Quote:
Originally Posted by
JasPR 
I think there is another angle here when it comes to a solid learning curve, and one that many on this board can relate to and have benefited from. And that is a life time of keeping fish of all kinds. And although not everything in the aquarium hobby translates to the koi keeping hobby, much of it does bring one to a fundamental understanding of what fish need to do well. Many of you might take this for granted, but if you watch those who have little or no experience with tropical fish you can see that they are at a severe disadvantage when trying to grasp the importance of pond design and the needs of creatures that live in their own waste within a closed system.
I sometimes think that the years spent in youth with guppies, mollies, angel fish and then Africans, marines, reefs etc was all a tutelage for the keeping koi well. Each level of those other hobbies prepared me for keeping the king of all hobby fishes.
If you were lucky enough to come to the hobby via this route than all you need to do is focus on the beginning of koi, it's roots and it's traditions and the early ephanies. if you get this far, you have the ground work for really getting deep into koi. I of course, recommend ZNA as an environment were you can reach the next level without distraction from goldfish, longfins etc. But that's me and some of you may not be that interested in koi as unique forms and favor the generalist gardener position, with koi being another outlet within American water gardening. But I digress----
- JR