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.

If you want fish for your backyard pond, you may be trying to decide whether to get Koi or goldfish, or maybe both. Both kinds of fish are common in backyard ponds, and each have their advantages and disadvantages.

If you have a smaller pond, under 500 gallons, then goldfish would be the best choice. Since goldfish are smaller than koi, they can live in a smaller space. Goldfish are also very hardy fish, and easy to care for. Because of this, goldfish would be a good option for you, if you’re a new pond owner. Goldfish are also less expensive than koi, and easier to replace.

Koi require a bit more knowledge and better control of the water quality than goldfish, and so are better suited to someone with more experience in keeping a pond. Koi should be kept in larger ponds, over 500 gallons. The more space the koi have the better.

If you plan on having plants in your pond as well as fish, then goldfish would be a better choice. Goldfish will play around under the floating leaves of plants, but not disturb them. Koi on the other hand, will dig in the soil of potted plants, making a mess, and possibly knocking the plants over. This isn’t necessarily a problem, since koi ponds are generally larger and deeper, and don’t need plants for water quality and shade, as smaller ponds do.

If you do want to keep potted plants in your koi pond, you can try wrapping netting over the tops of the pots to keep the fish out. Another method is to place pea gravel 1″ deep over the soil, and then larger river rocks over the pea gravel.

Polk Community College art student Patty Lovell of Lakeland recently won the best of show award and a $750 prize at Arts on the Park. The winning piece is an acrylic painting titled Red Head and Friends. It features Lovell's koi and goldfish swimming in her backyard pond.

GRANVILLE -- When her dog, Maggie, fell through the ice into the frigid water of her backyard pond in early January, Marlene Isaac's reaction was to act as quickly as she could to save Maggie.

A backyard pond can be a beautiful oasis where you can sit and relax after a hard day of work. You can sit and watch the fish gliding lazily through the water, or just listen to the gentle sounds of the water. The best ponds are a balance of aquatic plants, colorful fish, and bacteria. The pond is a small ecosystem, consisting of many elements all in balance with each other. If the pond is out of balance, then the fish and plants may get sick and even die. Because of this, you’ll want to take steps to keep the pond in balance, and keep it healthy. There are a lot of things you can do to keep your pond healthy, but these five things are probably the most important steps to keeping a balanced, healthy pond.

Most residential water supplies have chlorine in them, which can be toxic to the fish. You will want to be sure to remove the chlorine from the water before you add any fish to the pond. You can buy kits at your aquatic supply store to remove the chlorine, or you can simply let the water sit for a couple of weeks to allow the chlorine to dissipate naturally. After this, you should test the pH of the water before adding any fish. The pH should be around 7.0.

Don’t crowd your pond with too many fish or plants. The more crowded a pond is, the more waste there will be for the filtration system to deal with, and you’ll find yourself doing a lot more work in maintaining everything. Also, too many fish and too many plants will remove too much oxygen from the water, creating an environment that will be prone to algae.

You’ll want to shade a good portion of the pond’s surface. Around 70% should be covered by plants to give the fish a place to shelter from the sunlight. Shade also keeps sunlight from reaching the pond, and causing algae growth. A portion of the surface should be open, however, to allow the fish to receive some sunlight.

You probably will want to add your fish to your pond right away. Don’t. Let the pond run for one or two weeks to allow the ecosystem of the pond to begin to develop. Some bacteria are necessary for the filtration system of your pond to work effectively, and waiting for a while before adding the fish will allow this bacteria to develop, and get established. When you do start adding the fish, don’t put a lot of fish in at once. Add one or two fish, then wait a week or two for the pond to adjust, then add some more fish.

You’ll probably experience some algae growth in your pond at first. Leave it be for a few weeks. This algae is normal, and the pond should resolve this situation as the ecosystem develops and comes into balance. If you still have a problem with algae after a few weeks, then you can take steps to reduce or remove the algae from the pond.

If you follow these steps, then your pond will be a balanced, harmonious ecosystem, where the plants and fish can thrive, and be healthy. A healthy pond will give you much more enjoyment, with much less effort.