Koi crazy!
The Swansons aren't coy about koi. These folks love their fish.
The Swansons are what the Japanese might call "koi kichi" or koi crazy. All five of them--Mike, Janel, and three sons Michael Jr., Devin, and Tayler--are in the koi business on their acreage near Scandia, Minnesota. Their piscatorial affliction started at the bottom of a kiddie pool. As the kids were growing up, Mike and Janel kept eight aquariums in the house with a variety of fish. Janel then added a water feature to the yard: a whiskey barrel with goldfish. Mike ignored it. Then she put out a liner pond, about 100 gallons worth. Mike ignored that, too. Then one day he decided to be a good husband and help her clean out the pool, ripping the liner. Oops!
Being in the construction business, he brought home a backhoe and dug her a proper pond. Things got serious. Shortly thereafter, they moved from suburbia onto their 40 acres near Scandia, and they really went to town digging out and creating a three-tiered pond system. The fish soon took over their lives. Mike quit the construction business and became a pond expert. "A neighbor once asked me if I was divorced, widowed, or single," says Janel. "She never saw a man around the place. Mike was just too busy working construction all the time. He was never home."
"The fish told me there's more to life than working all the time," he says with a grin.
Once Mike found that koi can survive Minnesota winters with the proper pond construction, water filtration, and aeration systems, he and the boys worked around the clock digging, scraping, hauling, making forms, pouring concrete, and putting plumbing together for the koi ponds. "They learned what work was all about," he says. "Now, they're not afraid of a little work."
It's paying off. All three of the boys are involved in koi. Michael Jr. and Tayler work with their parents, and Devin is in Niigata, Japan, studying with a top Japanese koi breeder.
"We helped set our kids up in business to make their own money" Mike says. "College wasn't in their immediate plans. So instead of college, they've learned to work hard and figure out business issues for themselves."
In Japan, Devin is learning breeding, culling, and what makes quality koi. He has an eye for picking show fish, which can fetch upwards of $30,000 each. "No small fry, that!" says Janel. "He's learning from the masters day-to-day care for the fish, too."
Mike adds, "The Japanese growers gave him his own mud-raising pond there, and he's learning breeding, incubation, and other techniques that would take us years to figure out. It's an honor to have him invited to be there."
Mike goes to Japan periodically with clients to help them find special fish. Japanese koi are superior to other types of koi, Mike says, and better than fish bred in Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. "The Japanese cull about 96% of the fish they breed," he says.
Japanese breed koi for conformation, skin lustre, and pattern. Another type of carp, called magoi, is raised for food and is a staple of their diet. Magoi are raised in rice paddies and are used to fertilize the rice.
Mutant-colored carp were noticed more than 200 years ago and bred for their beauty. Now, various colors carry names that are known throughout the koi world. Yamabuki Ogon are bright yellow; Kohaku are red and white; Showa are red, white, and black; Ochiba are gray with a green-orange pattern; and Kumonryu (also called dragon fish) are white with black markings.
Mike designs and builds koi ponds across North America. At home, his ponds are bordered with water iris, reed grass, arrowhead, curly rush, miniature cattails, papyrus, taro, water mint, and weeping katsura.
Looking out over the bubbling waterfalls and ponds in his garden, Mike muses on the fish. "They sure add color and grace to a fish pond. And they keep the ponds clean at the same time."
There is a difference between water features and koi ponds, he says. "Water features have rocks at the bottom and have an average depth of about 2 feet. Koi ponds have a bottom drain, excellent filtration system, and are 4 feet or more deep. Koi ponds are also much lower in maintenance, due to the bottom drain and filtration. You never have to take the fish out of the ponds for cleaning, because debris is either pulled into side skimmers or into filters at the bottom of the pool."
Janel adds, "We've even seen koi up on their lower fins chewing grass from the edge of the pond. People think I'm crazy when I tell them that, but it's true!"
What fun!
The ponds and the fish provide both work and entertainment. "We have a few customers who just come here and look at the fish and sit by the ponds for six hours at a time," say Janel. "And they might just buy one fish! But what great people and what fun!"
Learn more:
Koi Acres
11100 240th Street
Scandia, MN 55073
www.koiacres.com
651/257-2589
