Enjoy this customer story from a koi show winner with a beautiful pond in New York. Please leave your questions and comments at the bottom of the article.

Albert: “I built my pond in 1990. I had raised Israeli Koi and American Koi at the time.

Everything changed when Mr. Kodama opened Kodama Koi Garden in Saddle River in NJ in 2012. I met Mr. Kodama and his beautiful Japanese Koi. I have raised only Japanese Koi since then.

Thanks to Mr. Kodama and his company, the quality of my Koi collection has improved very much. I was even able to win at Koi shows.

This is Koromo Showa, a very rare variety.

Mr. Kodama helped me understand the value of the Koi and made these kinds of rare and excellent quality Koi accessible.

As a Koi hobbyist, I want to collect Koi from famous Koi breeders in Niigata, Japan. Mr. Kodama’s team goes to Niigata every October, which is the harvest season and purchases a fine selection of Japanese Koi.

I am very grateful that I can access quality Japanese Koi, which were not readily available before.

In 2013, they opened Kodama Koi Garden in Long island, NY, where I live. Mr. Kodama offered free seminar ever week with “Kokugyo Vol.1,” Mr. Kodama’s first and most popular book. I thought I read a lot of Koi books and knew enough about Koi, but in fact, I found out that there is so much more to learn by reading his book and attending his seminars. I appreciate Mr. Kodama for the seminar as it really elevated my knowledge, understanding and appreciation of Japanese Koi.

I learned a lot from Mr. Kodama. One of them is how to find a good Koi. According to him, Tosai (1 year old) and Nisai (2 years old) Koi that we usually buy still hide their true beauty and potential inside. In closer look, however, Koi has “signs of future potential.” Finding that potential is a way to find a good Koi. This was the most valuable lesson I learned from Mr. Kodama.

Another thing I learned from Mr. Kodama was how to raise Koi. On this topic, too, I found out that I did not know enough. We must raise the Koi according to its level. For example, here is a picture of my pond.

There are more than 50 Koi ranging from 5” to 30”. The quality ranges from the pond quality to the show quality.

Mr. Kodama says raising 5” Koi is different from raising 30”. Raising pond quality Koi must be different from raising show quality Koi. Because this involves ponds and filtrations, I can not do it overnight, but I would like to improve my koi keeping skills one step at a time in order to raise my quality Koi to be even better.

Thank you Mr. Kodama and his company.”