We are scientists who began caring for our Koi in 2008, after experiencing several koi deaths that “pond experts” created and/or could not resolve. Our experience taught us not to trust anyone who sells Koi or Koi supplies, to provide proper care for our Koi due to conflicts of interest. We could not find a single “pond guy” who had personal experience of bringing up Koi from fry stage to adulthood.

So, we plunged into Koi care with the skills we had- deep knowledge of Biochemistry/Engineering and our love for learning. After searching the internet, we discovered that majority of the articles were written by Koi dealers or vendors of Koi supplies who had no scientific knowledge. Also, they were written for people who had lots of time and wanted cheap treatments. We didn’t want to treat our Koi with 3% salt or PP, We didn’t want to take our Koi out of water to scrape and scope every now and then.

So, we read scientific journals and books written for aquaculture and applied them to our Koi-rearing, we had record-rate of growth and no deaths in our pond.

We noticed  that the babies born to our koi were quite different from their parents or any other koi that we had seen. They were fearless. They responded to our calls when they were 2 weeks old. They craved for attention and demanded food. We separated them from their parents when they were 4 weeks old because like most Koi babies, they wouldn't let their parents eat enough food. They grew up in 12-foot above-ground pools. They learned to “talk” to people by touching their mouth in a “Morse code” way on different areas of hands.

Our friends, also scientists, began asking us if Koi had memory, thinking ability etc. We conducted many experiments to understand their behavior and intelligence. As a result we now know that they have feelings like anger, jealousy and love. They refuse to touch us and sometimes stare at us when angry. Bigger siblings get jealous when we play with their smaller siblings. They harass us by twisting our toes, pulling our clothes if we don’t take treats for them when we get into their pond.

After one year separation, we put some of the baby koi (though 20” long at the time) back with their parents. Soon, the parents also began behaving like the babies - “talk”, kiss, play and all. So, we named them “Smart Koi”. We gave them puzzles to solve. We played music, showed them TV, talked to them. We discovered that they knew their names and they understood commands (not from hand movements). They also know we are angry if we raise our voice or change our tone. Rowdy Koi stop harassing their victims when we shout at them.

We continue to experiment and learn. We hope to form a community Koi Research program in which interested Koi owners can participate. We keep updating this website when we find time.

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