Alternative title : Not all Koi are valuable

One of the most common questions asked on this site is that posed in the title. People seem to have an assumption that all koi are valuable - and while the value of the life of a fish as a pet can never and should never be discounted or trivialised, some Koi do have a high financial value; but the vast majority do not.

Buying and selling of fish

The BKKS is a hobbyist organisation, and neither it nor it's local sections can directly participate in the sale of Koi. However, the local sections are a vast source of knowledge and should you really need to move the fish on, your local section (full list here) should be your first point of contact. At all times the welfare of the fish involved is our primary concern, and there are a few more facts that you should know:

KHV risks

Many people with a Koi collection (that is valuable or pets) will not add Koi from an unknown origin to their pond due to a virus Koi carry called Koi Herpes Virus. Presently there is no known cure for this virus which does prove fatal to Koi. An infection from a single fish can often kill all of the koi in that particular pond. You can find out the latest information and a factsheet - alternatively a quick search on google will tell you more about this awful virus, though in many cases little is known and the facts are yet to be fully established.

Understandably, Koi keepers with a valuable collection of hand selected Koi (often imported from Japan) will not risk adding anything to their collection without testing the Koi for the virus, which can be done by a blood test or full quarantine period with heat-shock treatment. Both these processes are drawn out and expensive, and are not undergone lightly.

Aside from KHV, there are many other diseases and parasites that can be carried over to infect the new pond.

Re-housing koi

It is sometimes possible to re-house Koi, and where the sections can they will gladly help. In particular, newcomers to the hobby with little or no collection themselves are often happy to take on larger koi. However, if koi have been kept too long in one pond; especially one with inadequate filtration, they can become overly sensitive to those water conditions. Moving koi, especially older fish, under that conditions can lead to unexplained health problems.

An extra complication comes with mixed fish types: Tench, goldfish, shubukins, orfe, sturgeons, and fish of UK river origin are largely unwanted by koe keepers. Despite being sold on in many places as scavengers or fish to eat blanket weed each of these types of fish have specific requirements and are generally unwanted in the pond that a koi keeper is trying to create. Often a tough time can even be had giving these away.

See Appendix D of the BKKS Show Rules for guidelines on the movement of Koi, you can also use Appendix F as a quick guide to the health of the individual fish.

Releasing fish

Don't panic though - if the worst comes to the worst just take the fish down the local river/ canal/ gravel pit and chuck them in! WRONG. It is illegal to dump any fish in rivers, streams and ponds! Please do not dispose of fish in this way as if you are caught you will get a hefty fine or worse! Furthermore, any disease that your pond fish have (such as KVH) will quickly spread and cause problems within our natural waterways and fisheries. It is extremely irresponsible to dispose of fish in this way.

Proper Koi Ponds

Without meaning to sound elitist, Koi have very specific requirements in order to achieve their maximum potential and a proper Koi pond will have a lot of equipment associated with it. If you have inherited a proper Koi pond (a large, deep pond, of several thousand gallons of water; perhaps with a side glass viewing window, ultra violet lights, heaters, bottom drains, vortexes, filters, pumps etc), then it is highly likely that any Koi of great value would probably already been sold or removed, and most of the equipment disposed of. Koi kept in garden ponds are unlikely to have achieved the proper potential, and are as such of less interest to a koi hobbyist.

Selling Koi on the internet

Sale of koi on the internet exists in what seems to be a strange set of loopholes, and there are many for sale on ebay, aquarist classifieds, and many other sites. If you are looking to buy koi in this way then it is very much buyer beware due to a combination of any or all of the factors listed above. If you do sell koi in this way you would need to know what you are doing with regarding handling the Koi to photograph, box and pack (with Koi oxygen is generally needed to pack and transport them). Please do NOT lay Koi on the ground to photograph them. In cruelty terms it is the equivalent of stuffing a cat or a dog in a drum of water to photograph. Passionate Koi keepers will see the pictures and will report you for this.

Closing Down a Pond

Section members in the past for people: it is not pleasant work. You may not have the knowledge on correctly maintain the pond, in which case the work is smelly and unpleasant! In the cooler months the work soon turns freezing, numbing your fingers, and body as the fish splash a lot, in the warmer months the water soon turns into a very smelly large puddle full of frogs, mozzies and other undescribables! Sometimes the water is over grown in blanket weed which makes catching the occupants of the pond more difficult.

FACT - YOUR HEALTH IS IMPORTANT! PLEASE WEAR RUBBER GLOVES AND PROTECTIVE CLOTHING WHEN DEALING WITH THE POND, KOI, FISH, PUMPS AND POND WATER TO AVOID ANY CONTAMINATION! DO NOT ALLOW OPEN WOUNDS TO COME INTO CONTACT WITH POND WATER!

On almost every occasion when this has been done, if has proven necessary to humanely euthanize fish due to disease, age or damage on the fish caused by incorrect handling or keeping.

Also remember that 1000 gallons is a lot of water, 10,000 gallons is a lot more and this will all need to be pumped somewhere - you neighbout suddenly finding their prize lawn 6 inches deep in water is unlikely to be too happy about the situation.

More Information

There is nothing more relaxing than sitting by the pond with the gentle sound of running water on a summers evening, and I would urge you to pay some thoughts into keeping the pond on. If you really can't cope with the pond, then please bear all these points in mind when deciding what to do. Please feel free to register on this site to post questions (though we cannot accept adverts of fish or equipment for sale) and also to contact your local section as chances are they have someone local to you who may be able to give you better and specific advice for your situation, or at least know where to pass you on to.

We hope that this article is not too negative but it is far better that the facts be clear and known to people. Keeping koi, or any other kind of fish, should be just as rewarding and infer as much responsibility as keeping any other kind of pet; and we're here to help you out as much as possible with that.

This article is culled together from the responses to many e-mails to the site and a very informative post by Annette Adaway (Koiette) from the Kennet Valley section.