Page 53 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 83

FEEDING YOUR KOI

A simple guide to help you understand the
different types of Koi food, when to feed
them, and why.
David Brown.

In their natural environment carp can feed all day on
natural live food, our Koi cannot enjoy that luxury so we
have to feed them manufactured food of which there
are many on the market.
There are floating pellets, sinking pellets, pellets to
enhance colour, pellets to increase growth, pellets to
increase digestibility (all these in different sized pellets),
and to make it still more confusing some manufacturers
make the same product, but brand it to be sold by
A KOI CAN different retailers – confusing isn’t it.
ONLY ABSORB When Koi first hatch they feed on minute creatures
living in the green water, which gives them a high
A LIMITED protein diet necessary for them to develop a strong
AMOUNT OF skeletal structure and this continues until they’re big
enough to feed on very small, high protein, pelleted
NUTRITION AT food which is around 60% protein. Young Koi are just
like children, they need to eat to make them grow. I
A TIME remember when my sons were growing up, my wife
and I had hardly got in the front door and our sons were
straight in the supermarket bags looking for something
to eat – young Koi (Tosai) are just the same!
As Tosai grow and enter their first winter, if their pond is
heated they will continue to eat ravenously on regular
feedings of a high protein pelleted growth food. I say
regular feedings, because a Koi can only absorb a
limited amount of nutrition at a time and overfeeding
either bloats them and gets them out of shape, or they
eat the food which is too much for them to digest,
resulting in excessive waste being released into the
water and putting extra load on the filter.

The best method of feeding, whatever the size of Koi, is
a little and often, which is why automatic feeders have
become so popular. The required quantity of food can
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