Koi Feeding Tips

Your feeding habits throughout the fall and winter months can have a significant impact on your fish’s health throughout the rest of the year.

Below we will give you some important tips for fall and winter feeding.

After the long winter your fish tend to be less hearty. They become more vulnerable to disease as fluctuating temperatures increase their level of stress. In order to help protect your fish during this vulnerable time, you need to make sure that they are getting a well balanced diet.

In the wild your Koi would basically eat anything that it could find that moves, including mollusks, crabs, and fish. Anything that lives in water would be a tasty meal for a Koi, whether salt water or fresh water. To prevent these types of foods from transferring parasites and diseases to your Koi make sure that they are cooked prior to feeding them to your fish.

Your fish will also see health benefits from a regular supplement of insects including worms, grubs, and spiders. The most important rule here is not to feed your fish anything that will bite them. One good option is insects which have been commercially dried.

While Koi eat much more than goldfish, your goldfish would probably still enjoy and benefit from insects added to their diet. Be careful about floating insects on top of the water if you have fancy goldfish, as their swim bladders could have problems if air is sucked in from the surface.

Food that slowly sinks is the best bet for your fish. Food that floats, such as dried insects and fish flakes, should be soaked before being fed to your fish. You can also use this method to add vitamins and other supplements to your fish’s diet. Some good choices include spirulina, Vitamins A, B, and C, as well as wheat germ oil and fish oils.

You should start preparing your fish for winter as soon as the temperatures begin to drop. In order to give your fish the proper food in the proper portions you will need to know the water temperature. A thermometer is a necessary investment if you want to keep your fish healthy.

You should begin to add some wheat germ based food into your fish’s diet as soon as the water temperature drops to 70°. Their diet should consist entirely of wheat germ based foods without proteins as soon as the water drops below 60°. Proteins are much harder for your fish to digest and should be avoided during the winter months.

As long as the water temperature stays above 50° you can continue to feed your fish the wheat germ based food all winter long. The calorie requirements of your fish will drop along with the water temperature, and their metabolism will start to slow if the water drops below 55°.

You should stop feeding your fish entirely if the water temperature drops below 50°. You should refrain from feeding your fish every time there is a chance of the water temperature dropping below 50° within the next couple of days. There is a danger of food decaying in the fishes system and emitting fatal bacteria as fish will not be able to digest food in cold water.

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