Today is the day that we start the Hand pick at Madankoi farm. We start off at the Indoor facility to select through some young Tosai koi. Upon arrival we are greeted by the indoor facility breeder Zohar. He has worked in the koi industry for many years learning the art of producing High Quality koi.
We get right to it and start selecting through some of the already prepared fish he has worked on for us.
What a way to start the Shiro Utsuri. The quality is just amazing the definition between the white and the black on such a young fish is remarkable.
Both bowls were quickly snapped up and have there tickets for the UK.
We then switched it up a little and selected some Gin Rin Ochiba Shigure. Having already visited this farm earlier in the trip we had noted that the Ochiba Shigure were very high quality. Below you will see a small selection of the Ochiba We bought.
As you can clearly start to see this Indoor facility has been working tirelessly over the past 12 months since we were last her. Another popular fish we often find here is the kikusui.
One of the biggest advantages to having the fish under one roof is the fish safety. Usually fish are spawned, and at approximately 12 weeks of age go straight out to the ponds in the fields to grow. Here its a fight for survival with the countless predators looking for a quick bite to eat.
at this facility it is not an issue. All confined in one bio secure unit the breeder is able to monitor the growth health and overall development of his koi day in day out. Zohar showed us some of his fry tanks. He pointed out one particular tank which had been hatched 60 days ago. This batch of koi was Shiro Utsuri. Then on the opposite side he bowled us some of the koi from the same parents only this time they are a year and half older.
Here you see some very unique Tancho type variety. There is some Tancho Kohaku, Sanke, Showa ,and ever Ochiba Shigure.
Zohar then pointed out another variety he was very pleased with. He classes them as his metallic mix which contains Kujaku, Kikokuryu and matsuba .
Completing our buying at this farm with well over 300 pieces secured at around 10″in size, we say goodbye to Zohar and thank him for his brilliant hospitality. the fish of this visit for us was perhaps the Tancho Ochiba Shigure.
Just across the fields is the Madankoi big koi facility. Its a short walk taking you around some of the many Mud ponds used on this farm. Currently not in operation but will soon be housing some koi we strolled past the ponds.
The field is alive with wildlife. There are so many exotic birds flocking its great to see. We even had the pleasure of seeing this furry friend . The nutria (Myocastor coypus), also known as the coypu, is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent. This poses not threat to any of the fish in the ponds but actually helps keep the reeds in check.
Arriving at the big koi facility after a 5 minute walk. This farm run both there indoor and outdoor productions separately with different brood stock to enable them to compete with new or better varieties.
Unfortunately Guy was not there to greet us and he had left it up to his apprentice.
We get straight down to business. We selected these koi for our koi up to £99. This year we have been amazed with the variety and quality of the koi we will have for this price range. With most of these koi over 11″ we are really excited to getting these back.
Up next we started to select some of Madankoi’s 2 year old koi. In this size we are spoilt for choice the depth of colour, Variety and overall quality is really something to admire
Kicking off with these stunning koi below. We decided to purchase and video by variety to ensure we cover all areas of the Koi on offer to us.
These videos are just a small sample of the 300 koi we purchased from this tank all in and around 14″. After this tank we had to take a break as we had filled the transportation tank.
We now move up a size to select some of the slightly bigger/older fish. Most of these koi are aged between 2 and 3 years old and are sized up to 18″. With age comes colour and all the time the colour of the koi is getting more and more intense.
After another hour of selecting passed by and we ran out of fish to choose, we moved over to the big koi house. Here is a selection of very large tanks containing some of the biggest koi in Isreal.
As we went across we caught a thief red handed!!!
Before we finish we head back to the special tank hidden away. This is the tank of koi previously mentioned that guy the breeder had stashed away especially for our visit. These were for our eyes only, but we feel the need to share.
Special mention To Guy and all the members of the madankoi team. This trip has been one of the best we have had. Fantastic koi and even better Hospitality. Now all that is left is to get these fish landed and back in our ponds.
Keep up to date with availability of the new koi on our socials and newsletters.
