Transport Fee – 100$ per trip. Must be within a 30-minute drive of my address. I can transport up to 4 adult koi (~18″) at a time in my aerated car tank setup. Larger numbers of smaller fish can be transported per trip, of course.
Drop Off is free, just call first so I can be here.
Large Adoption Projects
When people contact me looking to rehome large groups of fish or entire ponds that I can’t accommodate in my holding tanks here, I try to arrange direct pickup by people who want to adopt. The fish are free, as well as the networking. If either party wants my assistance on-site, I charge 100$/hr, similar to the transport fee.
Below is a list of current large adoption projects with basic location info. Full addresses will be provided during pickup scheduling.
No big projects right now 🙂
Why Adopted Fish?
I get a lot of calls asking if I’ll take or buy people’s fish, so after years of saying no, in the Summer of 2022 I decided to start saying yes. That first Summer I rehomed 15 koi, including 3 adult koi that required 2 months of rehabilitation from severe sunburns. The following year, Summer 2023, I rehomed 56 koi, including a 17yr old koi who spent 5 months rehabilitating from severe frostbite damage, lovingly dubbed Mr. Cheese for his Cheeto-dusted appearance post recovery (I believe he was originally orange, but the frostbite damage destroyed the pigment cells in much of his skin causing a fine, mottled orange and white appearance), and a full pond of 25 adult koi who now live anywhere from a backyard pond 5 minutes from my house to a ranch in Montrose, CO. I have high hopes for Summer 2024, and have had a modest wait list forming since March. My adopted stock is always changing, but I’ll try to keep it updated in the list above.
Adopted fish pricing varies, primarily based on the cost of care while I had the fish. Many of the fish surrendered to me are in need of life saving care, and I do everything in my power to perform that care. I avoid euthanizing fish unless I determine it is the only humane thing left to do, and to date, I’ve never euthanized an adopted fish. So you may come to my shop and find a really nice looking koi for a significantly lower price than the imported farm koi. That fish probably showed up perfectly healthy and only needed a standard two-week quarantine. You may also come across a mundane looking fish that costs several hundred dollars. This fish was in dire shape upon arrival and required significant medical care to save its life. That’s just how I run this.
While I don’t have actual nonprofit status for this project, I’m starting to hope it could become one in the future. Either way, I don’t make money from doing this. Each batch of adopted fish requires separate housing to control for disease and parasite outbreaks, weeks of disease and parasite screening, and potential medical treatment. And food. Even the fish that arrive perfectly healthy require a minimum of two weeks of quarantine and medical screening. This all costs me money and time. It’s not something a business-minded person would pursue. But it seems like the right thing to do, and a way I can add good to the world in a way that most people can’t.
If I can learn to be better at website building, there will be pictures of current fish looking for new homes, that link to a small page dedicated to that fish, their story, pricing, etc. For now, please accept my piles of text.
Things I Won’t Do
- Buy your fish. Like I said, this is already a break even project.
- Take in surprise fish. Space in my adoptee tanks is limited, and I cannot mix groups of fish from different places. If you show up without contacting me ahead of time and I don’t have space for your fish, I will send you home, and all you did was freak out your fish for a couple hours.
What I Will Do
Provide the best care I can for your fish while they are in my possession. This includes:
- An isolated quarantine tank for each group of fish. Fish from different homes never mix before they’re cleared. The quarantine tanks are cleaned and sterilized between each batch of fish.
- Disease and parasite screening. A two week monitoring period is usually sufficient for any diseases or parasites to present themselves. Skin scrapes are analyzed by microscope if necessary. All fish are treated with Praziquantel, a deworming agent, regardless of their apparent health upon arrival, because the drug is very safe (even used in humans) and parasitic worms can live on healthy fish in small numbers without causing symptoms.
- Medical Care. Any disease, parasite or injury found during the monitoring period is treated until the problem resolves before the fish is available for sale. I’m not a licensed Veterinarian, because becoming a fish vet requires becoming a full regular vet plus extra years of bonus certifications and I spent my college years getting an advanced degree in Paleontology instead. I’ve kept fish for 30 years though and can do anything short of cutting fish open and stitching them up.
- Make sure they’re going to an appropriate home. I ask all my customers some basic questions about their pond or aquarium to help them find pets that will thrive in the environment they’re providing. When rehoming fish I take those questions further, and make sure the buyer is experienced and knows what they’re getting into. Especially with fish that have undergone an extensive recovery period for illness or injury. They’ve been through enough and my primary concern is finding them a happy, healthy home.
720-468-0404 / milehighkoistore@gmail.com