Here fishy, fishy, fishy…
One of best things about having a pond is watching our graceful Koi gliding in the water. I’ll leave the technical stuff to the text books, but in case you are not familiar, Koi are in the Carp family. There are hundreds of categories of Koi & they come in so many different colors & patterns, but we‘ll talk about that another time. Today I want to talk about feeding Koi & goldfish in your pond. Every day I receive calls or emails from my customers asking me when to feed, how much to feed, how many times a day they should feed & what to feed. Search for Koi feeding on the internet & you will get many different answers to these questions. If you look on the Koi food package or check the manufacturer’s website you will find they tell you to feed 3 to 5 times a day. Of course, we all know they are trying to sell you more food. The best rule of thumb is to feed your Koi in warm weather only once or twice a day only what they can eat in three minutes time. Any more than that & you will be feeding the waste in your pond making it hard to keep your filters clean & your pond healthy. Truthfully, you could easily go two weeks or more without actually feeding them. Koi are bottom feeders by nature & will eat the algae & muck from the bottom or sides of your pond helping to keep it clean. If you have a problem with algae or muck built up on the bottom of the pond then you are feeding too much! I can here some of my pond buddies groaning right now “but I love to feed my fish“. I have a solution for you, try substituting fresh fruits & veggies for Koi pellets a couple days a week. Our Koi go crazy for watermelon & bananas. Sounds strange doesn’t it? We also feed them Zucchini & frozen peas. If it’s good for you then it’s good for your Koi babies. Plus this is a great way to use up those over ripe fruits & veggies that you hate to throw away. http://www.backyardgetaway.net