Cheap Koi - oh really?

Just had a phone call that makes me wonder. If you are keeping Koi, in a Koi pond, why on earth is R300 (our more or less entry price for a Koi) too much money to spend? 

You need to feed the fish for, say, the next 20 or 30 years assuming nothing happens to it. 

You need to spend the electricity to run the pond.

You need to spend on the water to go into the pond. 

You need to spend your valuable time, effort and energy at the same time. 

You will occasionally need to medicate the pond. 

And of course you need the pond in the first place, hardly a cheap exercise in and of itself!

We're often talking about getting back to basics - understanding the nature of the animal and what it takes to care for it is only the beginning. It worries me that people who think R300 is expensive for a Koi simply have no idea what they are getting themselves, and the Koi, into.