Koi toys: Colorful fish are finding a home in desert back yards

Kimberley McGee

Monday, Oct. 30, 2000 | 9:15 a.m.

When strangers come to ogle the large fish in Jerry Weaver's backyard ponds, the timid creatures hang back from the intruders and flutter their fins at the bottom of the cool pool.

The Koi are, well, being coy.

They warm up slowly and eventually rise from their hiding place to play, flashing their colors as they dart around the pond.

"Each fish has its own personality," Weaver said.

Swirling reds, black polka dots and splotches of bright yellow adorn the favorite pets of Las Vegas Koi owners.

They may be all wet, but the colorful carp hold a special place in the hearts of a group of aquatic pet lovers, members of the Desert Koi Club of Southern Nevada.

An oxymoron? Fish farming in the desert?

"It's definitely a delicate business, but it's worth it for what you get from the fish," Weaver, a charter member of the 3-year-old club, said.

Koi are valued for their markings -- red has been the most popular color, and rare color combinations are also admired. The owners insist the fish are affectionate in their quiet, watery way.

Weaver has spent thousands of dollars -- and hours -- building and maintaining his three ponds: a 500-, 1,200- and an in-progress 1,800-gallon Koi paradise.

Weaver said his fish recognize him when he walks out his back door, and by his particular manner of banging it shut.

"They know it's me and they come over to the edge, just waiting," he said.

A large, well-marked fish can run as high as $30,000, while a baby Koi can be purchased for as little as $10 and be full grown within three years. A baby Koi may start out with perfect markings, but those can change as the fish grows.

While $10 may seem small, no one can buy just one, Weaver said. Collecting Koi is nearly the same as buying art -- each is a different creation, design and a splendor to behold.

Koi can grow to be three-feet long but generally grow to the size of their surroundings and can live 35 years.

The mud fish originated in China about 500 B.C. and is derived from the carp family. The Japanese have bred the fish for thousands of years to create the reds, blacks, yellows and oranges on their usually silky-white bodies.

Good Koi colors are uniform and balanced, Weaver said. For instance a dark gray fish with a large red splotch on the top of its head would be considered quite a catch for its rare marking.

To lovers of the fish the wet pets are a soothing, enjoyable and rewarding hobby.

Weaver's began innocently enough when he found an abandoned bathtub eight years ago and filled it with water. The plants and goldfish he filled his impromptu pond with brought atmosphere to his desert back yard.

He is now an amateur expert on Koi and pond maintenance, and helps many struggling beginners create Koi habitats.

His main pointer for upstarts: filtration. Water should circulate through the pond's pump at least three times an hour for clean water and happy fish, Weaver said.

"Koi is a hobby from start to finish, from building the pond to buying and keeping them healthy," he said. "It's kind of an art."

Aqua love

The Desert Koi Club recently held its first annual Koi Pond Tour. Within an hour, 25 people had come to view Greg Bourgeois' 2,200-gallon pond with a three-tiered waterfall.

He answered questions about the building, care and feeding of his three-foot deep pond and school of nine fish that slowly circled the bottom of the pond.

"They are a bit shy today," Bourgeois said to the curious crowd.

A newcomer to the world of Koi asked Bourgeois how much the building of the year-old pond cost.

"You could buy a car with what you'd pay to build a pond like this," he said. "It's at least $10,000."

But the return makes it cost effective.

"When you have something like this, birds come and dragonflies, wildlife and it's a peaceful place," Bourgeois said. "It is my favorite thing to do, come out and watch the fish. The neighbors really like it, the water and the fountain. It's calming."

He has paid $30 for a small yellow-headed fish, and as much as $225 for a 12-inch fish with good markings. The fish will double in size and possibly be entered in competitions.

He monitors the fish daily as part of his hobby. The pond has "good" bacteria, which neutralizes fish waste. Too much "bad" bacteria can kill a fish within days.

Any change in the pond, such as the hue of the water or a change in temperature, is an alert that something may be off. Bourgeois also scans each Koi for any tell-tale sign it's under the weather, such as changes in behavior, sitting idly on the side of the pond away from the others or gouges in its scaled skin.

"They are very curious and they get into places they shouldn't," he said. "They are active and bump into each other and other things in the pond and get hurt. That's when we have to take action."

Bourgeois catches an ill fish with a large net and gently places it in a bath of water to inject it with antibiotics he receives from a local veterinarian who specializes in Koi.

"They are wet pets," Bourgeois said. "People would be surprised how very social these fish are."

Susan Milner and her husband, Ron Buckenroth, were taken with the fish and the sprawling ponds on the tour.

The couple paid $5 each and brought their 3-year-old daughter, Cristen, along to view the colorful carp and get an idea as to what went into the care of Koi.

"It's really neat, isn't it? " Milner said as she gazed at a large filtration system next to a pond. "But it looks like a lot of work."

The couple have recently installed sprinklers and grass in their back yard, and are considering installing a small pond.

The tour offered a opportunity to admire local Koi and learn how to take care of them, but it all seemed a bit daunting for the small family.

"It's beautiful, but we aren't ready for all this," Milner said as she looked over at her husband, who was admiring a particularly large Butterfly Koi with its flowing angel fins. "Not yet."

Self-starters

Also on the tour was Karen Good, who has owned Koi for eight years. She said her day starts and ends with her fish.

"I can't wait to get up in the morning and have my coffee out in the back yard and watch the fish," Good said. "They soothe me. They swim and do these things that are just interesting to watch."

She built her 1,800-gallon, three-foot deep pond with the help of family and friends, and is in the process of building another 10-by-25-foot pond for the fish that she is raising in her first pond.

The first pond took her a month to build on the weekends, but was a labor of love. She enjoys creating the ponds and the subsequent waterfall that she also designed, and sharing Koi and information about them with those interested.

And there seem to be plenty of curious Koi customers.

Locally, interest in ponds and water gardens, as well as Koi, has increased tenfold over the last three years, according to Greg Dalton, pool expert at the Plant World nursery on West Charleston Boulevard.

"It's becoming big business here and people seem to really enjoy it, really enjoy it," Dalton said. "It gives a cooling effect to the back yard, which is really nice to some of our customers. It's a very relaxing fixture."

Some of Dalton's clients started out buying simple ponds and eventually came back to build bigger ponds as the hobby took hold.

"They seem to like it a lot, get into it, because it's not that hard," Dalton said, "except digging the hole, that's got to be the hardest part."

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