How big is your pond? Were your new koi already pretty big? They'll grow pretty fast if they were small when you bought them. :( I have four koi now, no room for more.

well i built it at little under 11000 gallons, i had the room and always heard to build as big as possible.the koi i got are about 4 inches long, i forgot the type but they have the long butterfly tails.thats why i said they look so small in my pond. Lee

Lee, by the end of next season they will be much bigger and your pond will be fabulous :) I wish my pond was that big, hubby wishes ours was smaller than it is LOL. We have one butterfly, a boy named Kitty. His coloring isn't terrific, he was culled from my BIL's stock, but he is so beautiful and graceful as he glides around the pond.. and soon we won't be seeing him until Spring Thaw. Have I mentioned I hate winter?

well i went and bought 6 more koi, i have a total of 10. i let my nephews, nieces and my son name all the fish. i named one ( a little guy) of courst i couldnt find him tonight. so there he was stuck in the pump basket. he looks pretty banged up, but still alive. figures it would be the one i named. time will tell on survival. Lee

Lee, one thing you need to be aware of is that there is a deadly koi disease floating around out there called Koi Herpes Virus (KHV for short). Never introduce new koi to your existing collection without a good long quarantine period to insure they do not have parasites or KHV. I QT for at least 2 months....and that is for koi that I purchase from dealers from whom I have built up a lot of trust from. Unknown dealers, water garden stores, EBay....I won't even buy from them ever (except for SJKOI on Ebay...he is an outstanding breeder with a closed farm).

The last lot i purchased was from sacramento koi, awsome people. They QT all of there fish, so I am pretty confident on them. The first four I purchased on the other hand are questionable. The one that got sucked into the pump basket still hanging in there. Lee

Lee, I'll try to explain my QT process so you can understand why letting the dealer QT for you is not a good practice. When new fish arrive, they go straignt into my QT that has a cycled filter (My Q-tank also has 2 little koi living in it full time to keep the filter cycled). I net the tank and leave them alone for a few days. After a week, I'll start light feedings. In another week, I do some parasite examinations. this involves scraping a small bit of slime coat from a couple areas of the fish and examining them witha microscope. If parasites are found, they are treated accordingly. The temperature in the Q-tank needs to be maintained at 75° for at least a month to 6 weeks because these temperatures will bring KHV to an active state, if the fish is infected. Then I take a small fish from my own collection and add it to the Q tank. All fish harbor parasites and bacteria that they are perfectly used to and are able to defend against it. they have built up immunity to it. The purpose of this last step is to make sure that the new fish and the old fish won't make each other sick. Believe me....I have seen two batches of apparently healthy fish make each other very sick before...it is very sad to see. Anyway, if all is well for 2 more weeks, then QT is over and the fish can all go to the pond.

So you see....a dealer can hold a new batch of fish for a period of time, but that is not really QT at all. QT is a process to make sure the new fish is healthy, but also to make sure it is compatible with your existing population and pond.