Page 45 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 53

WHICH IS THE

BEST FOOD FOR

OUR KOI?

David Brown.

When I first began keeping Koi, the premium Koi
food I used was Hikari. Over the years many Koi foods
have come and gone, but which food is the best for
our Koi?
There are floating pellets, sinking pellets, pellets to
enhance colour, pellets to increase growth, pellets to
increase digestibility, all these in different sizes of
pellets; and to make it still more confusing, some
manufacturers make the same product to be sold by
different retailers who brand it as their own. Confusing
isn’t it.
PRODUCTION The production of Koi food is a carefully formulated
process and I remember listening to an unbiased talk
OF KOI FOOD IS given at the South East Koi Club some years ago by
A CAREFULLY Dr. David Pool, who worked for many years at Tetra.
He said one could not just look at the percentage of
FORMULATED protein marked on the packaging, as it was the quality
PROCESS of the protein and the quality of the other ingredients
which was reflected in the price of the food.
I’ve heard a similar example that a bag of chicken
feathers contains protein, but it’s the wrong type of
protein and is of no benefit to our Koi. I saw a bag of
trout pellets on a stall at our local market, these are
very cheap and designed to put weight on to fish at the
most cost-effective price, for use in the food industry –
but this food is not suitable for our Koi.
Sadly today, so many things are bought on price, but
it does seem that, as with most things, you get what
you pay for!

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