Koi

I like fish. My grandparents kept several Japanese fish called koi in their fancy backyard pond. It had a waterfall, was kept very clean and surrounded by tiny pebbles. A magazine called House Beautiful had a picture of it on their front cover. When I was five, the koi pond was one of my favorite places. Before too long I discovered that when I threw handfuls of the tiny pebbles in the water the koi swam faster. However, when my grandfather found out I was ‘messing up’ his pond I had to clean it out. He gave me a net, helped me roll up my pant legs and asked me to scoop all the tiny rocks out with a net. I really hoped the koi would swim up and kiss my toes – but they didn’t.

Perhaps my grandparents got the idea for a koi pond when they traveled to Japan. Koi is the Japanese word for carp. They look a lot like great big goldfish but are not related. They are a symbol of love and friendship can live up to 75 years and come in many colors.



Here are four things koi and first graders have in common:
• Will grow to about 40 inches and weigh up to roughly 50 pounds
• May live longer than 75 years
• Will eat all sorts of foods including peas, lettuce and watermelon.
• Can be trained to eat from your hand.