Need koi?
One of my friends is closing down a 15-year-old koi pond and has some fabulous fish free to good homes. I posted them on craigslist and have had several responses but thought maybe some of you here would be interested as well. Here’s a link to the craigslist post: http://wilmington.craigslist.org/pet/537221772.html
To reiterate what it says there: these fish are not for beginners. Just moving them and keeping them in good shape takes significant expertise. But if you’re a koi person with a pond already, this is an incredible opportunity to get some really good, healthy fish.
Ian, if this is against the rules, feel free to delete - I certainly don’t want to step on any toes!
Don’t mind one bit, Susan, though I categorized this as Talk, which drops it off the front page and, shortly, into the Grove Talk on the right side. Is *that* OK?
Also there’s Freecycle, Susan — a way to redistribute free things that has a Wilmington chapter forum here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wilmington-free/,
Thanks, Ian - I’m afraid I may sound a little snobby saying this, but I’m just not sure that’s the venue. The reason I’m doing this for her is that she has no computer and really doesn’t want strange people calling her, and I agree with that premise completely. These fish would be worth something in the four figures each, conservatively, in a big urban area where the demand exists in a radius where they could be moved fairly easily without dying. But we’re not there, and she has no plans to try shipping them to other places, so it’s a great chance for people who live here and know what they’re doing to get hold of them - so it doesn’t meet the freecycle suggestion of stuff you were going to throw away that hasn’t great value.
I wasn’t sure whether craigslist would be a good idea, but so far the people who have responded have been entirely legitimate. Nonetheless, I’m still glad for the anonymizing available there and not available on yahoo, as far as I could tell, at least. If someone doesn’t provide the requested info so that we can tell they know what they’re talking about, they just won’t hear back from us - and neither of our phone numbers will ever have been involved, avoiding future problems. Paranoid, perhaps, but better safe than sorry! I’ve known too many people who had problems with classified-ad responders, from outright larceny to attempted scams to just uneasy feelings about their character.
Finally, I am not a yahoo member and have no plans to be for reasons fairly petty, related to my own peculiar preferences, so it’s not an option for me, anyway.
Totally get that, Susan.
I don’t know koi from poi, so the four-figure-value-to-koi-cognoscenti is completely lost on me. But as you say Freecycle Is Really Not That Kind of Place. And I agree — and was half-thinking about but sent this suggestion anyway — that Yahoo groups can leave your flaps open a little too much.
Glad there’s a Wilmington craigslist and making a mental note to Go There more often — forums and bike forks, etc.
Craigslist turned out to be just the place to find homes for koi, it seems. I heard from about ten people over the past month, and a couple of them are coming to get fish this weekend, I believe. All of them should end up in happy new ponds, and I was happily surprised to hear from precisely no cranks or scammers or anything else bad.
Congratulations, Susan. Hoi polloi don’t go for koi. Glad they found a new home.
Hello,
Susan, do you still have any mor Koi? I am looking for some for a pond that a friend of mine has. She already has 4. Please let me know. email me @ volknstein@yahoo.com
The last of them went to their new homes last weekend, and the liner comes out and the dirt goes in this weekend. Yay! But sorry you missed it, David. I really was surprised, but Craigslist came through, found four very well qualified and experienced koi owners to take them, and all are settled in, in good condition.
For anyone considering a fishpond: boy is it a lot of work!! They’re really cool and provide many intangible rewards, but as far as I can tell, a lot more headaches unless you can afford to pay someone to help you anytime you go away, have a generator to make sure the filtration/aeration keeps working if the power goes out for any length of time, and don’t mind spending as much on koi food as on your own food. Not to mention veiling the pond in netting to avoid finding them stabbed to death by a great blue heron that couldn’t possibly swallow them, but will kill them anyway.