Common Koi

What makes common koi different from koi varieties?

Here are Swell UK, we sell two different types of koi fish – common koi and koi varieties. Our common koi include those that are, often, more readily available in the koi keeping hobby, such as metallic, ghost, and butterfly koi. Our koi varieties, on the other hand, include those that have been specifically bred for their colours and patterns. These koi have Japanese names that reflect their particular traits – for example, Kohakus are characterised by their red and white colours, while Showas are characterised by their red, white and black colours.

How long do koi carp typically live for?

As long as they’re properly cared for, koi fish can live for 25-35 years. The oldest koi fish on record, however, lived for more than 200 years! To make sure your koi fish live long and happy lives, it’s important that you keep them in a suitably sized and well filtered environment. At the end of the day, koi are messy fish and will quickly pollute your water if you don’t have a large garden pond equipped with a quality pond filter. We recommend specialist koi pond filters for garden ponds with koi fish, and a volume of ~1,000L per koi fish.

What koi carp eat? And how often should you feed them?

Koi aren’t fussy eaters and will gobble up just about any pond fish food you offer them. There’s a variety of different pond fish foods out there, including several that are designed to enhance your koi’s colours, improve their metabolism, and support their immune system. It’s a good idea to feed your koi several different types of koi fish food to make sure they get everything need. And in terms of feeding, try to feed your koi several small pinches of food daily – they do best when they’re fed little but often. That said, don’t feed more than three times a day and only feed your koi fish as much as they can eat in five minutes.

How big do koi carp get?

As members of the carp family, koi fish grow very large. On average, koi grow to sizes of ~90cm, but it’s not uncommon to hear of them growing larger than 1m. While they may stay relatively small for the first few years of their lives, koi fish will eventually grow very large. It’s important that you consider this when you buy your koi fish and prepare for when they reach adulthood. This may involved expanding the size of your garden pond and investing in a large pond filter able to cope with the huge bio load produced by adult koi fish.