HOW, WHAT AND WHEN TO FEED KOI

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HOW - WHAT - WHEN - TO FEED KOI

3 Live videos of my fish eating watermelon 06/05

Blaze has her own table to eat on

Blaze has her own table that she likes to eat "on"

Click to enlarge photos

When to feed a reliable Feeding Schedule - By Temperature

61 degrees + Twice daily or more

56 - 60 degrees Once a day

51-56 degrees Two to 3 times a week

46-50 degrees Once a week Do not feed again until spring when water temperature reaches 46 degrees...

46 degrees Do not feed

How to Feed

It is better to feed a few small meals a day rather than one or two larger meals. Koi do not have stomachs so what goes in one end is passing right through the other end. So, they could eat 24/7. The problem is if you over feed you stand a very good chance of polluting the water and that will bring on its own set of problems.

What to Feed

Any good quality food. Corn *should not be * listed in the first 5 ingredients. Corn is a cheap filler, makes the fish fat and is bad in general. The first ingredient should be fish, fish meal or other fish type product. My personal choice is Sho Koi brand. Not the top of the line but a good quality decently priced food that is affordable.

Treats

I buy salad shrimp when it is on sale and cut in pieces, shell and all for the larger fish. For small fish, I run it through the blender.

I buy mock crab when it is on sale. They love this as a treat.

My fish love watermelon (they only eat the pink part) , grapefruit, oranges, ( I feed citrus if I have sick fish and they are eating- vitamin C is good for sick fish. I sometimes inject vitamin C into sick fish) any salad greens (no head lettuce no nutrients for them or us), go light on spinach (can cause kidney stones) shredded cabbage, zucchini, (now you know what to do with the ones that get left on your porch in the middle of the night LOL!!) earthworms.

Just about any fresh fruits or veggies. I also feed them duckweed/fairy moss (my fish get 3 pounds every Sunday night and it is gone by Monday morning). I grow water celery just for them. I leave it in the pot and switch the pot for a new one once they have eaten it down. They do not eat the stems so I remove it to a bucket of water until it grows new leaves. I have 5 pots just for them that I switch back and forth. Oh yah and you can use the water celery in salads for your self. They will NOT eat bananas. Broccoli is good too but it takes time for them to get used to it

Basically experiment, you will soon find what they will or will not eat.

Here you can see Blaze getting her vitamin C from a grapefruit slice. In case you are wondering, I have netting over the pond because of a problem with Kingfishers.

Fresh seafood minced up to bit size pieces. Earthworms cut into bite sized pieces for small fish or whole worms for the big guys.

Here you see Sunny helping herself to the water celery I have in the pond just for the fish to snack on.

The sky is the limit and do not be afraid to experiment with foods. NO meat, bread, pasta or sweets, etc. Too fattening for the fish and not good for them.

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