Just my "tongue in cheek" take on the situation. In its own semi-humorous way it measures the lay of the land.
Serious hobbiests have a 180deg different view of Koi than what I believe a typical newcomer has. Therefore we have a 180deg differring view not only of quality, but of Koi health and disease issues as well. Since my entrance into the hobby I know my knowledge has grown and my views have changed dramatically both in terms of Koi quality and Koi health. We had been keeping Koi for over a year before ever hearing the term KHV.
I think it is safe to assume that well over 50% of Koi newcomers in any given year will enter through the water garden/petstore door, not because they are indifferent or careless... merely ignorant. Remember, the word ignorant is not an insult to anyones intellect, merely a measure of specific knowledge. Outside the hobby how many in the general public would have even a remote CLUE what any of the discussions about water, conformation, filtration, health, etc... we have on this forum are about? I'd have to say precious few could make heads or tails of it without a Koi specific thesaurus. Sad but true, if a complete newbie was to read many of the "great" threads here it would be like sending a Southern Baptist to a Catholic Mass in Latin
.
Exposure to understandable knowledge is the key, and for most hobbiests knowledge is elusive in the beginning. We are fortunate in that my wife and I both have a hunger for knowledge coupled with an appreciation for excellence being its own best reward. It has no doubt save us a lot of hardship along the way. The world is unfortunately filled to overflowing with those whose hunger is easily satiated by mediocrity and find ignorance a blissfully wonderful way to go through life.
Case in point. A few months back we came home with a bagged Kohaku (sitting in my wifes lap all the way home
) and the man in the toll booth saw it. He mentioned that they were getting all new Koi. The reason why??? A friend had told them the easiest way to "clean the filters" was to just "add the detergent to the pond"
I thought he was telling a joke... he wasn't.