On our tour we did not see the Gan Shmuel mud ponds which are only open from March-November.
During this time they use netting to cover the fish ponds due to a large amount of
cormorants that attack the ponds and wipe out
the fish population.
This is a description of a tour a group of pond hobbyists took of the Gan Shmuel fish and koi breeding facility in December 2007. This is a similar tour to the one we previously took to Hazorea Aquatics.
Magnoy is a consortium of 5 fish breeding kibbutzim in Israel: Gan Shmuel, Maagan Michael, Kfar Ruppin, Maarbarot, and Kibbutz Yizrael.
The #1 problem affecting Koi throughout the world is the Koi Herpes Virus, also known as KHV. Magnoy is a world-wide pioneer in vaccinating their Koi against this virus. They currently use the KV3 vaccine, as produced by Kovax to innoculate their fish.
KHV is a highly contagious disease that usually causes death to about 80% of all Koi in a pond within 2 weeks and only targets Koi and carp (not goldfish). Koi seem most susceptible at water temperatures of 72-81°F (22-27°C), but the full range of temperature is 64°F to 81°F (18-27°C). Koi will not get KHV at below 64°F or above 81°F. External symptoms would be lesions and blisters, bleeding gills and sunken eyes. There is no treatment for KHV - once your fish has it - it will either live or die.
Magnoy mainly exports its Koi and other fish to Western Europe.
On our tour we did not see the Gan Shmuel mud ponds which are only open from March-November.
During this time they use netting to cover the fish ponds due to a large amount of
cormorants that attack the ponds and wipe out
the fish population.
We did visit their fish breeding area, although it was empty due to not being the season for fish
breeding.
We also toured their packaging area where we saw the various tanks that hold fish prior to
packaging and shipping.
We saw comets.
And we saw sarasas.
 koi-1.JPG |
 koi-2.JPG |
 koi-3.JPG |
Finally we get to the best of all. Every Koi shown in the next 3 pictures is at least 80cm (32") in length
and there are a few black ones that are about 100cm (40") in length. These fish usually sell for
anywhere from
1000-8000GBP ($1470-$7300).
