koi picnic 5/13/06

On Saturday we were invited to an afternoon picnic at Koi Acres, where Hiroe teaches on Wednesdays. It's run by a father and two sons... or should I say two sons and their father. It was started by the two sons when they were about 14 and 15 years old. Now it's the largest Koi importer in the midwest. They have four tanks and sell both Koi and all of the equipment required to keep your pond water clean. Not that everyone has a pond.

























We met many of their clients. The ones with the ponds. One wonders how a fish attracts that much money.












Yeah, they're nice to look at but...












Anyway, the buyers of these fish are so excited about them that they started a Koi club for the Minneapolis area. They were talking about how they each chipped $250 into the club to get it going but that they have no expenses so they don't know what to do with the money.












Anyway, the upkeep of the fish isn't easy. They require many filtration processes including sterilizing the water using ultraviolet light.












One event of the afternoon was Japanese lessons and proper pronunciation of the types of Koi.


















Hiroe did the pronunciation and Devin explaned the meaning.












This is the pond that the boys built. Two waterfalls and two ponds. The pond in the foreground is 8 feet deep. They can swin with the koi. Not a bad way to spend your teenage years.