Last Wednesday, I ordered live koi fish from Toledo Goldfish. Who knew you could have live fish delivered to you?? I sure didn’t. I got my fish on Friday. Thanks to my cousin Robert who let me know about this hatchery in Indiana who sells through Toledo Goldfish.
I haven’t been able to find any local places that had koi fish so this was a great find. They were priced a little higher than the last time I had to purchase fish, but it’s been a long time and we all know the cost of everything has gone up. The 2-3 inch sized fish were 10 for about $100.
Here they are! I ordered 10 fish in total. Five butterfly koi and five regular fin koi.
It’s comical to see them looking at me. They looked healthy enough. I didn’t actually count them, but I’m sure there were all ten, the bag was full of little swimmy babies!
I couldn’t resist taking all of these snapshots from a video I took. You can see the video on my garden page on Facebook if you’re interested Jaime’s Gardens ~ An Artist’s Gardens. Please, give it a like if you haven’t already. I think that fish is giving me the side eye.
It was kinda like a frenzy as I held up the bag. They were excited. Who am I kidding , I was excited! Insert squeals here. They frantically swam in circles in the bag.
But I didn’t waste any time. I know they are on limited air in there so I got to work acclimating the bag to the water. That took 15 minutes.
Yes, it was the longest 15 minutes ever. I sat with them down there in Studio Gardens, baby sitting. I had to keep them in shade while they acclimated. I didn’t have much shade left, so it’s a good thing the FedEx driver came when he did.
Finally! Release the Kracken!
Now I will say koi fish don’t seem to be the smartest. They all tried to exit out of the bag, the wrong way. So, in the photo above I had to give them a little help. I just dumped them in, ha ha. Hey, it’s sink or swim around here. Literally.
A few of them darted out towards the center of the pond. I wondered if it felt large to them. I have no idea how large the tank is at the hatchery. They probably didn’t have to worry about getting eaten by monster koi fish and blue gill there though. But here, it’s a possibility. As much as I hate it.
I noticed that about 7 of them formed a school immediately. They swam together in safety. It’s probably hard to tell from these photos, but the fish are only 2-3 inches. I hope they grow fast! Their life might depend on it!
So, fast forward to Sunday. I was down at the pond and trying to find my new koi babies and to my panic, I can only find a few. Later in the afternoon, I found more, the 7 that swim together. I’m hoping they are just hiding in that clump of waterlilies.
Do you remember when I lost nearly all of my large koi fish to the mink? If not, here’s a link to that post. Anyway, I was figuring up how much money that little bastard got from me in fish and I estimate it to be $3600. The very large koi I had are priced at $400 per fish at Toledo. That makes me pretty sick and I kinda wish I hadn’t done the math.
That mink finally got 9 fish, which was all but 2. Two of which were my prized butterfly koi. Initially, I thought the mink had gotten 11 fish. But I did find that 2 must’ve escaped it’s grasp and slid down into the lake which is just behind my koi pond. I found this out when I noticed my now even larger koi swimming around out there. One white one and one extremely large orange one. I’m glad that they at least didn’t become dinner.
I know I’m playing Russian Roulette with buying these fish. Come this fall, I’ll have to be serious about setting up a proper system to try and keep the mink out. I think that I’m outside so much during the summer, that it stays away. I hope it stays away at least!
←2023 Studio Gardens Spring Tour / Tree with birds nest painting process ⟶
A few paintings I’ve created
Learn more about me on the ‘About’ page under the additional links menu. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started created more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is is mystery and telling mystical stories.
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