UKNishikigoi has now been open for 1 year. It’s been an amazing year; so much has gone on since we first moved into the facility.
We would like to say a huge thank you to customers and dealers who have been to the shop, and of course purchased fish and other products. You have made our first year of business very special and I thank you. The support has been tremendous.
A big thank you for people who just came to see what we were doing here, and I hope in the future you will feel the need to visit us again. It really has been a great first year and it will keep getting better and better.
We have now finished the main poly tunnel. We now have enough room to do what we need to do when we bring in our new stocks. We can fully separate them all into different tanks for different breeders. Making our bio security even stricter, Cefas made one of their visits in June and were very happy with the condition of our Koi.
Planning permission has now been passed on our 200,000 gallon (900 tons) growing-on pond which will be the largest of its kind in the UK by far. We are now in the process of getting people to design the structure that will house this huge pond. Since it will be totally covered, we can get temperatures to compete with the Japanese breeders. We will have at least 6 months of great growing conditions for the very few fish we plan on putting in. Length is our main aim for the Koi going in the pond, and we hope to achieve this with the clay base, water movement, and of course high quality food. Keep a check on the website for updates throughout winter on the progress of this pond.
We have just returned from a fantastic trip to Japan. We have bought some really good Koi to add to our already healthy stocks. The Koi in Japan this year were excellent and we have bought some seriously great tategoi. Koi from Yagenji, Igarashi Kazuto, Shintaro, Yamazaki, Yamamatsu, Torazo, Isa, Marudo and Isawa Nishikigoi Centre (Matsunosuke). We have bought these Koi with our 900 ton pond in mind, so we looked for Koi we thought would grow well and come on in this pond.
We also checked on our Koi which we left to grow in Japan from spring 2009. We had very special Koi from Shintaro and Matsunosuke which we saw harvested this October in Japan. As most people who visited the site to check on our daily pictures from Japan, will know we were extremely happy with the outcome of these Koi. The 2 koi from Matsunosuke were out of this world. A Sanke and a fantastic Showa were harvested from his #1 mud pond. They just shone, it was great to watch. They will of course be staying in Japan for another season and to be entered in the All Japan Koi show in Tokyo in the New Year. Watch the website for the results.
The Koi will arrive here in early November and will be put straight into our purpose Quarantine facility. This is only accessible to UKNishikigoi staff I’m afraid. We believe we have the best possible quarantine facility in the UK and the less people who come into contact with them the better our Bio Security is. We will be sending samples away to Cefas, and will also be getting an inspection from them to check our Koi. We estimate the Koi will be in Quarantine for 4 to 6 weeks depending on the Koi and how fast the samples get processed. I know it will frustrate many people by not being able to see the new arrivals but we do this for the customer and so we can sell the absolute healthiest Koi available. When they have been fully quarantined, and we are happy with the Koi they will be moved into the main retail facility where they can be fully viewed and purchased.
Koi bought to go into the 900 ton pond in early spring will go into a 7500 gallon heated pond until they are ready to be added to the big pond.
Customers wanting to buy Koi from the new harvest will also have the choice of over-wintering it here with UKNishikigoi. They will be kept in heated ponds and looked after very well until it is warm enough for them to go into the clients pond. There will be a small charge for this service.
We hope to see you all soon down here at UKNishikigoi. Come and see what we are trying to achieve and to be a part of it.
Spring newsletter
What a winter we have had…
When we moved into the new property in late October 2008 we knew we had a big job on our hands. It is now the end of April and from scratch we have finished the entire barn which is the main sales shop. From building 5 new ponds all running on Nexus 300’s, all fibre glassed and all piped up and then the outsides finished off in aluminum with safety barriers around the upstairs ponds. It really has been a great achievement.
The first shipment of fish came in January this
year and settled into their new ponds without any problems at all. A full credit to the Nexus 300’s for making this so easy for the new fish, within 4 weeks the readings were perfect. The Koi were also perfect in the new environment. Since then the Koi have sold extremely well and we could’nt have hoped for a better start to the new venture.
In February this year we also erected our main poly tunnel outside which is around 100M long and 15M wide.
There are 7 ponds in the tunnel. This will be used mainly for new arrivals, so they can settle down and go through the quarantine period. These will then be moved into the main shop and the sales ponds outside the main shop, which are now under construction.
With April now upon us we have returned to Japan to buy some smaller Koi to bring back to the UK. These will be all hand selected by ourselves and will be coming from Shintaro, Izumiya, Yozaimon, Yamazaki, Yamamatsu, Yagenji, Hasegawa, Hoshikin to name a few Niigata breeders. We will also be getting an amazing selection from Toshio Sakai in Isawa, Matsunosuke.
There will not be a larger selection from Toshio Sakai or Shintaro in Europe, so a must for serious hobbyists. There really will be some fantastic Koi here and in very large numbers so there will be a great choice of fish in all varieties, sizes and prices.
These Koi will start arriving at UKNishikigoi from the 23rd of April and then regular shipments throughout the summer months.
We are now starting to build our dry goods collection in the shop. We will be selling all Koi related products from treatments to filtration; we should have everything you may need.
Keep an eye out for offers we may be running on our website through the spring/Summer months.
We are happy to announce we have been made a Saki Hikari premiere dealer which is a great step for us as its certainly one of the best Koi foods in the world today. Along with already being an Evolution Aqua master dealer the shop is moving in the right direction. The work which has been done here at the Farm is only just starting. With new ponds being built literally every single day, the site is really coming on. Our main outside show pond, 4 more poly tunnels to span all the back of the property for growing ponds and don’t forget the 180,000 gallon growing pond which will be covered to make sure the water is nice and warm.
We welcome everyone to come down and see the new stocks or just to have a look at what we are doing around here.
There hasn’t been a single person to come in who hasn’t been impressed and excited with what we are doing so please feel free to visit.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have been down and offered their support, it’s been amazing. Thanks to all the customers in the UK and all over the world for their custom and long may it continue.
South Africa National Champion 2007, supplied by Tim
This year has been long and fairly interesting for me. Not being able to pursue something that I love has been difficult and I am now happy and excited that I can get back into dealing with Koi.
The new facility will be fabulous once it is finished; state-of-the-art ponds, dedicated quarantine facilities and dry goods (which I am looking forward to). The one thing that will not change is the sale of the best, healthy Koi available at a fantastic value.
I will be in Japan in October/November visiting all of the top breeders, posting daily pictures, videos and updates so please be sure to keep checking on the new website. The website is currently under construction and we are working on it daily. There will be constant updates such as the latest news, events and happenings. I want to make the site a great source of information therefore if anyone has any ideas on certain things you would like to see then please contact me. Dry goods will be appearing on the site as soon as possible but for now, the fish will take priority.
Our new Koi should arrive in the UK early December 2008 and we will be sure to post pictures on the website. Customers, old and new are always welcome to come and have a look at the stock and see for themselves what we are trying to achieve, there’s always a coffee waiting for you!
We will be using our own high class food, which you may remember (more information on the food will be on the website). We will also have a full range of Evolution Aqua equipment, piping and fittings and all of the Koi accessories that you could possibly want from a Koi shop!
We also offer full/partial pond building services as we have our own builders and trusted fibreglassers. If there is anything you require to be done to your Koi pond just send an email/call us and we can get plans into action. We have our own machine and waste disposal services making it more efficient, easier and more cost effective for us to do the job.
The new facility is going to be a huge venture, with so much happening within the year. Next year will see an even bigger push! We plan on building outdoor mud ponds where we will grow our Koi. We have a 150,000 gallon covered concrete pond which we will trial next year as a dedicated growing pond during the warmer months. In the future, we will offer the growing service to our clients having yearly harvest days, which should be great fun. Some clients may even harvest their own Koi!
We will open in December 2008 for general customers but will wait until 2009 (and a nice time in the year) for our Grand Opening Party. We hope to have some very special guests at the farm’s grand opening and to have put the finishing touches on the shop and ponds so until then, please accept there maybe a little mess around the place.
I would like to take this time to thank everyone for their continued support. It has been awesome. I have been tinkering with the website all year, and I have been surprised by the amount of traffic already. A massive thank you to my clients in South Africa and France who have been patient and supportive; it means a great deal. Also, a special thank you to my ‘regulars’ in the UK who have pushed me on to get all this done; it’s an opportunity of a life time that I can’t wait to get stuck in!
So please bookmark the new site and get ready for our Japan trip in October. If there are any specific questions you would like to ask any breeders while I am there, drop me a line. As I mentioned, the site will be updated regularly with pictures and videos. If there is anything specific you are looking for fish-wise, please let me know and I will see what I can find!