Mark came across an article that he wrote, for what was then Koi Ponds and Gardens back in 1999, on our farm and the koi that we were breeding and it started us reminiscing.

It has always been our aim to breed the best Nishikigoi in the UK and to rival the Japanese high grade for quality. Each year when we breed our koi the quality of the koi just keeps improving. Looking back at some of our photos from years ago though, it is probably more accurate to say that we have always produced good quality koi but that we couldn't produce enough of them at that level.

The difference between now and then is that then, we had just a couple of spawning tanks and our mud ponds and no other facilities. We had few brood fish and sometimes borrowed good quality koi that we could not have afforded ourselves at the time.

It can take several spawnings (and years!) to find just the right combination of males and females.

Now, of course, after several years of hard work and investment, we have all the facilities we need to produce many more koi of good quality and by now using brood stock that we own ourselves, we are able to establish fixed sets of parents that work well together.