There are fish stories about the big one that got away. And then there are stories like this one, about people who got into fish in a big way.

Tami and Ben Kimble started with tropical fish. What began as a one-tank hobby eventually spawned 14 aquariums in a 1,400-square-foot house. You might say, as they do, that they got a little carried away.

Then five years ago, the Kimbles and their three children moved to Riverside's Woodcrest area, to a house that sits on just over an acre. To Ben and Tami, "land" meant "garden," which meant "pond," which meant "koi."

You might say, as they do, that once again they jumbo-sized it. The pond they've built is 40 feet long, 23 feet across at its widest point and 4 ½ to 5 ½ feet deep. It holds 17,000 gallons of water and, at last count, 105 koi.

Mention the Kimbles to members of the Inland Koi Society, and you're likely to get the response, "Oh, yeah, the people with the big pond." That's probably also how they'll be thought of by folks who visit their garden June 25, during the group's Y2 Koi Pond Garden Tour.

The tour will feature six ponds, including the Kimbles', and offer an opportunity to ask about raising koi and about creating koi ponds as a water feature in the garden, says Jack Marrin, president of the Inland Koi Society.

Koi is shorthand for the Japanese word, Nishikigoi, which means brocaded carp. That's a poetic reference to koi's origins as a genetic mutation of carp and to one of the fish's much-admired physical attributes: brilliant colors in unique patterns.

But koi don't get by on good looks alone. They win points for personality, too. Through training, some owners literally have their koi eating out of their hands. "When I feed, the fish will actually come out of the water, because they know the closer they get to my hand, the more food they will get," says Larry Leverett, a member of the Inland Koi Society and vice president of the Associated Koi Clubs of America. Leverett's five koi are more typical of what you'd expect in a backyard pond.

When the Kimbles approach their pond, the fish swarm to the spot where they are always fed, leap out of the water and jostle for position. "They feed like piranhas," Tami says fondly.

The happy home the Kimbles have created for their fish family (as well as for two dogs, two cats, four chickens and a rooster), started out as an acre that grew nothing but weeds. It grew them enthusiastically, too, giving Tami and Ben shoulder-high brutes to deal with. By clearing the land, installing an irrigation system and bringing in truckloads of mulch, the couple laid the foundation for the vegetable, flower and water gardens they have today.

The pond that visitors will see on the tour is actually the second one the Kimbles installed. They put in the first in May 1998, then last September began replacing it with a pond that is sturdier and deeper, with more than double the water capacity. The larger pond is healthier for their fish, which don't tolerate large swings in water temperature. The temperature in their big pond doesn't fluctuate more than 10 degrees from night to day, Ben says.

Constructing the second pond took the Kimbles 2 ½ months as a mostly do-it-yourself project with considerable help from their friend, Tony Simental, of TNT Koi in Moreno Valley. The second pond and landscaping cost about $15,000, says Ben, who offers this advice: "Do it right the first time."

The pond's rock waterfall was installed by Pat Galvin of Pat's Koi in the Woodcrest area. The waterfall and a bronze fountain with four leaping dolphins are functional as well as handsome. The water's movement adds to it oxygen.

Landscaping around the pond has been an ongoing, hands-on project. For instance, the Kimbles put in the slate-and-cement walk a few feet at a time after work and on days off from their business. Tami and Ben, both 40, own Wienerschnitzel restaurants in Colton and Moreno Valley. "We come home, this is our solitude," Ben says.

Ben is a big fan of color, so he landscaped with a bright palette, using a wide variety of flowering plants, including alstroemeria, snapdragon, columbine, day lily, iris, armeria, Angel's trumpet, pansy and petunia. He describes the koi-pond garden's theme as "just miscellaneous" and adds, "I couldn't make up my mind." So the mix is a little tropical, a little rustic and a lot whimsical.

A garden-art menagerie of coyote, deer, squirrel, raccoon and rabbit, as well as a prospector and his donkey, populate the area. The pond's resident gardener is a plaster statue the Kimbles call Henry, a wizened character who sports a straw hat with a red flower and coveralls and carries a watering can and rake. Ben and Tami, who are enamored of the Old West, picked him up at an antiques auction. "He looks like his wife is saying, `Hennnnn-RY! Get to work!' " Tami says.

Henry oversees an investment of about $7,000 in koi, Ben says. The smallest and most unremarkable fish in the pond cost $10. "The most I've paid for a fish was $250," says Tami. At 20 inches, it's a good-sized red koi with black markings and -- this is what beguiled Tami -- very long fins, like a butterfly's wings.

The couple were once severely tempted by a $1,200 koi that was bright red with leather-like skin. Its pattern was so beautiful, Tami says, "it looked like it was hand-painted." Still, says Ben, "I couldn't force myself to pay that much for a fish."

Not content with the 105 koi in their big pond, Tami has about 60 newly hatched koi in a 300-gallon tub on the back patio. What are her plans? "I don't know yet," Tami says. "They're my babies."

Judith Graffam can be reached by e-mail at jgraffam@pe.com or by phone at 909-782-7512.