Do you name your koi?

AlanK · 12-07-2011, 08:24 AM

My children do most of the naming. I however chose a name for this odd looking fish.

Skidmark was the first thing that came to mind and is seems to have stuck. I have not yet explained it to my children though.

AlanK · 12-07-2011, 08:34 AM

This is Egg,

And Mini Egg, one of her offspring.

Most of our koi from last years flock spawn seem to have the large scales somewhere on their body.

AlanK · 12-07-2011, 08:50 AM

As we now know we can successfully keep koi without killing any off, we have decided to introduce some koi of a better quality, Japanese with a known breeder. The children have not yet come up with a posh enough name for our first effort.

Doghouse Riley · 12-07-2011, 10:44 AM

Each to their own on this one.

I've never believed that it's possible to say that there's no chance of any koi dying.
When you consider the number of fry in a spawning, it's "natures way" of ensuring that the species continues because of the huge numbers expected to perish in a natural environment for all sorts of reasons and in "captivity" some of those things apply.

In my opinion, koi aren't as hardy as many other varieties of fish and some will say "if there's anything going a koi will get it."

For this reason I've never named any of my koi, in fact as I've said elsewhere, I always look for some demerit in any fish, so it would "lessen the blow" should one turn fins up.

I think names are OK.... for rabbits..

AlanK · 12-07-2011, 11:36 AM

Our koi are not show grade, there are some we class as pets as they are hand tame when feeding.

My reference to koi dying was related to my inexperience with filters etc and killing them off with poor water. We did lose a couple from qt tanks due to costia and we learned from it.

We also lost well over a thousand fry due to natural selection. None of these had names. Its just the ones that stand out that we get affectionate about.

I cried like a baby when I was 37 when my dog died. I will be upset if one of my named fish pops its clogs but not to the degree that I would shed a tear. I would be more upset if one died due to something that I could have prevented.

Names also encourage my children to become involved so not such a bad thing. They dont have rabbits either so a cold wet fish is all they have, well apart from me and the dogs..

Doghouse Riley · 12-07-2011, 01:45 PM

A cautionary “pet tale.”

When our daughter was seven, she asked if she could have a rabbit.

It was agreed, as long as she fed it and cleaned out its hutch that I’d build, every morning before school regardless of the weather. This was was carried out religiously, (she was that sort of a child).
To keep the rain off the front, I fixed a sheet of visiscreen to fold down over the mesh section of the hutch which could be secured with a clothes peg and would shield the run from the rain at night.
Every night my wife would urge me to go outside last thing, “to check Benji’s flap was down.” This I always did (regardless of the weather). Invariably it was secured, but on the rare occasions it wasn’t, Benji would be sitting there, ignoring the rain even if it were sheeting in horizontally.
After a year I got sick of this and constructed “the rabbit shed.” We still call it that although for decades it’s only been used for storing gardening equipment.

I built a 6’ X 8’ shed and constructed several hutches in tiers down each side of a central gangway. Our daughter expanded her collection which reached a total of eight including a couple of guinea pigs, (sexes separated to prevent further additions!).

She bought her last rabbit when she was fourteen. At eighteen she left home to train as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She never returned home to live permanently and moved from the nurses’ home to a flat of her own. She now has four kids (and no rabbits).
I was still looking after rabbits until the last one popped its clogs eight years after she left.

So be warned!

Marlene&Boycie · 12-07-2011, 02:15 PM

Alank, I love 'mini egg' inspirational! Thanks for this thread, we're new to fish keeping so we can't add anything worthwhile to most threads but fish names suits our level of expertise!
We have Moby who is enormous, he is constantly hungry and begs for food with sad fishy eyes. (he's only allowed his quota but it doesn't stop him trying his luck...) We've got Patrick who's all white in a ghostly way, he was nearly Demi but I think he's a boy, hence Patrick stuck. Then we have Marilyn, she's a curvey little thing with a smudge of lippy and some eyeshadow, she even swims with a wiggle

AlanK · 12-07-2011, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doghouse Riley

A cautionary “pet tale.”

When our daughter was seven, she asked if she could have a rabbit.

It was agreed, as long as she fed it and cleaned out its hutch that I’d build, every morning before school regardless of the weather. This was was carried out religiously, (she was that sort of a child).
To keep the rain off the front, I fixed a sheet of visiscreen to fold down over the mesh section of the hutch which could be secured with a clothes peg and would shield the run from the rain at night.
Every night my wife would urge me to go outside last thing, “to check Benji’s flap was down.” This I always did (regardless of the weather). Invariably it was secured, but on the rare occasions it wasn’t, Benji would be sitting there, ignoring the rain even if it were sheeting in horizontally.
After a year I got sick of this and constructed “the rabbit shed.” We still call it that although for decades it’s only been used for storing gardening equipment.

I built a 6’ X 8’ shed and constructed several hutches in tiers down each side of a central gangway. Our daughter expanded her collection which reached a total of eight including a couple of guinea pigs, (sexes separated to prevent further additions!).

She bought her last rabbit when she was fourteen. At eighteen she left home to train as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She never returned home to live permanently and moved from the nurses’ home to a flat of her own. She now has four kids (and no rabbits).
I was still looking after rabbits until the last one popped its clogs eight years after she left.

So be warned!

Ahh but did they all have names?

We had a pair of rabbits many years ago and they bred. I very quickly got rid of them when I came to open the flap as you did in the morning to find all the babies had been half eaten (alive) by the buck. There was one with its leg almost gone and it was still alive. Horrible creature, I would never have one.

AlanK · 12-07-2011, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marlene&Boycie

Alank, I love 'mini egg' inspirational! Thanks for this thread, we're new to fish keeping so we can't add anything worthwhile to most threads but fish names suits our level of expertise!
We have Moby who is enormous, he is constantly hungry and begs for food with sad fishy eyes. (he's only allowed his quota but it doesn't stop him trying his luck...) We've got Patrick who's all white in a ghostly way, he was nearly Demi but I think he's a boy, hence Patrick stuck. Then we have Marilyn, she's a curvey little thing with a smudge of lippy and some eyeshadow, she even swims with a wiggle

Thanks for that. We have a Moby type, we call him (or her) Billie. If there was ever an obese fish, Billie may be it, he clears everything in the pond after the others have finished. He even hangs around the skimmer 'cos he knows the goodies always end up there.

Billie is the top one. The other two are the biggest in the pond and were named by my children. They are Hannah and Louis which just happens to be the names of my children also.

Unless you are a "serious" koi keeper (and by that I mean you have serious koi) and not the mutts that most people have, I recon most will have a favorite or two with a name. Even the "serious" guys will have the odd name but may not admit it.

Its got to be enjoyable and fun to justify the expense

Marlene&Boycie · 12-07-2011, 02:45 PM

Billie even has a belly to match his appetite!

I think we've got 'mutts', I'm certain that if we had prize winning variety's the previous owner would have sold them, mutts or not we love 'em! Thankfully Boycie has taken on the responsibility of the expense (and worry) I just get the unfaltering love as I'm the one they associate food with!

Hope you don't mind me straying from the thread topic, but how do you take your pictures? Is it a underwater camera?