About 3 weeks ago I put in 3 butterfly Koi at about 5 inches each from a pet store. Darned things look to be at least 8 inches already! Apparently a lot of natural forage in a large pond. Is this typical?

I have to say they are fun to have in the pond as they are easily visible. They would be even cooler if they targeted my suddenly appearing plethora of Black Crappy. The Walleye better get crackin!

I too found that they grow extremely fast in the first two years. When I initially stocked my HBG/CC pond three summers ago, I added two 4-inch koi. The following spring they were at least a foot long. They are now 18-20 inches.

This season I've been wanting to monitor how much the fish will eat to satiation, so I've been hand feeding. They must hear me coming, because they are waiting like hungry dogs or cats when I get to the feeding spot.

I'm actually in the finishing touch of building about a 10x30 koi pond. It had been a small settling/sediment pond between my upper and lower ponds. I needed good clay to do some dam repairs on the upper pond, so I've been digging clay out by expanding the settling pond.