|
Thanks for responding. It is wonderful how koi interest people every where. If you build a pond outdoors, please share all the details. Your climate challenges make the complaints of everyone else seem silly. I'm sure everyone would like to know how you go about it. And, it would be fantastic to see photos of a koi pond in Iceland !
Some months ago I corresponded with koikeepers in Norway. They only used aquaria and had access only to equipment designed for the aquarium trade. They also could not get higher quality koi, but raised young koi obtained from Germany. Their koi had little color, but were robust. Because they only used aquaria, they preferred to get koi that were 10 - 15 cm. and raise them to 30 - 40 cm. At that size, they reached the limit of what they could accomplish. They had many challenges maintaining water quality in aquaria using equipment best suited to tropical fish. But, they were so interested in koi that they made the extra efforts. I am hoping that they can find the space indoors to have a mini-pond, and then experience success enough to take the risk of importing Japanese tosai from Germany or the UK. It is a problem for them because their aquarium shops are not willing to take the risk of having relatively expensive fish die in transport. The domestic German baby koi suffer in shipment, and they have been told that the Japanese ones are even more delicate to ship. Of course, once the shopkeepers figure a way to make a profit on it, I'm sure one of them will take the chance of importing better quality koi.
Koi kept indoors may not attain the deep colors of those raised in ponds outdoors, but I think it would give me great pleasure to have them during the dark winter months.
| 
12-28-2003
Linear Mode
