6/3/09

Koi Tales





Have to put in a word about Godzilla! When we first set up our larger watergarden, i decided i needed some Koi in there with the goldfish. Being a novice and knowing virtually nothing about Koi, i hit the petstores and was thrilled to find a 2" Koi for $1.25! Yes, he was a completely uninteresting pale gold color- probably the most basic junk color they come in, but i was happy! Named him Godzilla (well, they're Japanese, and that's the only Japanese word i knew!), stuck him in the pond, and he thrived!


**Let me interject right now that i have no idea what sex he was - if i had to guess, i would say female because of the body shape, but it didn't matter - and he "looked" like a male to me!**


Anyway, i had Godzilla for several years, he didn't grow very fast, although i have heard that Goldfish will only get as large as the area/container they're in will allow, but Koi continue to grow, regardless. He got to about 8 or 9 inches long, a dark gold color with black spots, and learned to eat out of my hand, which just thrilled me! I showed everyone how i could feed him, since no one around here ever heard of that, so i had a lot of fun with it. He also liked to climb the waterfall, like Salmon going upstream!


Then a bad winter hit, the pond froze over, and my de icer quit on me! Ran out and bought a new one, it was a lot smaller and only opened a tiny hole in the ice. Apparently that wasn't enough, because i lost most of my fish that winter, Godzilla included. I found his body in the spring, and he's buried on the shore of the pond. i actually cried over him - never thought i could get emotional over a fish! But i still miss him, even after 2-3 years, i have not had such good luck with Koi since, and have not tried to hand feed any others. i guess this is a good example of a fish that, in other circumstances, would be culled out or unwanted by Koi afficionados, but to me was a treasure!

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