COQUILLE — What began as a hobby has become a sanctuary for finned, feathered and four-legged animals and water vegetation for Bay Area native, Paula Taylor, and her husband, Chuck.

The couple, who already owned Pacific Koi & Water Gardens and The Pet Stop on a two-acre lot in Coquille, started a new koi food manufacturing business, Miracle Koi Food, around the first of the year.

“This is just a hobby that went wild,” Taylor said, sitting on the edge of a pond in front of her businesses, leaning over to drop pellets in the mouths of about 30 koi and goldfish, each sloshing toward the food in her hand. The water bubbled and gurgled orange, yellow, white, black and gray, with fish ranging in size from five inches to about 2-feet long. Round mouths surfaced and gulped periodically.

“The biggest fish in the pond are 7 or 8 years old,” Taylor said. “They have individual personalities.

“This gal is my older one,” she said, dropping the small brown morsels mixed with funny little dried bugs into the fish’s wide-open mouth. “She’s an old grandma.”

The Taylors live in a house on the same land as their businesses, at 1295 Grape St. They find it easier that way. They have to take care of a family of ducks, a goose, goats, chickens and the koi and goldfish Taylor sells and keeps as pets. They also have a turtle habitat and more than 100 tubs of water plants, including 35 varieties of water lilies.

About a year ago, Taylor found that her fishes’ favorite food, Miracle Koi Food, was becoming difficult to get from the Washington-based manufacturer. Taylor talked to the owner of the patent, who, after taking a short time to think about it, sold his business to Taylor.

Now, with the addition of a 40-foot container that serves as her manufacturing facility, she makes her own “gourmet blend” from preserved immature insects, pupae, larvae, shrimp, krill and earthworms. The retail price is $10.95 per 1-pound package. Taylor said this high-protein diet is essential for giving the fish a shining, lustrous appearance. Also, the fish like it.

“The fish go crazy over this food,” Taylor said. “As a matter of fact, I’ve had about five different customers tell me their fish won’t eat anything else now."

Recently, she got e-mails from three different South African koi suppliers who have inquired about buying about 10,000 bags of food. In her first year, Taylor only manufactured about 5,000 bags. Taylor thinks a larger manufacturing facility is in store for them.

“I kind of thought we’d grow in increments, not in one fell swoop,” Taylor said.

Twenty-two years ago Taylor, who is native to the Bay Area, traded a Myrtle Point beekeeper some beehives that were in her wall for her first koi. When she decided to expand her pond, she found supplies were hard to get.

“I couldn’t find any decent fish or plants, so I started looking all over the state,” Taylor said.

Taylor had already been running The Pet Stop, a dog and cat grooming and supplies business, for eight years when she opened Pacific Koi at the same location nine years ago.

Each of the animals on their land appear to serve a purpose. Three dogs guard their home and businesses. Chickens and a pair of mallard ducks and their ducklings eat the slugs.

“They’re the slug patrol,” Taylor said. “I used to come out here on rainy days and find 200 slugs out here.”

The ducks are guarded from raccoons by a large brown and white goose that has adopted them. A fake heron perched on the edge of the 6,000-gallon, three-foot deep pond keeps real herons away, Taylor said.

“I never lost a fish out of this pond,” she said.

Many of her fish have hatched from eggs laid on plants she pulls from the pond and puts into bogs above the pond. Most of her fish that are for sale are purchased from suppliers. Once, a batch of fish from Bangkok brought in a virus.

“Now, we buy only out of Florida — fish that are already tested,” Taylor said.

Even so, she said, she quarantines them in separate tubs for at least three weeks to check for viruses.

Taylor belongs to two koi clubs, is taking a class through the Better Health Practices program and every May holds her own water seminars, “Water Gardening Made Easy,” teaching people about pond building, bog filtration, parasite control, soil-less planting and more. She also conducts free water quality checks for her customers.

“I’m into educating people so they can be successful with their water quality and their fish health,” Taylor said.

Visitors are welcome to tour the ponds and bogs at Pacific Koi & Water Gardens. The business is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. For more information, call 396-6800.