Oh, Roger, you've moved to the really tough part... how to do it. It's much simpler to stick to the topic.
And, Tony is on point about the 'snob' part. It is so easy to lose patience with the new fellow who has invested much in learning erroneous 'facts'. Kichi get a bit rough or ignore them. We end up coming across as unpleasant, condescending people. Not good. ...It gets tough when asked for the umpteenth time about water changes and somebody says their koi are doing great and they never do water changes... and none have died in 3 months. ..??X!?
The expense of high level koi should not be the barrier it seems to be for some. True, the better quality gosanke are going to be out of reach for the person on a tight budget. But there is so much to enjoy in a healthy, robust koi. A $20 Ogon tosai will become quite an amazing, beautiful animal. It is the pond system that requires investment. The DIY threads offer a lot of potential for the tight budget. It may not be possible for their lily pond to be converted to a 'true koi pond' cheaply, but much can be done to make one acceptable for a few male koi. If you look back over the history of koi development, you come to realize that what would have been the best koi in the world 30 years ago can be had today for very little. ...Take in what Luke F has done. A lot of sweat equity in his 50,000+ gallon pond, and right now the koi are not the highest quality (which he rather proudly trumpets
), but there sure are some robust ones in Lake Luke. Back to Tony's point... not many have Luke's tough skin. We would do better following DickB's example.