selecting your koi:

before purchasing any koi,check all the koi in the pond for sign's of diseases if any have redness on skin, white spot, raised scales, cloudily eyes, fin rot, lacerations or clamped fins do not buy any from that tank if the dealer have a central filtration system do not buy any from the dealer at that time. if you are happy with the health of the koi you will have your selections placed in a shallow pan so that any defects can be seen up close. check the Swimming movement is smooth and the fish is active. the Gill plate should be close to the body and both moving slowly and together regularly.
koi are staved before export to reduce the ammonia in the bags in transit but should be Quarantined for four weeks before sale and will have put there weight back on so Avoid skinny fish witch is a sign of not feeding ,parasites or being just imported
when selecting koi look for the following,Good body conformation,Good shining skin,Overall well balanced pattern.

Transporting Your Koi Home:

Check the bags that will be holding the KOI is sufficiently large enough to contain the KOI conformably. Ask for two bags. Bags should be oxygenated. Place the fish side ways in a conformable and secure place while transporting in your car. if you place the fish facing forwards the fish will tend to bang it`s face when the car brakes. Keep the fish away from direct heat. Once the KOI reach the destined pond, do not release the KOI directly into the pond. Float the bag (with KOI inside) in the pond water for about an hour to equalize the temperature of water inside and outside the bag and then slowly mix the water in the bag with your own water this will reduce the chance of shock to the fish.

Quarantine KOI:

When you arrive at home. do not place your newly purchase KOI in to main pond immediately. Instead, the KOI should go the quarantine pond where the fish will have to be kept for a period of four to six weeks to ensure that the KOI is clear of any undesired disease or parasite it is cheaper to treat one fish than the whole pond . before putting it into the main pond check the water perimeters in the main pond and quarantine pond are the same.

WATER CONDITIONS:

The most important thing that people can learn about Koi is how to give them the best water conditions possible and to do that weekly water changes are needed by removing the old water from the pond you reduce the build up of minerals left behind by evaporation. It is not a good idea to have gravel in the ponds but if you feel that you must, stir it up every 8 months to a year to clean the gravel thoroughly and to make sure all sludge and debris can been removed so that your fish stay healthy. The way to get good water quality is to get a good bio-filter, better yet, make one yourself. Companies never state the right size filters for ponds, which hold Koi because they just don't realize what dirty fish they are. making our own bio-filters will save you money and give you the size you wont .not what you can afford at the time there are so many companies selling little black boxes that they say will filter 2000 gallons but would struggle to do half that amount. that are just central heating tanks that are about 5 pounds at end diy shop and charging 50 to 100 ponds for them ! when all you need is the right filter media in large enough quantity's for bacteria to grow .and not forgetting allowing for easy cleaning. Pond condition and environment can change the condition of the Koi. An expensive and beautiful fish can loose its colour in six months because of a poorly conditioned pond. if your pond has good water conditions the colour will deepen and the fish will become beautiful. The knowledge of the koi keeper will determine the future of the fish.

FILTRATION:

NITITRTE CYCLE: To understand the basics of biological filtration and how your koi food is turned in to algae food you must look to your filters. Bio-filters consist basically of a bed or media on which bacteria grow. That's what is really happening inside that little black box hidden in the corner of the garden. feeding your Fish produce ammonia as a waste product. In the presence of an oxygen-rich environment, aerobic nitrosamine bacteria break ammonia down to nitrites. Nitrobacterium break nitrites into nitrates. Nitrates are used by algae and plants for food and in small amounts will not hurt the fish. By keeping nitrates and phosphates at a low enough level. algae will starve. I know even a pond with a well functioning bio-filter may go through bouts of green water This is mainly caused by phosphates reaching levels where algae life can be supported. A healthy bio-filter will react by increasing bacteria that can consume phosphates and, in time, will clear itself, if the system is not overloaded. A regular program of 10% water changes each week helps keep nitrate and phosphate levels under control. However, filter size, fish load and the amount of fish food used all play a part in how well a system works. To summarize, a healthy, well maintained bio-filter that is large enough for the size of the pond, will go a long way toward keeping your koi health and water clear. However, filters are slow to react, and changes in fish load should be made gradually to stop the filters becoming out of balance. Regular water changes help keep nitrate and phosphate levels in check. Remember that it takes four to six weeks for a bacterial colony to build up strong enough to remove ammonias and nitrites from the pond so try not to clean your filters during this time adding air to the fitter bays will help the bacteria to breakdown the nitrites, If the filter is back washed but you don't think all debris was removed, start the filter up again to fill the filter with pond water and backwash one more time to make sure. This will not harm the good bacteria as long as you do not use tap water to flush or clean the filter media a good bacterial colony is the most important part of your koi pond

FOODS:

A Koi's metabolism functions best at temperatures above 70 F. High protein foods are difficult to digest when the water falls below 65 F. However, Koi still need sufficient carbohydrates for energy when water temperatures are low. This is particularly true for Koi less than 1 year old. Never be tempted to over feed your fish! Koi do not have a stomach so undigested food will pass strait through and foal the water . Feed smaller quantities more frequently and your koi will gain a better absorption of the food . Koi pellets should be fresh and used within three months as the vitamins will not stay in the food for long. The other thing to look out for is the food you feed. Don't purchase the cheap foods with lots of corn in them. some corn is good because it helps them to keep from getting constipated and possibly even from bladder problems but it should not be the first ingredient on the list. Of course there are no guarantees but feeding a well known food should help, adding some lettuce and other types of leafy vegetables. Look for foods, which have spirulina, wheat germ, fish or seafood proteins instead of corn and other plant proteins as the first five or six ingredients. Use Stabilized Vitamin C (Sta-c) versus regular ascorbic acid. Feed your fish only what they can consume in five minutes if fed once daily and 3 minutes if fed twice daily. Vary your feeds with dried small shrimp, live worms, frozen blood worm and even pure wheat germ from the health food store, etc.

BREEDING:

Now, to the breed of these big fish, the comical farms use spawning mops made from synthetic wool or frayed nylon ropes This gives the effect of hanging plants so If you have plenty of plants in your pond this also works really well but the act of spawning will make a right mess of theses, with the synthetic spawning mops you can use them over and over again and put away when you are done. Periodic water changes during the week are important to lower the water and then allow it to raise in temperature on it's own. Live foods or small worms from the garden or flies will help condition your fish so that they will be ready to spawn. You will find that the males will start to chase the female around the pond a few days before the actually spawning takes place. The female will then deposit her eggs into the spawning material and the males will follow her to fertilize the eggs. It takes the eggs 3 to 7 days to hatch, depending on the temperature of the pond water. if you wish to save the eggs they should be removed from the pond after spawning, The fry will become free swimming at 3 days and at that time it is a good idea to start feeding live foods such as baby live brine shrimp,daphnia and infusoria. If this is not a possible, get a good high protein Koi food and grind up to powder from a good brand name Koi food such as Hikari along with pure wheat germ and spirulina. This will help your babies to grow very quickly. The most important thing to remember is that if you have the babies in a tank, get a couple of foam filters so that the water will be filtered and so that microscopic foods will grow on the foam to give the babies some live foods if you cannot provide them with filtration small daily Water changes are very important and over feeding must not be done, as the water will pollute very quickly. To make water changes use the water from the main pond as this will not contain the chemicals that tap water has . Determining the sex of your Koi isn't too easy but after you have had them for a while you will get to see the differences. Male Koi are more long a slender than the females and the first ray of they're pectoral fins are a touch thicker and the pectoral fin seems to have more of a point than the females do but this is also not easily detected. The males also get these little tubercles (white dots) on the sides of their gill plates and on the first rays of their pectoral fins. The female Koi, when viewed from the top and just to the side can be seen to be plumper than the male around the anal area.
{ if you are interested in breeding your koi try the koi club uk link at the top where there are a lot of first hand accounts of breeding koi by one of the koi chat members }

FEEDING TABLE: