One of the most pleasant and relaxing things about a koi pond, is just sitting, and watching the fish swimming lazily through the water. Having koi can be even more rewarding if you can train the fish to eat out of your hand.

Training koi to eat out of your hand will require patience. Like most wild animals, koi have a natural fear of anything that they think may hurt them. They will see you as a threat at first, since you’re much bigger than they are. Just be patient when training them, they’ll overcome their fear soon enough.

You should start to train the fish from the beginning, rather than beginning the training later on. You can train fish that you’ve had for a while, but it is much easier if you start training them from the first feeding.

Typically, you would scatter the food on top of the water for the fish. Do not do this… you want the fish to eat out of your hand, not the surface of the pond. Take a few pellets in your hand, and kneel next to the pond. Put your hand in the water, and slowly let the pellets fall out. The fish know that you’re there with food, even if they ignore you. Just keep dropping pellets into the water from your hand, until you’ve fed the fish the normal amount of food. Eventuall, one or two fish will come and eat the food that has fallen from your hand, and the rest of the fish will soon follow.

After a week, take the food in your hand, as you did before, but instead of dropping the food into the water, hold the pellets in your hand. Just remain still, and wait patiently for the fish to start eating. Don’t make any quick movements which would scare the fish. Once your hand is empty, repeat the process until you’ve fed the fish their normal amount of food. If the fish refuse to eat from your hand, then don’t feed them that day. It won’t hurt them to go without food for a day, and it will teach them that if they don’t eat from your hand, they won’t get fed.

Once the fish are eating out of your palm, you can train them to take the food from your fingertips. Take a pellet between your fingertips, and place your hand in the water. The boldest fish will eventually approach to eat, and the other fish will soon follow. If they don’t take the food, then let them miss a meal.

Once you have the fish trained to eat from your hand, then you can alternate between handfeeding and regular feeding. Hand feeding the fish is a great way to interact with the koi,and to get to know them better.