There are many ornamental fish on the market today, such as: peacock fish, red and green lights, goldfish, fairy fish and so on from a few dollars to tens of dollars, especially if you have no experience in fish farming, you may not even understand why some fish can even be sold for millions of dollars. The price of a good koi carp may be in the tens of thousands of dollars a piece, so why is a fish so expensive?
High phase-out rate
Japan, which has been breeding koi for more than 100 years, is an important exporter of excellent breeding fish. It is not possible to buy just two breeding fish, as there are dozens of different types of Koi. When a breeding fish is purchased from a farm, it must be carefully cared for before it can be bred, and the bait, labor, water and electricity are all expensive.
After almost a year of breeding, it’s finally time for the breeding season, and it’s time for experienced masters to do the breeding, and experienced masters are able to combine their experience with the characteristics of the two fish they know have a higher chance of producing beautiful koi after fertilization. A master’s experience is hard to come by, and it’s an expense. However, this is just the beginning, normal two breeding fish can produce hundreds of thousands of small koi, and it takes about two to three weeks to see the small fish, and a month or so for these fry to be sold, but then it is impossible to see which fish are pretty. Usually there will be a lot of koi, and koi are hard to sell at a premium, and most fisheries will eventually abandon them. However, they also consume a lot of bait before they abandon them, which is a big expense.
Within the next year it will be necessary to keep picking koi with little ornamental value, and they will all be eliminated, mainly to reduce farming costs. After one year of age, the koi are about 10 centimeters, their patterns have been basically fixed, their bait consumption is also very amazing, the period of elimination continues, the eliminated fish may be put on the market, about a few dollars a piece, to recover some losses. So hundreds of thousands of fry are good enough to end up with a few hundred fine ones left, they can sell for tens of thousands of dollars. And the size of the koi is also one of the reasons that affects the selling price, a 70-80cm koi will take at least three or four years to raise, during which time bait, labor, and disease prevention measures are all very expensive, so don’t be surprised if it costs tens of thousands of dollars a fish!
Expensive shipping
Pure imported koi are drifted across the sea, shipping costs are very expensive, not to mention the cost of international logistics, the price of domestic transport of live animals is not low. Dead depleted fish, I don’t think this section needs more explanation.
Well patterned koi are hard to come across
People who are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a koi carp must be very koi carp obsessed, which may be the sentiment. Just like the audio enthusiast, buy a cable to spend tens of thousands of hundreds of thousands of dollars, is to like, pursue a hobby, the pursuit of better or perfection.
When you like a certain “thing”, you will have this pursuit, most of the koi lovers, it is like a “poisoning” process, from the beginning of keeping ordinary koi, and then more and more better koi, step by step, deeper and deeper, more and more unsatisfied with the fishermen! The quality of the fish’s character. The patterned shapes on koi are even more rare, like human fingerprints, so if you’re into something to the point where you really like it, and it’s uniquely rich, I think you’ll find a way to get it even if it’s expensive.
Most koi breeders are more financially sound
Koi generally requires a relatively large space, because the fish itself is large, can have a yard, dig a pond to raise koi, are not short of money, the market is large, demand exceeds supply. Koi is an expensive large ornamental fish, it is the national fish of Japan, is a live art created by the Japanese, known as the “living jewel in the water” and “king of ornamental fish”.
The beauty of Koi is that as they age and the water temperature changes, the color and shape of their patterns change, just like a special painting that you draw with your own hands. The bright colors, changing patterns and majestic swimming style are of great value for viewing and feeding. Its body length can reach 1-1.5 meters, and its lifespan is extremely long, which means good luck and is said to bring good luck to its owner. The Japanese often keep Koi in their garden ponds.