The story of Geisha

Do you have a favorite Koi color? We tend to try to balance the pond by having lots of different colors. Our large fish are a mixture of yellow, black, red, blue and white. We used to have a pure white fish - we lost her to an unidentified critter. We are currently raising three white baby fish to chose one to replace our lost Geisha. Geisha had been born in the pond and survived the winter. We didn't know she existed until the following spring. She was strong and native and we miss her. (You know, as much as you can miss a fish.) At the time we found Geisha, we were not raising the Koi fry, we were letting nature take its course. And by doing so, we were left with exactly one fish baby. As you can see by other posts, when we intercede on nature's behalf, we can find ourselves with hundreds of babies.

The rambling point is, Geisha was special to us, because she was our first pond-born fish. She was 24 inches long when the critter got her, and the queen of the pond. She led the other fish at feeding time. (They wait for one fish to start before they all come running.) She was the biggest and prettiest fish we had.

She was a survivor. We first found her in a pile of muck (outside the pond) when we were cleaning the lower pond. During Spring Cleaning, we scoop out the old fish waste and throw it into the trees and grass for fertilizer. She was 1 inch long at the time. We put her back in the upper pond and she proceded to grow. Then we had a visit by the dreaded Blue Heron.

That Bast...d proceded to eat most of our fish and gave Geisha a nasty cut/scar across her forhead. She grew some more and started having babies. In the process the Males were a little rough on her and broke her back. She swam crooked for a year but eventually healed.

Now we have three contenders for the job of pure white fish. We'll see how they grow and we'll pick the one that reminds us most of Geisha.