When your koi get too big for your pond
“If you love something, set it free; if it comes back it’s yours, if it doesn’t, it never was.”
– Richard Bach, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”
There’s a level of maturity required to accept the reality of Bach’s statement, and an even greater one to actually follow through on it.
But it doesn’t seem to be a concern for Tom Mechals, the focus of Sarah Brown’s fun July 21st piece “Koi Make A Splash At Boulder Falls Inn” at Lebanon Local.
Mr. Mechals recently donated 3 of his large koi fish to a pond at Boulder Falls Inn when they outgrew the modest size pond he’d been keeping them in. His pond is described as 10′ x 10′ x 3′, meaning it’s probably about ~2,300 gallons.
What really struck me was how long Mr. Mechals had been raising those three particular fish:
It was probably about 10 years into the project when Mechals gave away his goldfish and bought his first koi, which “seemed to be a better way,” he said. After a little more trial and error, he bought a small doitsu (scaleless) koi that was all white, save for one orange “eyebrow” and some orange on the tail. Then he bought more.
For more than 20 years, Mechals raised three koi fish in his small pond. Though he doesn’t know the sex of his finny friends, he never found baby koi swimming around in his pond. But, he did learn, koi are known to sometimes eat their offspring.
As the photos in the article show, the koi were huge, ranging from 20-35 pounds. Given their age, that’s no surprise. But it’s hard to fathom parting ways with a creature you’ve raised for so long and who has accompanied you, however indirectly, through many chapters of your life. That’s longer than the 18 years most parents spend raising their kids before they’re booted out of the nest for college or a career.
On the contrary, Mr. Mechels’ attitude throughout this article seems one of no regrets. In fact, he seems downright excited. Surely that’s in part because the fish are now living in an environment that better suits them.
But also, they’re in good company:
Boulder Falls Inn put their first seven koi into their pond on May 5, 2015, [Chris Breshears, general manager of the hotel] said. Today he estimates there are between 200 and 250, and that’s not because they added more. When they agreed to rehome Mechals’ fish to their property, it was the first addition they’d done since 2015.
And not just among fish:
The hotel sells fish food for 50-cents, allowing visitors to get a closer look at who’s living in those waters. Mechals said it about his fish, and Breshears agrees: “They’ve been quite an attraction, apparently, since they’ve been here.”
This seems like a situation where everyone wins: the Inn’s proprietors and guests, the fish, and Mr. Mechels himself.
I bought a big bag of baby koi from Blackwater Creek a few years back.
As they grew larger, their unique identifying features started to come out: an orange flourish here, a yellow spot there. They also started growing. Quickly, they were too large for the tank I’d started them in. Eventually it reached the point where I had to give some away so as not to overcrowd my pond.
A handyman I’d worked with came to the house and learned of the predicament. A friend of his had a small pond, he said, and she would take some of them off my hands.
I knew it had to be done. But I still fretted about it overnight, hesitant to part ways with the fish I’d raised since infancy and feeling serious FOMO about not seeing what new colors and features they’d develop as they grew up. Anyone who keeps koi knows that a baby koi will change a lot on the path to adulthood. I thought: do I really want to miss out on that? What if I just quickly dig another pond? (Easier said than done.)
The next morning I picked out 10 of the fish: big ones, beautiful ones…the type of fish that I would want to have in my own pond. I called the lady, who came over very excited to pick them up.
As she drove away – the fish in an aerated bucket strapped firmly into her passenger seat – I felt excited. Not sad, or nostalgic, but happy for the life these fish were about to have. I knew it would be better than whatever I’d be able to provide them.
I imagine this is how Mr. Mechels felt when he first released his fish into the Inn’s pond waters, and watched them glide away into the darkness: a slight sting of nostalgia, quickly supplanted by a profound sense of happiness that you loved something enough to set it free.
As for those fish I gave away? The lady said she’d send me photos…and for a while, she did. Frequently. Then…as so often happens when life gets busy..those updates got less and less frequent. Until one day they stopped coming altogether. That’s OK. Something tells me they’re living their best lives, in a pond so large they’ll never outgrow it.