New Koi

The koi I purchased in late October/early November 2023 finally came home. Two pretty females, about 21 inches long each – Torazo kohaku (red and white), Omosako shiro utsuri (black and white). I purchased them through Russ Peters (PS Koi) on his fall trip to Japan. It’s always exciting to see all the social media…

Shiro Utsuri Koi, Manda Fu and Oyagoi

The shiro utsuri koi is a variety that takes several years to develop. Unless you buy large, it’s an exercise in patience like the showa variety. Some will pan out and some won’t. I have only five Omosako shiro utsuris in my collection. I feel three of the koi are good representations of the shiro…

Showa koi and an indoor bakki shower

In 2013 I described koi as red and white, red/black/white, black/white, yellow, copper, tea colored or sparkly. No real clue about varieties, what to buy, where to buy – just interested in some pretty colors swimming around the water feature. Have things changed in the last four years! I have been on a crash course…

Goshiki Growout

This summer I’m running a little goshiki growout program with four Omosako Goshiki tosai I purchased at the recent Koi Acres auction. All four tosai are about the same size, same breeder – so I asked two of my koi keeping friends if they would want to run a little experiment with me. I wanted…

Mud Pond Harvests – not too sexy but a lot of fun

Koi breeders believe that koi summering in the mud pond is a good thing. If you can imagine that you go to the spa for a few hours of a beautifying mud treatment – these koi go in for a few months. The end result is some impressive growth and their skin looks good too….

A Lucky Koi Keeper

I’m pretty lucky to be married to someone who works so hard to build exactly what I want. Today the pond digger and I worked on the waterfall. The landscape designer suggested we put a little curve in it. The pond digger saw a photo on Facebook of the waterfalls at the Mirage in Las…

Meet Miyu

Today our newest koi flew in on a non-stop Delta airlines flight from San Jose to Minneapolis. This was definitely a better option than the disastrous FedEx experience we had the other week. Miyu is an Omosako shiro utsuri with a different kind of pattern – kage sumi. She is 3 years, 60 cm (about…