The following are some helpful hints that you can put to action before you consider buying koi online. Unfortunately there are plenty of fish sellers out there that are more concerned with making a profit than they are making customers happy. I hope you find these tips useful.
- Be careful of those sellers who offer cheap koi fish for sale and claim their fish are beautiful. If the sale price is strangely low, it could be too good to be true.
- Check the koi dealer’s background. Ask him/her for their business permits and check on the Government agency that issues the permit. Be sure that the koi dealer is on their list.
- Check the koi dealer’s social media accounts. Look for things like when their business started and how much engagement they have with followers/customers.
- Ask for the koi dealer’s physical business address and check on Google maps to see if it is listed.
- Look for a review on Google maps listing, Yelp and other business listings sites. Check if the review makes sense and that it was posted by real customers.
- Check the photos of the fish. If it is extraordinary clear it may have been taken off the internet. Most real koi sellers are not professional photographers so most of their koi fish photos are taken from their mobile phones (which is usually obvious).
- Ask around in the community forums online about the koi dealers. If no one has heard of them that might be a red flag.
- Join their Facebook group (if they have one) and ask about the background of the seller.
- Ask for a video or selfie of the seller’s facilities with a the calendar somewhere in the video.
- Ask the seller about how they handle bio-security. buying fish carrying disease will create tremendous problems for your pond.
My conclusion is that its okay to buy koi online but you will need to be careful since you will be dealing with strangers. Unfortunately, the online world is one of the best places to operate for scammers but there are steps you can take to protect yourself. The best and safest way to be sure is to visit the koi dealer’s facilities but if that’s not possible getting the dealer to make a video tour of the facility is the next best thing.
Author bio
Hi, my name is Giovanni Carlo friends called me bunny or Gio. I am the author of giobelkoicenter.com blog. I have been in the fish keeping hobby for over 35 years. Like many kids in the 80’s we caught fish in the rivers and canals and kept it in the “pasong” (local Visayan name for a pond). Sometimes we kept them in a large mayo bottle since we didn’t have aquariums yet at that time. Decades later there is a small pet shop open at my place and it all that started with me buying aquariums and fishes sold in pet stores.
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