It has a house and garden full of Japanese fish - NRK Vestfold and Telemark

The moving Japanese Koi does not go without spray.

– Once I start, they understand what will happen. They can do that, says Thor Green.

With a large hoof, he catches a single specimen of Japanese carp.

It’s hard work, because they are big and well fed after a long winter inside.

– This has been captured many times. He is calm and gentle, female.

At home in Porsgrunn, he has 70 specimens of this type of fish.

Koi are the big passion and fill up an entire room in the living room. Here he built a deep indoor pool with a capacity of 55,000 liters.

Handpicked in Japan

Koi are the goldfish’s closest relatives – only much larger.

On the way to the outdoor pond, each fish is measured and documented. Eight to ten kilograms is not unusual.

He doesn’t have a name for every fish, but he recognizes the wine.

For the past ten years, Thor has traveled to Japan to pick fish. There he selects new members for the Koi family.

– Then I choose from the top shelf. Being able to choose from a thousand fish is what makes it interesting – and I’m more interested in that.

It can cost 20,000 per piece

He looks for the pattern and quality of the leather, and how the colors shine through the leather. The white color is especially important. Less develops as the fish grows.

But it is not a cheap hobby.

Usually buying Thore koifish costs from NOK 1,000 to NOK 20,000 each.

The most expensive ones were sold at auction in Japan for around NOK 15 million.

I thought it was a goldfish

The passion for koi started 20 years ago, but the interest in fish has been around since childhood.

As a boy he had koi fish without realizing it. At that time, this fish was not very well known.

– I had my first koi fish in my aquarium when I was in elementary school. Mine was orange and I thought it was a goldfish. But they were koi because they had these mustaches in their mouths.

The cellar did not escape the hobby either. It is a separate world of technical installations, with piping, water systems, filtration, circulation and temperature.

Those who are still too young to swim with adults swim in their own pools.

– They’re a little wild on the plate. They are like puppies or kittens, because they are one year old.

– its own little world

– We don’t call ourselves koi, but garden pond. It’s its own little world, says Bjorn-Erik Frigaard of the Norwegian Dam Gardening Association.

The association has just over a thousand members, and the Facebook page “Vi med hagedam” is followed by more than 8,200 people.

– The more fish in the pond, the more equipment is needed. But goldfish require very little. The sound of running water and fish basking in the sun is also very pleasant.

Tropex Norway imports fish and all garden pond equipment. Managing Director Øivind Skjellerud says that in ten years they have increased their turnover from NOK 2.5 to NOK 9 million.

– It took off completely during the pandemic. Then everyone goes out and digs in the garden, and garden ponds are a hobby that the whole family can participate in.

rush along

Thore Green thinks the Japanese koi fish think it’s good to come for summer grazing in the outdoor ponds he made.

The whole park has been turned into an eldorado for carp. In and around each of the two ponds there are a number of plants belonging to the Japanese flora.

As koi fish become accustomed to the new summer presence in the ponds, they tend to climb to the water’s edge and run around.

– Do you love fish?

– Yes, one does. It’s weird.