Fish Fancier Offers 25 Koi to Depleted Arboretum

Moved by reports that Descanso Gardens may have lost up to 90 expensive Japanese fish to thieves, a collector said she will donate about 25 brightly colored koi to the Los Angeles County-run arboretum in La Canada Flintridge.

“I’m getting to the age where I can’t maintain my fish, and I know they’ll have a good home at Descanso,” said Evelyn O’Neil, a 65-year-old retired nursing assistant from Mission Hills.

O’Neil, who grew up in Eagle Rock and remembers childhood trips to Descanso, said some of her fish are 25 years old and worth $400 each. Koi, which means “living jewel” in Japanese, are a species of carp noted for their intricate patterns and hues ranging from platinum to red, blue, yellow and black. Some live many years and can fetch $100,000, said Philip Ishizu, a San Gabriel koi breeder and past president of the Associated Koi Clubs of America.

Descanso officials say they are delighted with O’Neil’s offer and plan to move the koi in their eight streams and ponds by the end of this week.

“We’re glad to have them. At one time we had over 175, but we’ve been hit hard; we only have about 25 left,” said George Lewis, superintendent of the gardens.

Adding to the losses, Descanso employees pumped local well water that had been treated with chemicals into the koi ponds earlier this year, killing about 70 fish.

Officials haven’t kept inventory, but they suspect that 90 koi may have been stolen. In June, nearby residents said they saw two men scurrying from Descanso after closing time with fish in buckets.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies traced the suspects to a Glendale home with a koi pond in the backyard but were unable to identify the fish there as those missing from Descanso.

The ensuing publicity has had a ripple effect.

After reading about the koi caper, a Glendale businessman offered to implant some of the remaining fish with a silicon chip he sells that provides identification in case of theft.

That process took place last week before television cameras. Watching from her living room, O’Neil hatched her own plan to help Descanso.

An animal lover who also has three dogs and seven cats, O’Neil said she will miss her koi.

“I can pet them,” she said. “Some of them eat out of my hand.”