Nishiki-Colorful-Koi

This is not Alvin but this is what Alvin Looks Like

When I bought Alvin I bought him as a goldfish feeder fish for our salt tank Moray Eels and Ribbon Eels and I make it sound as thought I bought only Alvin however I had purchased 500 feeder fish and Alvin was just one among many.

What made Alvin special nothing at first except he was larger than most of the other goldfish I now  know Alvin was a tobi and it was impossible to net him so Alvin lived in our 50 gallon or 189.270589 liter feeder tank for about 6 months in the interim I had purchased more feeder fish and Alvin just kept getting bigger and bigger than I noticed Alvin was nipping at the other feeders fins and tails, then I happen to notice Alvin was dinning on feeder fish my God I had cannibal goldfish.




That’s when we called John college friend of mine to come over the next time he was in town and take a long hard look at this cannibal goldfish- John has Doctorate in Ichthyology consults for large public and commercial aquariums and teaches at California University.  John took one look at Alvin and told me I think what you have there is Cyprinus carpio haematopterus; good god John in English please-you have a koi fish not goldfish.

Koi but just not any Koi I believe you have Ghost koi if you keep him you will soon learn he’s a smart friendly fish who will also eat other smaller fish-all carp are omnivorous you know; John always talk like a person reciting stereo instructions.

Alvin is now 9 years old 26" long or 66.04 centimeter and weight about 20 lbs or 9.071847 kilograms now and John was right Alvin is lot of fun my husband and I bought him a 100 gallon or 378.541178 liter aquarium which Alvin out grew; so John designed large koi pond that filters water through our swimming pool filteration system and recirculates water back from waterfall built into the pond so we built Alvin’s a pond-I suppose you would call it Koi pond but since Alvin is the only Koi in the pond along with turtles we just call it Alvin’s pond.


John was right Alvin is smart- in the sun Alvin is a brilliant platinum color we put large hand-blown lava glass balls in the pond with lighting- Alvin moves the glass balls all around the pond we move the balls back Alvin moves them out again we put in waterlillies-Alvin uproots the waterlillies you find waterlillies moved all over the pond.

Alvin does all sorts of things Koi are never supposed to do. Kio never uproot plants Alvin does. Koi are not known for eating or bothering other Koi Alvin does. Koi are not known to be aggressive Alvin is. Alvin has eaten several turtles and bit off one turtle’s leg however John say’s that’s impossible the turtle must have had missing leg when we bought him.

We tried introducing other Koi into Alvin’s pond –John suggested we use a large clear piece of glass which was 22 feet long to shield the other Koi from Alvin and it worked until Alvin discovered he could jump the glass and he killed 3 and injured 4 other Koi he was being introduced too and the Kio he killed where approximately the same size as Alvin- John’s byline is now what has Alvin done?

Alvin greets us every morning when we go outside to drink our coffee Alvin’s greeting is smacking noise and splashing until we give him Romaine or butter lettuce that’s the only lettuce he likes then he bumps the turtles and starts moving around the glass balls. I don’t think John believed us until we bought Camcorder and took pictures of him in action.

Alvin prefers to be hand feed and I call him with a kids clicker toy. John told me the clicker wouldn't work after all Alvin isn't a dolphin. I was inspired when we went to Sea World they train dolphins with clickers; It took about 2 days and now Alvin treats the clicker like the dinner bell.

Alvin loves brine shrimp, lettuce-Romaine or butter, watermelon, lemons, oranges, soy, koi food, crickets, silk worms, white worms and dog food my Toy Poodle Maurice has congestive heart failure, swims with Alvin and Maurice eats dogs food that doesn't have soy, wheat, or corn in it but is high  protein.