Koi fish have been popular for hundreds of years and are a product of selective breeding of carp. Over the years, this breeding has produced the beautiful colors and patterns that we see in Koi. There are thousands of variations and today you can buy Koi for your pond that are white, silver, red, orange, black, yelow, gold, green and any combination in between.

You can buy Koi at your local pet store, and maybe even your local garden store if they have a selection of fish ponds. You want to be sure to buy from a reputable source and make certain your pond is prepared for the fish before you bring them home.

Make sure your pond is completely setup and functional before you go shopping for your Koi fish. The size of the Koi you buy as well as how many Koi you buy should be relative to the size of the pond. While it may seem fun to buy as many fish as you can, overcrowding the pond can lead to poor water quality and compromise the health of your fish. Find out from your local pet store or garden center how many Koi fish are ideal for your pond, but keep in mind the bigger the fish the less of them the pond can support. Ideally, you should find out how many “inches” of fish will be optimal for your size pond and measure each fish, only adding as many to keep below the optimum number.

Koi are not aggressive and are peaceful fish - perfect for a garden pond. Although your Koi may be a bit shy at first, you can teach them to eat out of your hand over time. Take the time to build up their trust and with a bit of patience and perseverance you’ll have them swimming over to you to be fed in no time!

Koi are omnivorous so you want to feed them a diet rich in both protein or meat and plants. You can feed them leafy green vegetables from your own kitchen! You want to be sure they get all the nutrients they need though, so check with your local pet store and be sure to buy some formulated foods that provide them with the meat and plant nutrients the require.

Some Koi fish can live to be 200 years old. While this is probably a lot longer than you bargained for, if you give your fish great care and maintain the water quality of the pond, you may find that your Koi live for several decades.