Buying Tosai in Japan

Here is an article written by Tim Waddington on buying Tosai. Direct link

The amount of Tosai (1 year old Koi) that get imported into Europe is crazy, out of all sizes these are by far the most imported, mainly due to their price and the amount you can fit into a single box.

Some Tosai we bring in can come with 30 in a box which when divided into each fish the freight costs are small. When compared to 1 Koi in a box there is a big difference on how much a dealer has to charge.

In the current economy smaller fish are of course more affordable, the days when people just walk in from the street and buy a £10,000 Koi seem very far away and hardly ever happen anymore, so we have to look at trying to grow smaller fish. Some people have always done this but for many it’s a new experience. It can be quite challenging to grow smaller fish, while they are very strong and healthy, they are at a stage where you can ruin them so easily. The wrong food, the wrong environment can really affect how that Koi develops. I have seen good tosai ruined in the space of a month, it does happen and it’s not the fault of the breeder/dealer etc. Don’t get me wrong, it can be the fault of the dealer if they try and sell lower quality fish at the higher quality prices, this practise is found out very quickly however.

We as dealers have to find the very best value fish and we need to suit it to our client base. In current times we cannot afford to have mass amounts of high quality fish swimming around on the off chance someone might come in and buy them, yes we will have some stocks but not hundreds. The budget is just not there for clients. I have sold Tosai in the past for £1500/£2000 not a problem but now people are really trying to focus on value, it is very possible.

We sold a fantastic Shintaro Showa last June to a client for around £200.00. It was a very nice fish with a great pattern. This Koi was put in the clients 4000 gallon pond with very good filtration, high quality food and around 12 other Koi. In early 2013 it went on to win Baby Champion at the Winter Koi Show…for £200.00. So it is possible to get good Koi on a lower budget, you just need to be a little more fussy, and as dealers do we.

I leave for Japan in a few days and while it’s a costly trip, and I could just have rang contacts in Japan to send me pictures of fish, I feel it’s vital to my business to spend the money to actually go out and pick the fish I want to buy. This is beneficial to my customers and I hope its beneficial to Quality Nishikigoi. This way all the high class Koi should be the best I could possible find.

Young Koi do need a lot of care, they can be grown very fast at this stage and can go through massive amounts of food. This for me is one of the main things when growing smaller Koi, the food.

When buying expensive small fish please make sure you feed a good food, most dealers will have a range of Koi foods going from cheap to expensive, they should advise you the best food for the job, we have our own range and we know exactly what diet to feed the Koi we sell. It’s in our interest to make sure our clients Koi do as well as they possibly can. A £150.00 Tosai which loses its colour in 2 months is not going to give a customer confidence in buying more, we must be able to give the best advice.

The other thing with smaller Koi, say up to 40cms is that the space needed to grow them isnt overly important. A smaller water space is often better than some huge pond. You will find that in a smaller environment with good filtration and regular water changes…and good quality food (Sorry to keep bringing food up but I believe it’s so important) The Koi will grow very fast, the idea with a smaller growing system is that you should have a larger pond to move them into, without that facility it’s very difficult to keep the fish growing as they should.

It is also wise to only grow the same size fish. In Japan they never mix smaller Koi together, all the Tosai get grown in one mud ponds while the 2 year old fish get grown in another, same with 3 year olds. It is not really until a Koi his Yonsai (4 years old) that they get mixed.

Fresh water is very important to younger Koi, you should ideally have a small trickle of water going into the system, fresh water keeps the system fresh and new. It is also a source of cleaner water.

I have seen 6 x 10cm tosai grow 20cms in the space of 6 months in 750 gallons of well filtered water, and the water was heated.

Of course heat is a very important factor in growing Koi, or any fish for that matter, and small Koi love being nice and warm. In Japan most breeders keep their tosai at 23-25C all year round, this is an optimum temperature to keep Koi less than 2 years old at, this is there most important time for growth and future development, if we can stabilise the Koi before 2 years old then the Koi should develop really well while growing into adulthood.

When heating a system it will be costly, as we all know. So make sure you buy good quality Koi which will actually grow in value as well as size. Throwing money at heating lesser quality Tosai is not advisable.

So the keys to growth

Buy good quality Koi
Feed a good quality food
Give them heat
Good filtration
Water changes

Now the for the hard bit…actually going to Japan and picking these fish, I have been going to Japan for over 20 years and have selected tosai many, many times. Japan is changing however and the ability to select small numbers of high class Koi are not as good as they used to be.

I also try and visit in April after most dealers have been because the dealers will have then sold their general grade Koi, which while I will buy for my sales tanks, I want to concentrate on the better quality Tosai. The breeders will start to make their final selection in the month of April, and they only have space for a certain amount of fish to go into their mud ponds, which will give them headaches on a final selection, the Koi that I will try and buy are the Koi that maybe would have been picked if the breeder had more mud pond space and larger facilities when they are harvested. Fortunately for me, they cannot all go into the mud ponds. So I hope to find some special Koi for great value.

I will be adding Koi directly to the Koi for Sale pages on the website so please keep a close eye on it daily. Koi can be purchased straight away, the price will include freight and of course they will go through our strict quarantine protocol on return to Quality Nishikigoi.