Where to buy Koi in Ottawa

[asmackay]

Finished building a 3000G pond,  I will stock it next spring but wanted to know where to buy quality Koi.  I've bought from Big Als before and looked at the Pondclinic fish.

Does anyone have other places to buy good quality Koi?

[sdivell]

I believe the forum sponser "Ray" sells koi in the spring.  send him a pm

[White Lightning]

You can certainly check with Ray. He has some nice koi at good prices. Even Ritchie's on Cyrville carries some koi in the spring but they are a little costly in comparison.

[cemantic]

The Pond Clinic in Kanata has them in season.  Any time I have been there they all looked very healthy and well taken care of.

http://pondclinic.com/retailStore.htm

[Fishnut]

I've been on the hunt for quality koi for YEARS and finally gave up on Ottawa and went to Toronto.  Quality koi don't exist in Ottawa.  All the pet shops around here get crappy to ok quality koi.  If you want the really good fish and are willing to pay, you need get koi that are shipped directly from Japan...which means that you need to go to Toronto.  Shops here will sell Japanese koi, but they aren't high quality koi.  Infact many distributors call them Japanise koi because the farms that breed them have breeders that came from Japan.  The culling of fish isn't anywhere near as particular as it is in Japan so there are a lot of ok looking koi that get sent out for people to buy.  You also need to realise that when buying koi, some of the nicest koi are fish who's colour is developing as they grow.  As a 6 inch fish, it looks average, but as a 14+ inch fish, it's stunning!  There is so much to explain about choosing quality koi!!

The Pond Clinic is ok, but I'm so fed up with them.  I wouldn't recommend going there.  There's a "system" of pond building and fish care that they've built their business around.  If you're looking to build a water garden with a few small fish as an accent, that's great, but when it comes to koi, they're so far from being the "experts" they say they are.  Their knowledge base is so poor that anything that deviates from their "system" throws them for a loop and they try to talk you into their system instead of helping you with what you want. 

I've been to a place called Shekinah Aquatic Solutions in Markham a few times.  AMAZING!!!!  The owner is called Mark and he goes to Japan every year to hand choose the fish to sell at the shop.  He is also EXTREMELY knowledgable about koi care, health and what makes some koi more expensive than others.  My hubby and I were there for 5 hours during our last visit choosing fish and talking with him.  Here's the website: http://www.canadakoi.com/  They get their shipment from Japan every spring.

There's anther place that I found a few months ago in Toronto called Clarke Koi Ponds.  I've e-mailed them and spoken with them on a serious health issue with my koi and they were amazing.  I've never visited them, but they also sell koi direct from Japan.  The pictures on their website look great, so this coming spring I plan to make a trip there as well.  here's their website: http://www.clarkekoi.com/

I have 1 koi that I bought from Big Al's, 1 that I bought from The Pond Clinic and 3 that I bought from Shekenah.  The more I learn about koi, the more easily I can see the difference between the quality of the koi.  The 2 pet shop koi are nice, but they grow slower and their patterns aren't as striking.  They're also not the most high end colour varieties, but that's ok.  They were the only 2 koi that I have ever found in a pet shop that I liked enough to buy...out of the hundreds of koi that get sold each year by pet shops, so you know I'm picky!!

I just got back from BC where I visited a koi farm near Victoria.  Stay tuned for some amazing photos!!!

Cheers

[asmackay]

thanks for the reply.  I think I will check out the places in TO you posted. They have nice looking fish, I would spend $$ to get nice looking fish. 

I bought one Koi at Big Al's and I didn't see any others I liked to fill up the pond with. 
Here's  pic, I like the fish but the rest of them all looked the same.

[Cbellehumeur]

I built a 10,000 gallon this summer and i got my butterfly kio from ray, he shipped them in from japan and they were great looking. not sure how often he does that though