Page 51 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 6

Fresh water is very important to younger Koi, you should
ideally have a small trickle of water going into the
system, fresh water keeps the system fresh and new. It
is also a source of cleaner water.

I have seen 6 × 10cm Tosai grow 20cms in the space of
HEATING A 6 months in 750 gallons of well filtered water, and the
SYSTEM IS water was heated.
COSTLY SO Of course heat is a very important factor in growing Koi,
or any fish for that matter, and small Koi love being nice
MAKE SURE and warm. In Japan most breeders keep their Tosai at
23-25ºC all year round, this is an optimum temperature
YOU BUY to keep Koi less than 2 years old at, this is there most
important time for growth and future development, if we
GOOD QUALITY can stabilise the Koi before 2 years old then the Koi
TOSAI should develop really well while growing into adulthood.

When heating a system it will be costly, as we all know.
So make sure you buy good quality Koi which will
actually grow in value as well as size. Throwing money
at heating lesser quality Tosai is not advisable.

So the keys to growth:
■ Buy good quality Koi ■ Feed a good quality food
■ Give them heat ■ Good filtration ■ Water changes
Now the for the hard bit – actually going to Japan and
picking these Koi, I have been going to Japan for over
20 years and have selected Tosai many, many times.
Japan is changing however and the ability to select
small numbers of high class Koi are not as good as they
used to be.
I also try and visit in April after most dealers have been
because the breeders will have then sold their general
grade Koi, which while I will buy for my sales tanks, I
want to concentrate on the better quality Tosai. The
breeders will start to make their final selection in the
month of April, and they only have space for a certain
number of Koi to go into their mud ponds, which will
give them headaches on a final selection, the Koi that I
will try and buy are the Koi that maybe would have been
picked if the breeder had more mud pond space and
larger facilities when they are harvested. Fortunately for
me, they cannot all go into the mud ponds. So I hope to
find some special Koi for great value.
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