Koi are more intelligent than people think. I don't think it's emotion that bonds them, at least not in the way we process it. But those 2 stuck together like glue and always had to be within eyesight of each other. They always cruised the ponds side-by-side, the male always a little bit behind the female. One year my dad's big net broke and he had to use a small one to transport them from the indoor pond to the outdoor one in the spring, and when he scooped out the male first and went outside, the female jumped clear out of the pond and landed on the floor. He found her when he came back in, a few seconds more and it would have been too late. There are 7 other koi in the group but neither of these two ever paid any attention to the others.
I did do a lot of research before buying Macy -- unfortunately 90% of it was regarding "freshwater stingrays", which I later found out the majority of which didn't apply to Sabinas because they weren't strictly freshwater. I then had to figure stuff out as I went and adapt. She did fine for a few months until I bought some new sand that I got some bad advice on, and after that, it was all downhill from there. It just sucks all around.
