Balboa Park Nishikigoi Pond!

On By cindy knokeIn MY PHOTOGRAPHS

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This pond in Balboa Park was built for the 1915-16 California-Panama Exposition as were many of the buildings surrounding the pond. The pond is full this time of year with hundreds of tiny baby Nishikigoi and well as the gorgeous full-sized adults. The term Koi is an english language abbreviation of the Japanese word Nishikigoi, but they both refer to the same gorgeous fish! Take a peek at these beauties in their wonderful pond. I have been visiting them here since I was a tiny child and so have my children!
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The water lilies alone are reason to visit this beautiful park.
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But the Nishikigoi are the real stars of the pond!
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The solid color koi are striking!
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There are other creatures living in the pond, like seasonal ducks, and fellows like this one peeking over a lily pad.

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Watching koi swim has been demonstrated to lower your blood pressure and stress levels. No wonder! They are so peaceful looking and gorgeous.

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Next time you feel stressed out, go find a koi pond to relax by! Cheers to you from Balboa Park~

74 thoughts on “Balboa Park Nishikigoi Pond!”

  8. What a beautiful place/park. I love the landscape and the building. The pond brings back nostalgic memories, which is a long story I shall tell you some day. Nishiki means two colors/toned in Japanese. These are two colored (three in some) kois.

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  11. Balboa was one of the best features of my visit to SD a few years ago. The architecture, the museum, and the other shops and displays were wonderful, Cindy…, and, oh, yes, the water lilies are so beautiful. The fish weren’t biting that day…..

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  12. What great shots of the Koi. I know how difficult it can be to take photos of underwater creatures from above the water, and you’ve done it well. What great colors on the park shot. Did you PhotoShop that, or are the colors that vibrant? Always look forward to your posts and photos. Thanks.
    Later…

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    1. I enhanced the saturation of the long Koi Pond shot a tad with Sony’s Play Memories Home technology. There are really two parts of the pond. The forward one which I photographed in the long shot you see of the pond, which has murky, green water. And the back part of the pond where I photographed most of the fish and a lot of lillies. The back water was clear, hence the clear fish shots. The front water murky, so I increased the sat in the long shot. The fish of course require no enhancement!

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      1. Thanks for the info. Had my wife read it since she does a lot of tidepool and shallow water photography. Some work, some don’t…maybe this will help her a bit.
        Later…

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  17. I have a weakness for nishkigoi…they are great fun to hand feed – giving them some lettuce or melon bits and seeing how they will rare up out of the water to get the food is something amazing to see. My Samurai had 10 spoiled rotten nishikigoi in our pond. I never was bored watching or feeding them.

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    1. Oh The Monterey Aquarium is so incredible as is all of Monterey. I love that the sea otters are back in force thanks to the Aquarium’s conservation efforts!! Regards to you my friend~

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  23. Lovely Photos, great write up too, Cindy!
    One of the things I really miss about the old place, was our fish pond. We only had three beautiful koi , all the rest were common goldfish that had outgrown my indoor tank. It was such a lovely relaxing place! I recently heard that a developer bought up the land and paved over the pond 🙁 Thanks for reminding me how beautiful these creatures are!

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    1. Oh how I would love a koi pond. It had to be so tranquil for you. Disgusting that it was destroyed. Someone released Koi in a creek by our old house and they thrived there, reproduced. It was like an unexpected Koi community. I miss it too, so I empathize with you!

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      1. Tranquil is definitely the word for it. The woman we sold the house to, was ecstatic about having a pond, so we felt we were leaving them in good hands. She was forced to sell the house two years ago, when the economy went berserk, though, and the new owner needed extra parking spots. I just hope he didn’t kill those beautiful fish. Your Koi community sounds amazing they must have come from really sturdy stock!

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  24. Liebste Cindy das sind ja tolle Fotos von den Koi und die schönen Seerosen super sowas zu sehen muß wunderbar sein ganz toll und die verschiedenen Farben der Kois so schöne habe ich noch nie gesehen sei ganz herzlichst gegrüßt und danke dir nochmals für diese schönen Fotos Klaus

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  28. Is this San Diego’s Balboa park? it sure looks like it…and amazing shots, Cindy. I swear, I feel more peaceful just looking at this blog post! Those fishies are gleaming like you could get wet if you touched the monitor. Excellent, excellent–and geez. You should do the world a favor and do this professionally–you capture essences, you know. 🙂 Your photos are as warm as you. 🙂

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    1. Yes it is! Told you, you were clever. You are so kind my friend……sending me wonderful comments when YOU ARE GOING TO BE ON THE RADIO TONIGHT!!!! You are going to be….well, yourself, which means you are going to be wonderful!!

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  29. Never knew that koi was short for nishikigoi–and I’m Japanese American! Love these images, Cindy. You are right: There is peace here for anyone to enjoy. {{{hugs]}} Kozo

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