Bag Your Koi

Bagging Koi 101

By Rich Street, Washington Koi & Water Garden Society

Your favorite koi gets sick or injured. You call a dealer or vet and he or she says "bring it in, and we'll help." What do you do? Your pond develops a leak and you have to move some of your koi to safety. How do you do it? A friend says you can have a koi if you can catch it and take it home. Oh, gosh! It is almost as traumatic as the thought of taking your fish to a koi show! You have to catch them, put them in a bag and transport them somewhere.

Catching and transporting a koi is not difficult, it simply takes a little planning and practice. Even if you never plan to take your koi anywhere you should be ready to. Have a plan, the necessary equipment and practice catching and moving your koi. The more you practice, the more experience you gain, and the less stressed you will get.

So let's start out by gathering the necessary equipment. When you brought your koi home they came in a vinyl bag that you dutifully rinsed out, dried and kept, right? Well maybe your first stop should be at a koi dealers to buy some bags. I try to keep enough on hand so that if I ever have a major pond disaster, I could put all my fish in double bags. Garbage bags are meant for garbage, not transporting your pets. Spend the dollar and buy good bags that your fish will fit in. You will also need rubber bands, a panning tub and a net. Friends to help out are optional, but always welcome. A word on nets - get a net made for koi and specifically one large enough for your koi.

Check your bags for leaks. It is not fun to get all ready to go and find water running out of a bag. For safety, I slip one bag inside another, called double bagging, and roll the top edges of the bags down together, this keeps water from going between the two bag layers. Once done, I put a couple of rubber bands on my wrist and am ready to go.

Now let's talk about catching a koi in your pond. The net is used to guide the koi into a plastic pan or tub, not to lift the koi with. If you need to move the net through the water, turn it sideways so it cuts or slips through the water. Place the net in front of your fish and try to keep the net in front of the fish's face. This trick make capture easier and also safer as there are no scales on the head that can be damaged by a net. In some ponds it may work to have two people with nets so that one can drive the fish toward the other person's net. Very large ponds may require a seine net.

Once the koi is contained in the net do not lift it from the water with the net. Keep it contained near the surface by keeping the net forward of the face and have friend dip a floating tub or pan almost vertically into the pond to scoop the koi into the tub. The net is used solely to help guide the fish into the tub. On extremely large fish no tub is used, the fish is bagged directly from in the net.

Once the fish is in the tub some excess water can be removed and bagging can commence. Simply take the prepared bag, add some water, then slip it down the koi from head to tail. You may add or delete water as necessary from the bag so there is enough to cover the gills. Remember that the fish need more air than water. If you fill the bag too full of water it will be not only very heavy, but there won't be much room for air in the bag.

Squeeze out the air and lift the bag horizontally into your transport container. Roll the end and stretch the bag taut so the fish's back does not bend when you lift the bag. Once in the container, you may need to add water when the bag is laid out. Remember to leave room for air. If transporting short distances you may stand the bag up, open it and collect as much air in it as possible before sealing. Seal the bag by twisting the mouth of the bag tight, slip a rubber band off your wrist onto the bag neck, fold the twist over and coil the rubber band around the folded neck. If travelling more than an hour, you should seek oxygen from a fellow club member or dealer. Seal the inner bag first and then the outer bag so that if the inner bag leaks you will not lose air or water.

Cover the bagged fish to eliminate light and keep bagged fish out of direct sunlight and as cool as possible.

Congratulations, you and your bagged koi are ready for anything. Even a koi show!