China specifically raise all kinds of live foods like blood worms,
black worms to feed the pond raised fish. they power feed them
species appropriate foods to get them large very fast. Ingrid

That reminded me of something I wanted to bring up. So I changed the
Subject to reflect change. THIS IS NOT ABOUT type of FOOD per se. ;o)

Excuse some blanket statements below:

growth rate. Koi in small spaces do not grow as fast as a koi in a
large space in normal situations (feed, lots, often, pristine water and
they will grow fast). Now the koi in a larger space not only has better
water, but has all the good natural food growing, falling, crawling, flying
into that larger space.

What I've noticed recently. People who took some of my baby koi, when they
were 2-4 inches, and put them in a large space and thus they grew faster
larger koi than their siblings here, have more washed out colors. Hmmmm?
Comments?

Btw, the hobbyist feeds pretty much what I feed mine. ~ jan
~ jan/WA
Zone 7a