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What you should do immediately after arrival: First thing if you are picking your koi up at the airport is to check the koi's condition by opening the box to make sure it is up-right and breathing. When I pick up my koi at the airport I take oxygen, water, Amquel, Koi bags, rubber bands and boxes just in-case. After you are sure your koi is ok then float the bag in your pond and call or email me if you bought the koi from me or even if you didn't and let me know its arrival condition. I worry about the shipments also and I need to know right away if there are any issues or problems. After the koi has floated in the pond for as long as it takes for the bag water and pond water to reach the same temperature you should release the koi into a koi bowl and sock net it into the pond. Before putting the koi into a sock net might be a good time to give it a good look over to make sure it has all of its fins. Some redness is normal at this time. One side note is I do not float the koi if they are in distress I just release them!!

I don't want to get into a whole water chemistry lesson here but I wanted to briefly mention that it is not a good idea to mix your pond water and you bag water if you are trying to acclimate your koi to a certain temp or pH. If the koi has been in the bag long enough for any harmful ammonia to build up when you add nice, new, fresh pond water to the bag it will cause the harmful ammonia to burn the koi's gills. So if you want to continue to do this practice fine but bind up the ammonia with something like Amquel. This is one of the few water conditioners we use here.

We always advise that the first day or two with your new koi, especially if you are quarantining it in a holding tank, to have it covered. Koi tend to be jumpy in new their surroundings for their first few days in a new place. Obviously, we can't be held responsible for replacing a koi which has jumped from its tank. When we bring in new shipments of koi we will put Refresh Clay into the water to make it cloudy for the koi's first few days in their new surroundings. Adding the Refresh seems to keep them from jumping and also seems to calm them.