How to Feed Your Koi Fish

Feeding Koi fish is one of the most exciting and fun tasks. However, people often forget to consider a few things during this fun process, such as the quantity of feeding and where they should feed them. For this reason, we have mentioned some important aspects of feeding a Koi fish that you need to know before having one of the best experiences of life.

What Should You Feed to Koi Fish?

Feeding koi fish depends on their size, age, and the season. Generally, koi can eat anything that you feed to goldfish. These fish are technically carps and can eat anything organic . You can give koi vegetables, breakfast cereals, krill and plankton, and dead leaves; you name it. You can feed them any type of food which not even other species eat.

If you are purchasing food for them, try to get it in bulk as t his will be cheaper for you. Some foods can enhance the color of these fish, while others can provide vitamins to boost the immune system of your
koi fish.

Overfeeding

The most common mistake people do is overfeeding their little pets. This is because people find it interesting and fun to feed fish. At feeding time, these fish come to the upper surface of the water; hence, you can see them and give them food. People who love nature will find it adorable to watch their favorite fish enjoying food.

Overfeeding can occur when your fish eat more than their need. This can lead your fish to fall sick and produce excessive waste than they should. This can cause many problems like disturbing the water quality. Moreover, fish that get more food in ornamental pond facilities are likely to develop large bellies. Koi fish can begin to look like tadpoles with the wispy tail and the big body. However, your fish will not die because of it, but it can affect their liver and other organs, which can be severe. So how many times can you feed them?

You should not feed them more than three times a day. In cooler water, you should give them food one time each day. Moreover, in warm water, you are allowed to feed them three times a day.

You should feed kois five times each feeding session. If you don’t find them up and eating vigorously, this is a sign about either they are too warm or too cold. There may be some other reasons why your Koi is not hungry. In this case, feed them lightly. Furthermore, if they are feeding vigorously, you can throw the food on the water for five minutes until all the fish in the pond get away. Never throw so much food that it keeps floating on filter or skimmer.

Underfeeding

Sometimes people get so busy that they forget to give food to their fish every day. This can widely affect these big fish, especially in summer, causing them to lose their weight rapidly. It happens because their metabolism is working, but is not getting the required calories.

It can also affect the small species and prevents them from developing and can also kill them. Species in the pond with natural forage and other plant items can find food themselves from nature and are less dependent on humans for nourishment.

If your fish is growing around half an inch to 1 inch per month, they are getting enough food. If no, you may be underfeeding them, not providing quality food for their development, or keeping them in facilities too small. Signs that you are underfeeding your koi fish include slightly sunken eyes, bigger heads, poor colors, kink at the base of their tail, thinness, inactivity, and emitting white stool.

Where to Feed Koi Fish

Choosing the right place to feed your fish is vital. Most of the people choose the easy method and feed fishes all at once near the skimmer area. This is because they don’t know the technique to sprinkle the food for around five minutes. They throw the entire coffee-can of fish food four feet from the skimmer.

As a result, the hungry fish will swim in the polluted water. Don’t take skimmers as a problem; they are great, but this method is causing trouble. Find a place where you can feed your fish and where the food doesn’t get to the skimmer too quickly. Choose the place for feeding time.

Tips for Feeding Koi Fish

Koi fish have three minutes’ memory, yet they learn to remember their feeder’s face. So if you want to become your koi’s favorite face, consider the following tips of feeding.

• Koi can eat your food. They love shrimp, cereal, lettuce, peas, rice, and watermelon.
• Don’t feed your fish before storms. They need more oxygen when digesting food. When it rains, oxygen becomes lower in the air, so it’s not good to feed them.
• Your Koi can remember the feeder’s face after only a few days. If you keepfeeding them, they will start to greet you when you reach the pond.
• Smaller/young koi fish need small koi food or flake, where as mature koi fish need pebble food.
• Koi fish prefer carbohydrates early in the spring and late in the fall while they need protein in early summer, which is the time of mating.
• Koi fish can live happily without eating in winter because their metabolism lowers down during this time.

Bottom Line

Your experience of feeding koi fish will become easy and more fun after applying the tips and considering the aspects mentioned above. Just make sure that you are feeding them in a precise amount and not polluting their water.