Joe Zuritsky is one of the Charter Members of the Mid-Atlantic Koi Club and also the President of Quality Koi Company. After many years as a passionate hobbyist and selling some Koi from his backyard, Joe decided to open a Koi Store in Philadelphia called Quality Koi. The block that housed Joe’s Koi store building in Philly was planned to be turned into a parking lot in 2001, and they began looking for a new location. Joe and Jimmy Martin had been breeding good quality Koi for a number of years at Jimmy’s farm in Quakertown, PA and Joe decided that the new location of his store should be a fish farm as well as a retail facility. The retail facility kept the Quality Koi name, and the farm has become known as The Nisei Koi Farm.
Mat McCann is the Vice President of Quality Koi/The Nisei Koi Farm, and has been with them since July 2000. Mat had worked at 5 different Koi companies in the UK before coming to Quality Koi, and he assumed the responsibility of all the design, engineering and building of the new farm. Mat’s wife Jennifer is the longest serving staff member, and since January 2000 her main role is running the wholesale business and being the Office Manager. Her background was marine science and she had experience working for the New Jersey state aquarium. Ross Morgan joined the team in early 2002 and comes from an aquaculture back ground. Ross handles sales, technical maintenance and everything else that can be thrown at you on a daily basis on a Koi farm. Brian Greenwood is the literal strong backbone of the Koi farm workers. His job is trying to keep 43 acres of farm, mowed, backwashed, bird protected and harvested.
The search for land to build a Koi farm began in late 2000. They looked for land that was both reasonably priced and suitable for Koi farming and found a location in New Jersey. Mat designed the new farm to mimic Koi breeding operations in Japan, and ended up with 3 large 1 acre+ mud ponds and 28 smaller ponds for Tosai (Koi up to 1 year old). The sandy soil in New Jersey did not hold water well – so the first order of business was lining the ponds with clay. During excavation of the main waste water basin they discovered an old river bed with a 5 – 6 foot thick Bentonite clay layer that was buried 22 feet down, and they excavated over 300,000 yards of the valuable clay! The clay was used to line the ponds and provided the waterproofing, in addition to adding valuable minerals to the water.
All the Quality Koi staff members became very skilled with the house-sized excavator, bull dozers and articulated dump trucks. Just to do the excavation and lining of the ponds took over 6 months of labor. The property was not level, so that a part of each pond was built up rather than being entirely excavated.
Luckily, the topsoil of the farm was very rich in nutrients, so the baby Koi have plenty of natural food nourished by the rich soil. The next problem to overcome was the amount of iron and sulfur in the well water. To improve the water, they bought and installed a Maclean purification system that oxidizes and removes the impurities from the water. While the mud ponds were filled with rain water, the greenhouse tanks use the purified well water. The farm used over 14 million gallons of water just to fill the mud ponds.
Each year, the ponds are drained and hi-calcium lime is added to the clay. The lime kills unwanted bacteria and buffers the rain water. Luckily, the Jersey sand comes complete with lots of shell fragments, which also act as a natural buffer for the rainwater.
There are 2 on-going operations at the farm. The first is selling high-quality imported Japanese Koi. These Koi are now only purchased from only 4 breeders: Toshio Sakai aka Matsunosuke, Momotaro, Igarashi Hirome, and Toshiyuki Sakai, Yamamatsu . This limits the risk of disease, and because their expenditures are concentrated, they get the rights to very high-end Koi from each of these breeders. 70% of the imported Koi come from Matsunosuke, whose Koi have won the top honors in Japan for years. Because of Mat’s and Joe’s special working relationship with Matsunosuke, the farm can ask his advice on mud pond design, culling and operational issues. This association with the best breeders in Japan has greatly improved the learning curve for Mat, and the farm is already producing excellent, high-quality domestic Koi. Buying trips to Japan occur at least 3 times a year, and there are 4 huge auctions/sales of the imported Koi this year. The first was in August, and there will be one each in September, October and November. Fish are randomly selected, so there will be plenty of excellent opportunities at each auction/sale. Mat brags that some of the best Tategoi exported from Japan will be available at these events! A special invitation is extended to all MAKC members to attend.
In addition to purchasing Koi for sale in Japan, they also acquire breeding stock. The 2nd major undertaking at the farm is the breeding operation. In 2001, Matsunosuke recommended certain Gosanke pairings. This year, there were spawns from Gosanke, Asagi, Yamabuki, Platinum, Kujaku, Goshiki and Shiro Utsuri. In all, Nisei Koi Farm produced 14 spawns this year. The year started a bit late due to continued construction, but each pond will still be culled a minimum of 4 times before the first Koi is sold.
From a 30” female, over 100,000 fry can actually hatch. In one month, the number will be down to 30,000 due to predation and cannibalism, and the fry will be 1 ¼” – 3” long. The first cull occurs when the fry are 4-5 weeks old, and only around 2000 remain from this cull. The 2nd cull will occur after another month, and only 1000 of the 3” – 6” Koi will remain. At the next cull, the best babies with potential, averaging only 100 - 200 in a good year, will be moved to one of the heated greenhouse ponds to continue growing for the winter. Of the 14 spawns, only 1000 -1500 total Koi will be kept for growing on. The remaining 800 or so Koi from the 3rd cull of each spawn will stay in their growing pond and be sold to the wholesale market the following spring. While many farms sell Tosai in their first few months, Mat believes that the young Koi are too weak. Nisei Koi Farm wants to sell only strong, healthy Koi. Mat allows the winter in the mud pond to naturally cull, so that only the strongest Tosai survive until spring. In the spring, the wholesale fish are brought indoors for 4-6 weeks of quarantine, and are treated for parasites before they are sold.
In the spring, the Jumbo Tosai that spent the winter indoors are culled again, and some are sold. The best 50 or so will be held until the following spring to be sold as Nisai (2-year-old Koi), and then only about 5 of those Nisai will be placed out into the mud ponds to be grown on until they are Sansai, or 3 years old. Each year, The Nisei Koi Farm will hold its Harvest Festival in October/November. Nisai and Sansai are auctioned or sold off. This auction is as close to the Japanese experience as you can get in the United States! Again, all MAKC members are invited to attend.
One of the largest threats to the farm is predation from King Fishers and Osprey. While wading birds such as Great Blue Herons are easily discouraged by the numerous triangles of fishing line tied over each pond, it is hard to keep out the King Fishers which take fry under 4”, and it is remarkably difficult to dissuade the Osprey which are a protected by law. In Japan, millions of dollars worth of Koi are protected by nets. Nets are one of the improvements the farm hopes to make in the upcoming years.
Quality Koi’s focus is retailing high end imported Japanese Koi, and designing and consulting for large Koi ponds over 20,000 gallons. The Nisei Koi farm is focused on producing wholesale and pond grade Koi, with quality improving every year as some of the newly imported breeding stock approaches the correct age for spawning.
If Mat could advise a new buyer, he would suggest that they choose one dealer, and buy all their Koi from that source. As long as Quality Koi/Nisei Koi Farm is that source, Mat will stand behind their Koi 100%. Even with one source, Mat recommends that each new Koi be quarantined. People that accompany Joe or Mat on a buying trip to Japan don’t receive their Koi for up to 6 months. During this period, they are stressed with temperature changes at least 3 times, and are inspected for parasites and disease. Mat’s commitment is for strong and healthy, disease-free Koi, whether they are raised on the farm or selected in Japan.
Mat married Jennifer, one of the other 3 full-time employees of the farm in September 2003, and they had their first baby in August. As 2 new parents working full-time at Koi farming, both Mat and Jen have boundless energy and thrive on challenges!