About Us
A Fish Farm where we put YOU, the quality and health of the fish first.
We are a fish farm who are serious about breeding quality fish. So you can enjoy top-class koi fish and goldfish in your tank or pond without paying high prices or worrying about unexpected health risks down the line.
Our Mission
We want to become the "go-to" koi fish and goldfish supplier in South Africa.
Who are we?
Welcome To Fish First!
We are a koi and goldfish farm based on a smallholding outside Bloemfontein, where we have crystal clear borehole water, nine concrete conditioning ponds, and ten mud ponds that can hold more than a 300 000 liters each.
With 38 years of experience and knowledge in fish breeding, we have seen that it has become nearly impossible and expensive for people to find quality and affordable koi fish and goldfish in South Africa. Today most of the fish in South Africa are imported from overseas at high costs.
But, these imported fish often fall short of industry standards: They are of low quality with substandard bodies and characteristics. Without proper quarantine and knowledge about their origin, they create the risk of putting unknown parasites and diseases into your system. Or they arrive dead at their destination because of the long distances they need to travel.
Our Mission
Therefore our mission is to breed healthy, excellent-quality fish and make them easily accessible, risk-free, and more affordable for fish keepers, resellers, and pet shops across South Africa.
Besides better fish, we want to ensure our clients are satisfied. We want to build good friendships, get more people interested in aquaculture, and help them with advice and solution to problems regarding health, ponds, tanks, and filtration.
So if you are a fish keeper who wants to add a new koi fish or goldfish to your collection, or a pet shop or reseller looking for a better reliable supplier with good quality and prices, we kindly invite YOU to get in touch with us today!
Our farm
The fish farm Where we breed our koi fish and goldfish.
This is our fish farm in Bloemfontein South Africa where we breed and grow our koi fish and goldfish. We have 10 mud ponds, 9 concrete conditioning ponds where we breed more than 10 goldfish varieties and more than 10 koi fish varieties.
why we
should be your First choice
For koi fish & goldfish
Quality fish
We breed quality koi fish and goldfish using strong genetics, natural elements, and biological filtration. Then we carefully sort and hand-select all the fish with well-formed bodies, unique patterns, vivid colors, and distinctive characteristics of their koi fish or goldfish variety.
Healthy fish
Our focus is to use natural processes as much as possible. We don’t use any artificial substances like pesticides or chemicals. We breed and raise our fish using crystal clear, clean borehole water, conditioning ponds, and mud ponds with a lot of natural food and elements to ensure healthy fish.
Affordable fish
Today most koi fish and goldfish are imported from overseas at high import fees, making them costly and leaving resellers with smaller profit margins. However, with locally bred fish and our locality, we can supply healthy and quality fish at more affordable prices than most imported fish.
Nationwide delivery
Depending on the size of the order in a specific location, we usually deliver the fish ourselves to personally meet the client and ensure that the fish arrive in excellent condition. Otherwise, we use reliable courier services to send fish nationwide when it is possible.
happy Clients
We put our clients first and want to build good and lasting relationships. Our focus is to ensure that koi fish and goldfish collectors, resellers, and pet shops are happy and satisfied with our quality, health, price, and service.
in our tanks & Ponds
See the koi and goldfish our clients love
Here are some of the goldfish and koi fish we have bred, raised, and sold.
Our story
A fish farm with 30+ years of experience
I am Louis Kruger.
Owner of Fish First
I have more than 38 years of experience and gained knowledge in koi fish, goldfish, and tropical fish breeding, koi pond, and aquarium construction, as well as the design of natural aquaculture systems with a focus on biological filtration.
As a kid, I was always fascinated to find life in any body of water. Back then, you could find hundreds of baby fish in the shallow sides of rivers, dams, and lagoons, or on the seashore between the rock pools. But, to see an aquarium teeming with colorful fish like guppies and other live bearers or a neon tank with small fast darting colors was beyond expression. I had to get a fish of my own.
But I had no money. Funny enough, my friends and I made a plan. My friends would stand outside a pet shop with a small plastic bag filled with water. I would go inside, politely greet the owners, and go to the back, where the tanks are situated, out of their view. With my pulse racing, I quickly grabbed a goldfish, put it in my mouth, and walked out with a big closed-mouth smile. Outside the store, I spat the fish out in the plastic bag that my friend was holding. It was 1982. My fish-keeping adventure began!
My Fish farming History
I got my first glass aquarium. It measured 20cm x 20xm x 30cm. Then I bought my first guppies. Very soon afterward, I had my first babies, and a wonderful world started unlocking, seeing the first babies being born alive.
In 1986 I built my first pond. In this pond, I experimented with the growth of Platies, Kribensis, and convict cichlids, which I bred indoors. The natural food in the form of algae, moss, and mosquito larvae gave the fish better bodies and color. It was here that I first realized that if you want the best results for breeding and rearing any aquarium or pond fish, you must use nature where ever possible.
In 1989 I enrolled at the then RAU, now the University of Johannesburg, for a B.Sc. degree in zoology. On the west of Johannesburg, I have been selling a variety of cold water fish and tropical fish to pet hops. My fish exploits and the maintenance of aquariums and Koi ponds helped to pay for my studies.
In 1993 I officially showed my first koi fish. Since then, I have bred and produced a variety of koi fish. The challenge was always to compete against imported koi with my locally-bred koi. I had good results over the years and even supplied homebred koi fish to customers who have competed against imported fish and won on local koi shows. Koi keeping and breeding is a culture on its own. Koi husbandry has a rich history in the origin of different varieties. No two koi fish looks the same, and there is room for more varieties. In the early 1990s, I bred my own two lines. Local judges called the one Midori Matsuda, and the other was a metallic Ochiba Shigure.
Since 2003 we have been breeding koi and goldfish on a smallholding just outside Bloemfontein. Between 2012 and 2019 the Lord led me to a place where I had to give up on my ideals for 7 years. At the end of 2019, we were blessed with water from a borehole. In the spring of 2020, our first new koi was in the form of 4-day-old fingerlings, 10 000 of them. We also purchased different goldfish varieties and bred them as soon as they were mature. Fast forward 2 years later, in 2022. Our goal for the 2022-2023 season is to produce 50 000 marketable goldfish and 10 000 marketable koi fish.
