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'To have to split them up would be heartbreaking': Winnipeg man donates koi fish to Assiniboine Park

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A Winnipeg man’s hobby for nearly 20 years is now turning into a donation that will be featured at The Leaf when it opens in late 2022.

Randie Kushnier has had a group of koi fish for around 18 years and recently he had been looking to find them a new home.

He said he has two ponds; one for the summer and one for the winter, which involves moving them a lot.

“I have to move the fish, each one individually, and move them upstairs in the spring and downstairs in the fall and it got to be a lot more work for me now that I am getting older,” said Kushnier. “I didn’t want my kids and my grandkids to be responsible for my hobby.”

He said he has been interested in fish all his life and started to collect the fish because he enjoyed Japanese culture.

“I have a bonsai collection and koi were just a natural part of that culture and I thought, ‘oh this will be great. I can combine koi and my love of Japan,’” he said.

Kushnier has 10 fish and all are around 22 inches in size.

When trying to find a place to send them, he at first reached out to some people he knew to see if he could sell his fish, but he would have had to separate them, something he didn’t want to do.

Then, after talking with his wife, he decided to reach out to the Assiniboine Park Conservatory.

“Assiniboine Park had the tropical house, they had koi, and my wife suggested, ‘why don’t you give them a call and see if they are interested?’ So I contacted them by email, they have a donation page, and I offered to donate something in kind if anybody was interested, and I gave them a little description of my fish.”

He eventually heard back from the animal curator with the conservatory and he agreed to take Kushnier’s fish.

In an email to CTV News, a spokesperson for the conservatory confirmed there are plans to introduce koi into a pond at the base of a waterfall in the Tropical Biome at The Leaf.

Five of Kushnier’s 10 fish were picked up on Tuesday by the conservatory and the other five are scheduled to be picked up next week.

He said he is proud to know that his fish will be seen by so many people and he is happy they can stick together.

“Koi are very social animals, they know each other and to have to split them up would be heartbreaking. So this way, the entire collection can go to one place and everybody can enjoy them as I have.”

The Leaf is set to open in late 2022. The conservatory wouldn’t provide a specific date, but noted more information will come out in early September.

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