Since we were driving through Iowa last week, we took a little detour to Bickal Koi Farm in Toddsville, Iowa. The koi in my pond tend to be orange, yellow, brown, white and black.  Not much red.  So I thought I would get some 5-6 inch koi, maybe an assortment of five – kohaku, showa and sanke.  Once you actually see the koi though, the bigger ones always look better and might give you a more accurate hint of what they might look like in the future. One year old koi can change colors, a lot. Since we were concentrating on the red tones, we ended up with two kohaku (white and red), two showa (black koi with red and white), one sanke (white koi with red and black), two hi-utsuri (black koi with red markings) and one asagi (the dove gray color). Most are seven inches long.

They were pretty stressed out on the ride home and the sanke was acting pretty wildly.  I guess being in a plastic bag with seven of your friends and bouncing around is not too fun. Once home, I did put them in a temporary tub. Apparently they have been living in 68 degree water and our water is about 50. (Perhaps Iowan koi are just not as tough as the Minnesotans…) So over the next 15 hours, we gradually brought the water temperature closer to the pond temperature. Now everyone will say that you should quarantine your koi for at least three weeks. I lack all patience to do that. So Piccione (the gray asagi) and the Seven Samurai joined the pond crowd this afternoon. They seem fine. I certainly think they were much happier than being in the tub. Our koi keeping experience seems to be a series of “what not to do” but most of our koi are thriving and we’re having fun.

Sick bay consists of Tito who continues to heal very well, Lucy who is healing slowly but now has clearer eyes and Cha Cha who hangs around pathetically as usual. I’m thinking that Tito will go back in the pond by next weekend and possibly Lucy as well. Cha Cha will be on the front porch until the Fourth of July at this rate.

 

 

 

 

We also decided that the goldfish pals have to go. I had put two of them in a shallow pond at the top of the waterfall but no feral cat, raccoon or bird helped themselves. So I put the four goldfish on Craigslist – free to a good home. Someone is coming over tomorrow to pick them up 🙂