[The Most Complete Koi Keeping Experience!] Teaching you how to choose koi keeping equipment, select koi fish, choose a koi fish tank, and handle water quality

In recent years, koi have become increasingly popular in China. Want to learn more about koi keeping experience? Then follow along with the editor to learn how to choose koi keeping equipment, how to select koi fish, how to choose a koi fish tank, and how to handle koi water quality!

1. The development of koi keeping

Koi originated in Japan, where they were developed and flourished, becoming Japan's national fish. Today, koi are also developing very rapidly in China, and koi keeping experience has reached a relatively high level, with some superior koi able to rival fish from their original Japanese habitats.

2. Experience and techniques for koi keeping

1. How to choose koi keeping equipment?

In koi keeping, the necessary koi keeping equipment includes: lighting equipment, oxygenation equipment, filtration equipment, and other appliances. Lighting equipment is one of the essential items in most koi keeping techniques for fish tanks. Lighting equipment can be divided into two parts: the tube and the socket. Generally, tubes for keeping koi can be divided into fluorescent lamps and ultraviolet sterilizing lamps. Fluorescent lamps offer multiple choices and help bring out the coloration of koi, making them more beautiful. Ultraviolet sterilizing lamps use ultraviolet light to sterilize the water body containing the koi. However, note that this kind of lamp must not be kept on for more than five minutes, otherwise the ultraviolet light will burn the koi. Therefore, the sterilizing lamp must not shine directly on the koi; it should be placed in the filter to irradiate the water passing through the filter.

At present, the most commonly used type is the highly reflective lamp socket. The mirror surface inside the socket reflects the light shining upward from the tube back downward. This strengthens the light source and avoids waste. In terms of material, lamp sockets include plastic and aluminum types. Among them, aluminum sockets dissipate heat best and are of a relatively higher grade.

The function of oxygenation equipment is to aerate the water body and provide the koi with the necessary dissolved oxygen. At the same time, some oxygenation equipment can also create flow in the water body to avoid inconsistent water temperatures. It can also increase the air pressure in the water, causing fluctuations in the water body and thereby removing harmful gases such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from the water.

In the process of raising koi, the most important thing is still the filtration equipment. Filtration equipment mainly consists of a water pump and a filter. It is the most important component of the filtration system. The filter contains many kinds of filter media, mainly driven by the water pump, so that water passes through biological, physical, and plant filtration, achieving the purpose of cleaning water quality and reducing the frequency of water changes. Generally, filters are divided into: top filters, bottom filters, side filters, mixed filters, etc. The choice of water pump is mainly based on the different filters.

2. How to select koi fish?

Koi selection has always had a set of judging standards, often used in various koi competitions. At present, the main system used is: posture 30 points, color 20 points, pattern 20 points, quality 10 points, taste 10 points, and style 10 points. From this, it can be seen that when selecting koi fish, one should start from these aspects for consideration.

Body shape and color

As for body shape, the koi fish is required to have a straight back, a body balanced left and right, a steady and upright swimming posture, and a robust and powerful body. The shape of the cheeks and the position of the mouth should be proper, without skewing, full at both ends and not sunken, and all fins should be symmetrical and complete, moving flexibly when swimming. Color is the most intuitive manifestation of koi. When selecting, those with bright, vivid colors, clear patterns, neat edges, and dazzling brilliance are considered superior. As for the pattern, one may choose according to personal preference.

For identifying and selecting koi, the first thing is to choose their quality; quality is very important. The red quality of koi comes from peach red; what naturally turns red without color enhancement is its own red quality. A koi with good red quality, even if not fed color-enhancing feed, after a period of keeping, will naturally turn red; such red is beautiful, thick, and is very good red quality. If the red is forced out with color-enhancing feed, it appears somewhat murky in perception, a bit “artificial”, and not very natural. The quality of the red mainly comes from heredity and is greatly related to the parent fish. If the parent fish's color quality is good, its offspring will inevitably have good color quality; this is the law of biological species, so when breeding and selecting parent fish, the requirements for color quality are very high.

In selecting parent fish, color quality and pattern are given priority, and when comparing color quality with pattern, color quality should be given even higher priority. It is best to choose large fish of 80-90 cm.

When judging the merits of small fish of 3-10 cm, it is generally quite difficult. If they are over 15 cm, it becomes somewhat easier. Specifically, for varieties with red patches, in fry of 3-10 cm, the red patches are not very obvious, and some even have color bleeding. Fish of poor quality will also have the red patches on their bodies change, and there may be cases where they fade, especially the red patches on the rear half, which often disappear after growing to a certain extent, leaving a white base and becoming an inferior fish. Small fish with blurred red patches are of poor quality; even if they grow larger, they should not be kept to continue raising, and should be culled in due course.

For fish from the same spawn grown under the same conditions, deeper color is better than lighter color.

As for fish of the current year, discernment is more difficult, and in judging the merits of quality, one must look at the glossiness of the red patches. This kind of silky, bright red patch is not easy to fade and belongs to superior quality; if the surface is rough, the color uneven, and there is no certain thickness, such red patches are also easy to fade, and fish of this quality should be culled.

Selection of Taisho Sanke

First, choose those with white showing at the tip of the mouth, a relatively good distribution of red patches on the body, and sumi spots distributed both front and back; do not choose those with sumi on the head or without red patches. Those with red patches faintly visible beneath the sumi on the back are of high quality. If you choose ones with only small dots of sumi, by autumn they will fade and become Kohaku. Without typical, solid sumi, it is impossible to keep and raise them into excellent large koi.

For koi under three years old, this is first of all the period when quality can manifest, and moreover, when judgment and selection are possible, there are very few cut edges. What is important is to judge based on the characteristics of their parent koi and what they will become after growing. This is not only true when selecting fish of the current year; it is equally important for koi growing at two and three years old. At around three years old, if pattern was given priority when purchased as a fish of the current year, that is fine, but by the time they reach three years old, due to changes in pattern and the fading or increase of color patches, it often happens that they are difficult to keep and continue raising into large fish. By the time they reach three years old, observing sibling koi from the same spawn, understanding their condition when they were fish of the current year, and selecting koi based on their changes is a very good method.

(1) Determining the combination of koi varieties and the quantity

In ponds, koi are mostly based on Kohaku, Taisho Sanke, and Showa Sanke, with the rest ideally paired with 1-2 Hikarimoyo or other variant koi, appearing luxurious and beautiful when swimming in groups. If there are too many miscellaneous fish, it will affect the overall beauty.

The number of koi purchased depends on the capacity of the fish tank or pond. The best keeping method is to keep as few as possible, which is greatly beneficial to the fish's growth and development and to maintaining water quality. Only in this way, with brightly colored koi and clear water, can one perfectly enjoy the pleasure of koi. Therefore, keeping a small number is one of the secrets to raising koi well. The best time to purchase koi is from September to December each year. This is because good fish come onto the market one after another at this time, koi transactions are most active, and there are more opportunities to encounter high-quality koi.

(2) Where to buy koi fish

Nowadays, with the development of koi, there are more and more ways to buy koi, and buying koi has become more and more convenient. The mainstream methods include: fish markets, koi farms, online shopping, and transfers between fish hobbyists. Among these, it is advisable to buy from koi farms or fish markets.

(3) Koi fish prices

As mentioned earlier, there is no fixed standard for koi fish prices on the market, so how should one judge the price of a koi fish? For experienced fish hobbyists, there is no need to say; for less experienced hobbyists, it is recommended not to buy immediately, but to ask more experienced hobbyists and shop around before purchasing.

(4) Koi fish health

When buying koi fish, one must buy healthy koi fish. Koi fish are already very fragile and prone to illness when moving from one environment to a new one, and if one has already bought sick fish, or fish with contagious koi diseases, these are all things to be careful about. Therefore, when selecting koi, it is best to observe them in person; after all, some diseases cannot be seen without careful looking. So when buying koi fish, one must choose those in good condition, that like to swim, and with no abnormalities on the body surface.

3. How to choose a koi fish tank?

When choosing a fish tank, we must first consider the safety of the koi. Because they are in water, we need to consider the tank's own pressure resistance, so that it can withstand the pressure under a certain water volume. Another point is the height of the fish tank. We have all probably heard the story of the carp leaping over the Dragon Gate, so to prevent koi from jumping out of the tank and dying, we should choose a larger, taller fish tank as much as possible. In addition, we must also consider the tank's water filtration system; this must be considered.

4. Water quality treatment

In terms of water quality treatment, one should follow: regular water changes, an oxygenator is essential, choose an appropriate stocking density, feed small meals more often, conduct regular water quality monitoring, strengthen filtration (physical, biological, plant-based), and find ways to cool down when the temperature is too high.

When raising koi, water quality is very important, and water must be changed regularly. Generally, change about one-fifth to one-third of the water every three to four days, and decide the water change frequency according to the water quality in the fish tank. Moreover, the cleanliness of the water quality determines the koi's appetite, and even health and safety issues; koi fish are relatively large in size and also have relatively large oxygen demands, especially in fish tanks where oxygenation equipment is needed to improve the koi's living environment; choose an appropriate stocking density to reduce filtration pressure and avoid water quality deterioration; koi have no stomach and have no accurate concept of eating. Once they consume too much, it will cause indigestion, or excessive excrement will worsen the water quality environment. The best feeding is small meals more often; conduct regular water quality monitoring to avoid nitrate and ammonia nitrogen concentrations in the water being higher than safe values; the filtration system is crucial in the whole process. Debris in the tank and toxic substances dissolved in the water are all eliminated by filtration. In order for filtration to work to the fullest, regularly cleaning the filter media and adding nitrifying bacteria can make the filtration system more complete.