While on a recent visit to Newport Beach, California I had the opportunity to visit some Koi fish farms. One was Andrews Koi International. It is located on 1650 South Brookhurst Street, Anaheim, CA 92804. It is open Monday through Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm. The phone number is 714-778-8888 and its website is www.andrewskoi.com.
I was not impressed by this operation. It consisted of blue rubberized holding tanks for the fish everywhere with the tank’s filtration system mounted adjacent to the tank. A young lady appeared to be the only employee and hovered over us the entire time as if we were fish nabbers. She did answer our questions about their filtration system but not as fully as she could have. I did note that some of the holding tanks were unshaded and fully exposed to sunlight and had green water ala my pond. First lesson learned and more about it later — shade is a Koi pond’s friend. My impression was one of clutter and disorganization. Think of a puppy mill. This operation could remind one of a fish mill.
I did manage to get some photos of their filtration system and apparently each barrel is designed to filter 500 gallons. Each fish holding tank was probably 1,000 gallons and had two filtration barrels.
They sell and ship fish all over the country. As with the other farm we visited the majority of their customers are from the western states. They sell to many Californians and Arizonans. It is nothing for an Arizonan to drive over in the morning, buy some fish and drive back to Arizona the same day. If you choose the shipping route it is $100 minimum and the fish are flown to Sky Harbor Airport where you must go to pick up the fish. The fish are not inexpensive ranging from $45 for a small Koi up to $2400 for a large one. Here are some photos of their fish stock.