Tom's on the left
Tom Hatfield has been keeping Koi himself for nearly 30 years, and has always loved Koi. He has several personal fish that are now over 40 years old! Like most Koi dealers, Tom started off as a hobbyist. He grew up in Florida where he drove his mother crazy digging up their backyard to create Koi ponds. When a fish died, he presumed it was “old.” He quickly discovered that Koi are supposed to live more than 2 or 3 years, and thus started his life-long fascination with the technical aspects of the hobby including Koi Health and pond building.
In 1993, Tom moved to Atlanta and met Doc Johnson. He learned all about water quality, parasites and bacterial infections – and all the things that help to make Koi either live or die. In the 8 years he was associated with Doc, he gained more knowledge about Koi Health than he had in the previous 20 years!
In 1996, Tom started KoiStuff with 2 other partners. One of the partners came up with the name, and while he didn’t like it at first, he now loves being thought of as a ‘brand name’ for Koi and Koi products. He created one of the very first Koi Internet sites with the motto of “We only sell what we actually use.” The biggest problem he encountered was the number of ineffective products that were being sold for ponds and Koi. He started testing every product that he was considering selling, and only those that passed his personal tests are sold on the web site. Every product was extensively tested at his own expense, and he discovered a lot of “snake oil” being sold! There are 100’s of other products that he could sell on the web site, but chooses not to because they do not meet his high standards of efficacy. He believes it is always cheaper to use a good product correctly the first time rather than to try inexpensive imitations with the sole purpose of saving money.
In 2002, Tom bought out his partners and ran KoiStuff alone for a year. While it was a huge undertaking, he knew there was even more customers he wanted to service. Tom opened both wholesale and retail stores in Memphis in 2003. The wholesale division supplies both imported and domestic Koi, shipping about 7000 Koi per week during the spring and summer months. He also started Live Koi Auction in 2003. In the very short time since then, KoiStuff has grown to have 11 full-time employees, with 6 that exclusively build Koi ponds. He will not build “garden ponds,” but designs all sizes of Koi ponds using the latest construction techniques and only the best products and filtration. While he works with the customer’s to design a pond that aesthetically fits their needs, he is the one that specifies all of the pond equipment so that it is done right the first time.
In 2004, Tom started breeding his own domestic Koi. At this point, he is not producing enough to supply his growing customer base, and so he is still buying domestic Koi for re-sale. His partner for imported Koi is InterOcean, which is the largest wholesaler of Koi and Goldfish in the world. InterOcean is also the owner of KFC, Pepsi and the 7/11 stores, and had over $11 Billion worth of revenue in 2004. Tom only buys Koi from InterOcean, and while the firm is Chinese, all the fish come from Taiwan. His imported Koi are primarily supplied from 3 farms in Taiwan.
Tom runs 8 buying trips a year to Taiwan for both his customers that prefer to choose their own Koi and for KoiStuff. When Tom was asked why he is not doing the traditional thing and buying Koi from Japan, he responded that “The quality of Koi from Taiwan is about equal to the Koi in Japan, but the freight is very much cheaper!” It allows him to sell top quality Koi for a fraction of the Japanese import prices. He can also save money and time by seeing every variety of Koi at each of the 3 Taiwanese farms, as individual Koi farms do not specialize in varieties as they do in Japan. Also, Tom does not have to pre-pay for the Koi, as he would be required to do in Japan; he only pays for Koi after they have been inspected and Quarantined in Taiwan. Taiwan issues Health Certificates for each shipment of Koi, and they test for KHV and SVC before the fish ever leave the country. As soon as the Koi arrive at KoiStuff’s holding facilities, a random sample is again tested for disease.
Even with all his precautions, a problem developed in 2004. Immediately, Tom called his contact in Taiwan and asked that the 3 Koi farms that he purchased from be tested for KHV. The consulate then proceeded to shut down 100% of all Koi exports from Taiwan for 3 weeks until every farm submitted to detailed testing! Every single Koi producer in Taiwan was shut down, not just the 3 farms that Tom buys from. InterOcean offered Tom $2 Million up front to replace customer Koi that might have been affected by the disease – and this was before any disease from Taiwan was confirmed. As it turned out, the source was a US Koi Farm. Tom euthanized his entire stock of Koi that had been affected by the contaminated source, and stared over. 3 of his customers were affected, and Tom immediately reimbursed them from his own pocket for 100% of their entire Koi collection – no questions asked. Tom stated “I want to be in this business for the future! Integrity is what KoiStuff is all about!”
Currently, Tom has 135 acres of water used to spawn, raise fry and grow out Koi. And he is looking for more! There are 100 acres of ponds in Florence, AL and 35 acres in Tocca, GA. Tom’s goal is to spend this season in Memphis, and then personally to move to his farm in Tocca, GA in 2006. He will keep the Memphis store operating, and the farm in GA will be for wholesale operations only. He is also looking to open a retail store in Dallas next year. He met his wife in Dallas, and lived there for 14 years. His existing Dallas clients now drive all the way to TN to buy fish from him, as there are currently no large Koi importers in the Dallas area. Tom also has some water in the Oklahoma City area, and is trying to acquire more land there to expand his Midwest operations.
KoiStuff sells over 70 varieties of Water Lotus and Water Lilies, including the largest Victoria Lily with some leaves over 8 feet in diameter! He is trying to talk his wife into retiring so she can handle the plant part of the business. Tom never puts plants directly into Koi ponds. He plants them in bogs where the Koi can’t get into them, or in completely separate ponds. “Plants are expensive and the Koi are very destructive,” Tom says. Also, “The stems on Water Lotus are very abrasive and can irritate the Koi’s mouths.” Tom does believe that every Koi pond can use plants, as plants just increase the filtration and consume Nitrates, making the pond healthier for the Koi.
From building both his own ponds, and all the work he does building customer ponds, Tom has several pieces of advice. First, he suggests that you build a pond as large as you can afford! No one wishes they had built a smaller pond – but nearly every client wishes it were bigger within 3 years. Tom states that “No pond should be built without a first having a Quarantine system.” He also believes that ponds should have more depth and a smaller surface area so that the volume-to-surface-area ratio is larger than what was suggested in most older pond designs. Reducing the surface area reduces the amount of work required to care for the pond. “No pond should be built without the use of settlement chambers,” according to Tom. He also recommends buying bigger pumps than the manufacturer recommends, and designing the system with as much redundancy as possible. “If things can break – they will break,” says Tom. He adds that you should “Plan for 2 to 5 times the filtration recommended by the filter manufacturer.” If a hobbyist were planning on having a serious collection it would be wise to build a separate pond for the males and females. Spawning fish will injured or die during spawning season. It is very sad to go out with your first cup of coffee in the morning and find a $50K Showa floating after a night of spawning. Tom’s home pond has 30,000 gallons with filtration for 100,000 gallons. The water quality is excellent, but even in his pond, the clarity could be better. Tom keeps 20 Koi that are all from 36” to 42”.
Tom’s list of favorite products is headed by ProForm C, which is excellent for the control of most Koi pond parasites. He likes to use SupraVerm for flukes because it can treat large bodies of water very economically, and can be used without water changes and without damaging the running filtration. He uses Ultimate for shipping and to keep the ammonia under control and reduce the effects of fungus on Koi eggs during spawning. KoiZyme is another of his favorite products because it really reduces the instances of bacterial infection in Koi ponds. His favorite pumps come from William Lim, and he uses and loves Aquadyne filters –because both of these products are so well supported by the manufacturer.
Tom suggests that anyone wanting to be in the Koi hobby first join a Koi Club. He says that the membership fee will pay for itself in the first year with the knowledge learned from others! Tom also is a staunch supporter of the Koi Health Advisor (KHA) program that helps to train Koi Club members with maximum Koi health care and pond skills so that they can help out other Koi keepers. The program aims to supply knowledgeable Koi club people in areas where it may not be easy to find a local Koi veterinarian, and all certified KHA’s consult for free as their contribution to the hobby!
Tom’s final word is that if he personally can’t make a product work – he won’t sell it!
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