Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Kohler.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Sea Islands Koi and Water Gardens was founded as a business in mid-2021, however the passion for Koi began in my early childhood. Both my father and my grandfather kept Koi most of their lives. My grandfather kept Koi at his home in a beautiful pond in front of these large bay windows in his home in Hobart, Indiana just outside of Chicago. My father kept his Koi at our home in Northern Virginia where we would buy Koi at a local garden store.
We started with these pre-formed plastic ponds we had bought at Lowe’s until finally he had a more professional pond installed to increase the amount of Koi we could keep and that’s when we began stocking higher quality Koi from various dealers around the East Coast. I moved away at 17 to join the Navy to serve as a Hospital Corpsman and when I left the service earlier this year (January 2021) I went to work in a local gym in Beaufort, SC as a personal trainer. My Mom and Dad had actually saved the pre-formed pond I had growing up as a kid and when I went home to visit one weekend I was able to bring it home to the South Carolina Lowcountry and thus began my search for affordable but high quality Koi only to find that there were no reputable sources anywhere near me. With that setback, I immediately decided to source my own and offer them to friends and other local Koi keepers.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One of the biggest struggles I faced was money, Koi keeping can be expensive when you start out and your investment can be lost in an instant if your water isn’t kept correctly or gets tainted by storms, debris, pollution, and predators, which we have plenty of in the Low country. From all types of birds, alligators, raccoons, skunks, and otters or minks, if you aren’t prepared you can lose expensive Koi quickly.
I think one of the most difficult parts of our journey was finding the perfect source for our Koi, our breeder and supplies is located in northern Pennsylvania and that’s 16 hours from here so it’s quite a long and expensive trip to make sure we offer the highest quality and most affordable Koi on the East Coast that are bred domestically. Although we also offer Koi that were bred from Koi that were imported from Japan as well.
We’ve been impressed with Sea Islands Koi and Water Gardens, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Sea Islands Koi is (as far as we know) the only supplier and retailer of high quality Japanese Koi and Goldfish in the low country of SC and Northern GA. We offer Koi that are bred and raised here in the US as well as Koi imported from Japan or bred from direct Japanese lineage.
Aside from the live fish we also offer supplies, food, and accessories to local Koi Keepers. We build ponds, waterfalls, and other water features for local enthusiasts and assist in spreading the hobby of Koi keeping or enjoying Japanese water gardens that are completely customized to our clients’ wishes. From jungle themed Jurassic park style gardens and ponds to authentic Japanese water gardens and everything in between.
What sets us apart from others is our quality and affordability of Koi, often times in the Koi world you are awe-struck by the price of some fish that turn out to be not of great quality. Our Koi stand out in a pond when compared to Koi from other breeders or retailers, and we also offer some varieties of Koi that can’t be found anywhere else in the United States except from our breeder.
We are most proud of our expectations when it comes to quality of our Koi and the ponds and water features we install. We stand by our work and are our harshest critics. We don’t stop until it’s absolutely perfect and are dedicated to our work to ensure our clients are able to enjoy their additions for many years.
We want everyone to know that there is no budget to small for our Koi and our ponds or water gardens. From building a pond or water feature from scratch our remodeling or rebuilding an existing feature. There’s no job to big or to small that we won’t consider. The Koi are our focus, and we want to help them live the longest healthiest lives possible so if there are concerns you have about anything at all from water quality, food, seasonal changes, illness or injury, we answer them all and have all kinds of solutions for any problem. 3 generations of Koi keeping has exposed us to nearly every situation that may arise.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I was born in Stuttgart, Germany and have been all over the world. These experiences have left a deep appreciation for many places and cultures which make a large impact on the work that we produce. Our objective is to live up to the expectations of the traditional Japanese breeders in Nishigawa and all over the Japanese islands.
Pricing:
- High quality Japanese Koi as low as $20 up to $500+
- Pond or water feature consultation FREE
- Koi health inspection starts at $50 then $10 per fish
- Water treatment and testing $100
- Pond or water feature cleaning and inspection as low as $250
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUqbnDDsn6c/?utm_medium=copy_link
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/SeaislandsKoi/
Image Credits
Sea Islands Koi and Water Gardens
Shannon Courtney Photography
