My hubby took me to a local pond store this weekend and I got to get up close and personal with some huge koi. Those guys had to be at least a couple of feet. They were very friendly and taking food directly from our hands and with no shyness at all.

My question is do goldfish ever get this comfortable with their owners? We have a pond with about 12 different goldfish and I'm still trying to get them to even come up to the surface to eat when I throw food in. I have to toss in the food and step back a few feet for them to come up.

Thanks for the help!
Does the watermelon put the size of those fish into perspective?

Those sure are some gigantic fish, Christina! My goldfish don't eat out of my hand but when I call them "Come on babies, let's eat" they come to the side where I am standing so I can feed them. The only thing I can suggest is every time you go to feed them, talk to them. Good luck with your goldfish!!!!
Ellen

My goldfish come up to eat faster than my koi. When I'm in the pond, they nibble on my legs sometimes in the summer. I think goldfish can be just as friendly as koi. Both need to feel secure and used to things first.

I agree with Robyn. Of course the Koi are generally more "pretty" to watch than goldfish. I get a kick out of my goldfish because they are quicker and "snappier" at feeding time, the koi are more graceful definately. I think Koi are easier to tame than goldfish, but then I have never tried to hand feed the goldfish. It just takes time and patience and no fast movements. I have really done myself in this year as I have been throwing in food to try and net some of the goldfish to move them to the other pond so now everyone is skeptical of me, LOL. I don't see that the biggest Koi care though. They have a WHATEVER attitude. They think they are the pond Gods. Thanks for sharing the picture, that was really nice! I am positive your fish will get used to you. Just talk to them and sit still and eventually they will come around. Whatever you do don't flap your arms around, lol, they hate that!! Last summer when I was feeding the hoards of babies off the dock, I would lift my arms just for the fun of it and it was like "what fish"???? It's a funny party trick when you have people over :P

Those fish look great! Nice photo Christina. :)

My goldfish took a while to train. My koi took about 10 minutes. :D
The goldfish have never quite got the courage to do what the koi do, which is to swim up onto my hand/palm for a bite of food.
Here's a pic of one of the neighbor kids, two days ago, with Rudy partly out of the water:



I think the key is to start slowly. At first I would just put my hand in the water while I fed them. After they got used to that I would put food only in my hand, and only the ones who ate from my hand got to eat. The ones who didn't get near the hand started to figure it out soon afterwards. I still have a couple of goldfish who would rather miss a meal than take from my hand. But neither of them appear to be starving.

Our koi are much more trusting of people than our goldfish.

PG

carnie my goldfish is very friendly. She started in my aquarium and would eat your hand if you let her. She is now in the pond. She has not come to eat out of my hand but comes right up to where I am I think KK is right she got "POND GOD" syndrom. but she does let me touch her in the pond who knows. I like them both. Now my shubunkin is by far the MOST friendly guy in there affraid of nothing.

C2

2 out of 3 of my adult goldfish will eat out of my hand. the second one only started doing that this week.

If you are standing back throwing the food in they will never get to associate you with the food - just with the "arm flapping" that is involved in that. KK is right they really hate that. I always lean over where they can see me so they know it is me feeding them and then feed them with slow calm movements. They "pipe" as soon as they see me coming at feeding times. Takes a while for some of them but my red and white one has come up to take food from my hand since he was quite small.

I am teaching the babies that it is me feeding them now - I always make sure they can see me when the food goes in. One is starting to approach the surface when I put the food in now.

Koi that are used to taking food from hands seem to be willing to take food from anyone. goldfish seem to recognize their regular feeder and are a bit more shy of other people.

I agree with everything said above: patience, no sudden movements and consistency will bring nearly all your goldfish and koi around. And when babies come along, they learn from infancy that the other fish are eating out of your hand, so when they are big enough, they will do it too.

Feeding fish is the most wonderful past-time... I always look forward to those few moments a day when I'm "communing with the fishes"....