Every fall we buy koi at the harvest in Japan, five to ten farms a day through October and November. You can send a request along with us. Tell us one koi, the variety, size and budget you are after, and Tom looks for that fish at every farm he visits. If he finds it, you hear before anyone else does. We have taken requests informally for years; this year they have a real home on the site, tied to your account, with status you can check. The form is at Request a Koi and takes about two minutes.
Short answer: Describe one koi on the request form: variety, size range, budget, and anything that matters to you. Tom carries it to the farms in Niigata this October and November. If he finds your fish you get photos and video on WhatsApp from the farm, before the koi joins a public drop, and nothing is bought until you say yes. Requests start at $1,500, and the earlier yours reaches us, the more farms it visits.
Why a request beats refreshing the site
Our harvest koi go up for sale in drops while we are still in Japan, and the good fish go early. That system works well if you are flexible. It works less well if you want one specific thing: a female Ginrin Showa around 55 cm, say, or a Kohaku from one particular breeder. A fish like that might come off a truck at a farm we visit on a Tuesday, and unless something tells us you exist, it gets judged against everything else in the tank and maybe left behind.
A request changes that. Tom walks into every farm carrying a list of exactly what customers are looking for. When your koi is in the bowl in front of him, he knows it, and he knows what you are willing to pay for it. The whole trip becomes your search party.
How the trip itself runs, the mud ponds, the open sales and dealer lotteries, why five farms a day is normal, is its own story: inside a buying trip to Niigata. The short version that matters here is that farm sales reward being in the right place with clear intent. A request gives Tom both.
How it works
Three steps, and only the first one is yours.
You describe the koi. The form asks for variety, size range, age, sex, breeder and budget. Pick what matters and skip the rest. An empty field means you are open on that point, and open is useful: a request for "a Sanke, female, up to $3,000" gives Tom more farms to win at than one that pins down all six fields.
Tom takes it to the farms. Requests stay open for the whole trip. Every farm he walks into, your koi is on the list in his pocket.
You hear first, from Japan. If Tom finds a fish that fits, he messages you on WhatsApp with photos and video from the farm, before the koi is listed publicly. You say yes or no, ideally the same day. Nothing is bought until you say yes, and saying no costs you nothing. If the trip ends without your fish, we tell you that too.
“When I find your fish, I bowl it, get a price, and send you the video right from the farm. A smaller koi I just buy on the spot, and if you pass, it goes up on the site like any other fish. An expensive one, five thousand dollars and up, the breeder will hold while I wait for your answer, but the expectation is a reply by the next morning, and that is if they like you. Other dealers may be looking at the same koi, and a breeder would rather sell a fish than hold one. Buying for one specific person actually slows me down at the tanks. I can only think about that one fish.”
Tom Lai · Owner, ChampKoi
How to write a request Tom can act on
One request is one koi. If you want a Showa and a Chagoi, send two requests, so each fish gets hunted on its own terms.
Beyond that, three things make a request easy to act on at a crowded farm:
A photo beats any description. The form takes a link to a similar koi, ours or anyone's, and you can reply to your confirmation email with a picture. "Like this, but bigger" is the most useful sentence in this business. Every sold listing on our site has a "Request one like this" button that fills the form in for you.
An honest budget. Prices at the farm are decided fish by fish, and Tom negotiates in person. Tell him the most you would pay for the right koi, in real numbers. A $2,000 ceiling and a $6,000 ceiling send him to different tanks, and neither answer is wrong.
Your flexibility, stated plainly. The form asks how close the fish needs to be: exactly this, close is fine, or surprise me within budget. Pick honestly. Tom has spent over twenty-five years standing at farm tanks watching a koi turn out better than the one he came for, and "surprise me" lets him act when that happens on your budget. If only the exact fish will do, say that instead, and he will pass on everything else.
If you are still deciding what variety you even want, spend an evening with the varieties guide or the koi encyclopedia first. The form lists more than forty varieties with photos, and you pick one per request.
The $1,500 floor, plainly
Requests start at $1,500. Here is the honest reasoning, because a floor with no explanation reads like a velvet rope.
A request costs trip time at the farms, and it points at two-year-old fish and up, the sizes where individual koi differ enough that hunting a specific one makes sense. Below that level you do not need this service, and we would rather say so than take the request. The harvest drops carry hundreds of individually photographed koi at every price, and our tosai groups are the better way to buy young fish, because at one year old the honest answer is that nobody, including the breeder, knows which fish in the group becomes the special one.
Above the floor, the math flips. If you are going to spend $1,500 or more on a single koi, having a koi-show judge pick it up at the farm, look it over from a foot away and negotiate for it in person is the best version of buying that exists short of flying to Niigata yourself.
After you send it
You get a confirmation email right away. Requests are tied to your account, so the form asks you to log in first, and your name, email and phone fill themselves in. The request page shows each request you have sent and where it stands, and you can withdraw one at any time while it is open.
The one thing to have ready is WhatsApp. Tom messages from the farms, where a WhatsApp photo is free and a phone call to California is not. The form has a two-minute setup walkthrough if you have never used it.
Then you wait, and the waiting has a shape: drops keep landing on the site through October and November, and your fish might appear in one of them anyway. Buying a listed koi does not touch your request. It stays open until the trip ends, you withdraw it, or Tom finds your fish.
When to send it
Now is better than October. The request list is part of how the trip gets planned: which farms are worth a detour, which sale days matter. A request that arrives before the trip shapes the route. One that arrives in mid-November meets whatever farms are left.
Send it at champkoi.com/pages/request-a-koi.
Frequently asked questions
Does it cost anything to send a koi request?
No. Sending a request is free and commits you to nothing. You pay only if Tom finds a koi that fits, shows it to you on WhatsApp, and you say yes. Saying no, or hearing that the trip ended without your fish, costs nothing and needs no apology.
Can I request a koi under $1,500?
No, requests start at $1,500. Under that, buy from the individually photographed listings or the tosai groups instead: the selection during harvest season is the widest of the year, and every fish is photographed and filmed before you pay.
Can I request a koi from a specific breeder?
Yes. The form lets you pick one or more breeders from the farms we buy from, the same farms on our breeder profiles. Leaving it empty means any breeder, which gives Tom more places to win. Naming a breeder narrows the hunt to their harvest and their sale days.
What happens if you cannot find my koi?
We tell you. When the trip ends without a match, you hear that directly rather than through silence. Your request closes, and you can send a new one for the next trip. No deposit is taken at any point, so an unfilled request costs you nothing.
Can I send more than one request?
Yes, one per koi you want. A request describes a single fish so Tom can hunt each one on its own terms. If you want three koi, send three requests. What does not work is sending the same fish twice with different budgets: one honest request beats two hedged ones.
Why do you use WhatsApp instead of email or text?
Tom messages you from the farms in Japan, and WhatsApp makes photos, video and a quick yes-or-no conversation free in both directions over farm Wi-Fi. International texts and calls are not. It is a free app, your phone number is the account, and the request form walks you through the setup in about two minutes.