Imported Japanese Bloodline Koi
Imported Japanese Bloodline Koi
Happy Koi has a proud history of importing top show quality and healthy attractive Koi from the top breeders in Japan
gULP Filter Systems
gULP Filter Systems
The gULP filter system is a culmination of many years of experience with keeping Koi and managing filters...
HIKARI KOI FISH FOOD
HIKARI KOI FISH FOOD
Hikari is Japan's premier Koi food manufacturer. Hikari delivers results with winners at the last 8 All Japan Koi Shows

Here to help you make sense

of this fascinating bewildering hobby that is Koi keeping


Building a new pond? Not sure where to start? Wondering what a Koi pond filter is, much less what it does?

Relax. You've come to the right place..

 

From here on you can start to appreciate the journey you're about to undertake. Koi keeping is an ongoing sometimes life long hobby that is unique amongst fish keeping experiences. It can delight, frustrate, challenge and reward you in the way few other hobbies can.

From 'just a simple Koi pond' to 'The Ultimate Koi Pond' Happy Koi will set you on the right path.

As you will see on our website there is a lot of information about keeping Koi. It might be intimidating, but stick with it as best you can. A little knowledge will stand you in excellent stead and will save you from making expensive mistakes.

There are many ways of 'doing Koi ponds'. We've done them all. No two Koi ponds are ever the same, and no two filtration systems are ever the same. So a specialist with knowledge, advice and experience is worth their weight in gold. Use us. It's what we do!

Koi Done Right! There are no shortcuts...

If there were shortcuts, we'd be using them.

By way of example: if you have been quoted on a swimming pool pump, you've been given a short cut. Swimming pool pumps are cheap to buy, but horrendously expensive to run, and getting more expensive to run all the time. It might cost you R2000 to buy one, and R12000 to run it for a year.

A swimming pool pump is a short cut. So is a sand filter. Both of these are easy to buy, easy to install. Your installer doesn't have to pay to run it or to maintain it. YOU do. Ask yourself. Whose interests are being served here? Yours?

All about Koi!

Happy Koi is all about Koi. We're passionate about our fish and we hope that this passion reflects on our website that we work hard on to make as useful as possible for you.

Happy Koi has been around now for over a decade. It feels like yesterday, but we're still here to help you get the most ofut of your Koi keeping journey - and to this end we'll bend over backwards for you, our valued customer. 

The idea behind Happy Koi is to help and teach you what you need to know about keeping Koi. We find that sadly it is often ignorance that kills more Koi than anything else and whilst that may lead to increased fish sales for ourselves we're not about selling fish for the sake
of making money on this basis!

Rather, we're about what it takes to keep a high class quality collection of Nishikigoi. Whether these be ordinary pond fish or show stoppers doesn't matter one iota to us. The life of the animal is what we value and hence we take our hobby very seriously.

It all starts with your Koi pond and your filtration of course. There are any number of ways to build Koi ponds but the most important thing for you to remember is that advice given by the same people building your Koi pond may not be aligned with your best interests. Energy guzzling swimming pool pumps and sand filters with 'Koi' sand in them have no place in the modern Koi pond - quite aside from the fact that such systems cost a fortune to run, they are also a pain in your ass to maintain (both things that your Koi pond builder does not have to live with).

We know of only one way to keep Koi. And that is the proper way. There are no shortcuts - if there were, we would be using them. Happy Koi is primarily interested in what it takes to keep Koi in an environment conducive to THEIR long term well being and sadly this may not be in alignment with your short term budgetary constraints (which in every case will end up costing you far more you can possibly imagine).

That said, keeping Koi properly need not be frighteningly eye bleedingly expensive. Done properly an excellent Koi pond can cost a lot less that you may think.That said you need to appreciate that the wide and diverse range of opinions on how they should be built is precisely because they are COMPLEX and difficult entities to construct. Do not make the mistake of thinking they are glorified swimming pools - they are anything else but.

If you do things correctly it is surprising over the life of a Koi pond just what you can spend on it. Over a five year time frame the way we design and run our Koi ponds will cost you substantially less in running costs than "cheaper" systems, and can in fact pay for the entire cost of the Koi pond itself! We kid you not. Over longer time frames the savings can become monstrous.

We do so without taking liberties and shortcuts. If there were any shortcuts available to Koi keepers we'd be using them ourselves.

So the choice is yours. You either do Koi ponds properly, or YOU are the one who will suffer the consequences of having a pond that does not and will not ever work. A Koi pond is a permanent structure, and the only way to change it is with a jack hammer. Don't go there...

Since a Koi pond can cost the same as a new kitchen or a modest new car (or even in some cases a not so modest) new car, why on earth would you spend that kind of money without doing your homework properly? Research is free and it will reward you in spades.

For clarification, we don't build Koi ponds. We design them and the filtration that goes on them so that the two work seamlessly and properly. The result is a Koi pond conductive to housing world class quality collections of Koi in them. We can and do however work with builders to ensure your Koi pond success. Note that we charge our time for this accordingly.

YOU have to live with the Koi pond YOU have built, not us. USE us to ensure it is done right!

Getting two or three quotes on how to build a Koi pond is a start, but getting pricing on two or three different filtration systems is far more sensible! Sand filters, swimming pool pumps and Koi sand for instance, as we have alluded to above, are OUT for a Koi pond. Technology has moved on since the 1970's believe it or not, as have Koi keeping practises.


This site will teach you everything that you need to know about koi fish ponds and keeping koi carp.

Happy Koi is here to help you with as much information as possible on all aspects of fish keeping including:

  • Building a Koi pond, Koi pond design and construction - right in your own garden...
  • Koi pond filters and filtration...
  • How and why mechanical filtration is so important in Koi ponds...
  • Bio filters/bioconverters - their roles in Koi ponds i.e. how and why biological filtration is so important...
  • Why SuperActiFlo moving bed media is one of the best bio media(s) and how it can save you money...
  • Aqua Culture - we know more than a thing or two about it. Farming fish for profit is a highly specialist field - we have considerable experience and know how because we do it ourselves. 
  • Aquariums. Between Mark and William we have much hard learned experience in keeping tropical and marine aquariums.
  • There is tons of useful information and more in our regular newsletters with valuable and FREE information direct from the experts in the field...