Phoenix Koi Rescue - Introduction
PhoenixKoiRescue.com


Introduction
I got an email from Lenny Beard, who is a duck rescue guy. He was trying to get someone to rescue some koi from a golf course pond in Scottsdale. I met Lenny out there, we caught 6 large koi in just a few minutes. Then it turns out there were 8 ponds on the course, 6 being of significant size. So rounded up as many people as I could, found some great volunteers and new homes for many koi. Was a bunch of fun, but figured that it would be a one time thing. Then I heard about koi from private homes that needed to be relocated, and another golf course, and more private homes, and every time I think that is the end of the koi, more appear. So this is an effort to try and get more people involved, find more homes for koi, share in the fun of rescuing, and help out some friendly creatures that are very interactive & soothing to be around.




Where are all these koi coming from?
Koi can live 60 years if kept in good water, the oldest koi is over 200 years.
Private Backyard Ponds - Mostly when a home is being sold and the new owners might not be interested in taking care of the koi. This happened to me, when we sold our home that had my first pond, the new owners were initially interested in keeping the fish, but after a couple of months shut off the filter and just let them die one by one. We also get koi from backyard ponds that have been overstocked -- the koi get very large and either the pond starts to look like a sardine can, or the filter is getting overloaded.
Home Aquariums - If you put a goldfish in a small aquarium, it will stop growing. Koi aren't like this, if the water is good and they are fed, they will continue to grow which can get up to 40" long. So people unaware of this purchase a koi from Walmart for $3, keep it for a year or two and then it is way too big for an indoor aquarium.
Golf Course / Public Ponds - We hear about golf course ponds being drained, and many have either been purposely been stocked with koi, or the koi have been dumped there. They actually do pretty well in non-maintained ponds, but please don't dump your koi in the local ponds. They get caught by fishermen, and some idiots take them home to eat them, or put them in a tiny plastic preform pond like you get at a home center. We have also observed people making spears from broom handles and trying to spear them since they swim so slowly.


PLEASE DON'T DUMP YOUR KOI IN PUBLIC WATERWAYS !!!
Dumping your koi in a public water way is sending them to their death. Koi dumped in ponds get caught by anglers and the picture to the right is what usually happens. Anglers often display sport fish in this manner even if they plan to return the fish to the pond, and it doesn't really hurt the sport fish that bad because most of them have very strong jaws and fairly light bodies. If you handle a koi like this, their heavy bodies and weak jaws will rip their gills, killing them. Also holding up koi up by a hook & line stuck in their mouth will also cause similar damage. So you can see, just being caught by an angler can kill the koi. There are proper ways to angle for koi & carp to safely catch and handle them, see the Carp Anglers Group for more information. I have also heard of and seen anglers take home koi to eat them. Koi dumped in the canals will last for less than a year - the city cleans each section of the canals and removes all the dumped fish.


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