They’re finally here – Konishi karashigoi! Tony, the pond digger, watched a little video two years ago about the Konishi karashigoi that grow to be 400 pounds. He increased the depth of the pond and changed up many filtration features to grow his “little porpoises.” Last year, Tony talked to Kevin Pham of Genki Nishikigoi, San Jose, CA about these koi. Kevin promised Tony that he would try to get him some tosai in the coming year. It wasn’t looking too good since there were no karashigoi coming home after Kevin’s trips to Japan. But Kevin persevered and managed to get a few sent to him in late May. These koi are amazing. While many koi that are one year old might be anywhere from 7-13 inches…these two koi were 17 and 17.5 inches.

We decided to name the new koi Bert and Ernie. Just like the Sesame Street characters, Bert is a little longer and more yellow. Ernie is the shorter koi and has a more orange tint on the head. For the first two hours I was wondering if I was going to be able to tell them apart in the pond but it really is easy to see the difference. They also have different habits. Ernie is always hanging around the feeding area. Bert is often on the other side of the pond nibbling on algae and is a little slower getting to the feeding spot. Both koi though have been pushing their way in front of the older koi to get their food. It’s no wonder they grow so much. Kevin Pham told us we should try feeding then 6-12 times a day during the growing season. It’s possible that they will be 22 or 23 inches by fall.

Here are the koi in a 26″ bowl prior to being released into the upper pond. We ended up skipping the quarantine process. Not always the best idea but they arrived during a power outage and we had only three generators. The large generator ran the upper pond, a second small generator ran an aerator in the lower pond and the third small generator for the house. So we made the decision to go ahead and place the new koi into the upper pond. The quarantine process is really important but knock on wood, I have never had any problems with koi purchased from Koi Acres (Scandia, MN) and Genki Nishikigoi (San Jose, CA). I think both dealers do a really good job of keeping koi healthy, quarantining carefully when they arrive from Japan and they would never sell a sick koi. It’s always nice to be able to buy with confidence.

So the power was restored on Thursday evening and I did a little filming on Friday. I never get tired of watching my koi but if you have a little insomnia, this clip might help: