of pattern and colour combinations. There are scaled and non-scaled varieties, as well as metallic-skinned ones. Certain features are common to all good koi, regardless of variety. The overall body shape, including the head, can vary widely, but a well shaped head on a properly proportioned body will be characteristics of a quality koi. The skin should shine with deep 'gloss' rather than have a 'flat' finish. Of course, this is a different quality to that of the metallic varieties, which have a 'metallic' sheen. Over the years, 13 classes of koi have been established. Each one contains a number of varieties to cover these widely differing koi and to help with appreciation of their qualities. Each one includes several named variants and these are described where possible. Metallic-skinned fish have classes of their own, as do those with another skin feature-the presence of shiny or reflective scales (on both metallic and non metallic koi). These scales show either as gold (Kin) or silver (Gin) and a good quality 'GinRin' as it is known can be quite outstanding. On the other hand, scaleless (Doitsu koi do not have their own class, but fall into the same group as their scaled equivalents.

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