If you want your koi fish to eat out of your hand the key is baby steps. From personal experience I can tell you Koi Fish even in a well maintained pond are very sensitive to their environment. When you approach the pond it is key to make sure your in a calm state of mind. I have a koi pond in my home and I love to sit beside the pond and just rest. The more calm you are the closer they will come to you. Bring some worms with you and only use them as a treat for the one who is closes to you. One will likely be more curious than others if only slightly. He will likely be the first one to allow you to feed him from your palm. Once he does the others will more than likely follow. Its all about trust . Don't chase after a koi's attention. Any agitation in you and it will reflect on your koi's temperament. It will take time but the best friendships often do! Best wishes, nebuanhk

Patrick, well, you certainly are an arrogant one, aren't you?? So I'll have to study for wild carp for decades before I am equal to you?? Gosh, you must be REALLY old!!! You really make me laugh. First of all.....why does studying wild carp mean that you are an expert on koi? As I said before....a koi is NOT the same as a wild carp any more than a poodle is the same as a wolf. And I do not tell people to take the plants out of their ponds, I tell them to not put koi into tiny ponds that are not suited to them. Koi are not the same as goldfish. They are large and dirty and putting plants in the pond will not change that one little bit. OK...to put it in perspective, lets say someone built a tiny little pasture and planted some lush grass for a few Shetland ponies. then they saw some adorable little Clydesdale colts. Well, they are small, they will fit nicely!! So in they go. The only problem is the Clydesdale colts do not stay small like the goldfish and soon they become too large for their environment. They overpower the lush grass and their waste piles up everywhere. Shetland ponies and Clydesdale are related, just like koi and goldfish are related, but the require different environments. I never once said that if you want koi, you must remove the plants. You are constantly twisting my words and I am getting really sick of it. If you will read back to the beginning of this thread, the original poster was advised by the koi BREEDER to take the plants out.....and I do agree. Ever see what a 36" koi can do to a water lily? It's not pretty. If you want to try to keep a water garden with koi, go for it!! I couldn't care less!! But it is unfair to try to cram a fish with the potential to grow to over 36" into a tiny plant-choked water garden. Ask ANY person who is serious about koi....people who keep expensive show-quality koi if they keep plants in their ponds. You will not find one. Koi hobbyists who are more concerned with the well-being of their koi put their emphasis on the koi, not the plants. I know a lot of people who give their koi 1000 gallons of water EACH. Do you think a koi would prefer to have room to swim in a good clean pond with good currents, or would it prefer to swim in a pond where it has to move slowly to avoid crashing into the nearest wall or rock pile? Basically it boils down to this. You do it your way, I will do it mine. I will continue to teach people what I know about proper koi keeping. Now go find someone else to harass. I am tired of your attitude.

Hi loriques: Below please find the link to Goodkarma's koi food recipe. This food is well worth the effort it takes to make. In the past I always fed my fish cheerios and on occassion some fruit. Even though they were going on four years old their growth seemed to be stunted. I just can believe how big and beautiful they have gotten after making this homemade recipe. Maybe the homemade food is the reason I had hundreds of grandkoi this spring!!! lol I always make a double batch and freeze some. I add a whole peeled orange when I am grinding up the spirulina tablets that I buy at the health food store. In addition to the homemade food I supplement them with Hikari Gold during the summer till the temps drop. Then I feed them the Hikari winter food till the water temp drops below 55. With the economic state of the US today many people have given up on ponding and are resorting to pondless waterfalls. A lot of the major pet food chains have stopped selling the Hikari food, or have done away with their pond supplies entirely in Ohio which is why I value this recipe. I have a feeling people are going to give up watergardening/ponding entirely if the economy doesn't pick up soon. Jenny Here is a link that might be useful: Goodkarma's Koi food recipe

please I would love some let me know what postage would be e-mail me I have a few plants that I can trade you for just e-mail me (sent u an e-mail with my e-mail eerrbs