Koi Fish Information Centre

In a message dated 5/31/2008 5:13:16 P.M. Central Daylight Time, phanso@yahoo.com writes:
Now one issue I’m trying to resolve is how often should I fee them. I was feeding everyday but on one of my visits to my local nursery/ koi dealer he recommended feeding once a week. Now this seemed like that frequency would help with the amount of waste the koi produced thus how much work the filter has to do but at the same time it didn’t seem like they would be as well fed as I would like them to be for proper growth and health. I’ve been doing the once a week but they don’t seem too happy with that plan so I plan to change to three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday.
I highly recommend this hobby to anyone with the space and budget (can be somewhat costly depending) It is very relaxing, rewarding and enjoyable to just sit and watch them swim. Feeding time is an especially interesting time. I think I will always have a koi pond as long as it’s feasible, no matter where I live. I thoroughly enjoy ponding.

How often you feed really depends on the filtration and the population. I feed during the summer months when the fish are in “big water” outside 8 times a day. I have 12,000 gallons in one pond and about 15 large koi that are kept in that pond (or they were until recently). So what I would do is feed once a day and keep an eye on your filter. If it needs cleaning more than 2xs a week, then you are either over populated for the water volume, feeding the wrong foods or you need to increase the filtration. Be sure to test your tap water also so you know what you’re adding to the pond when you do your water changes (20% once a week please) using a good dechlorninator. So glad you decided to give it another try. There is nothing more rewarding then to be able to sit by a healthy pond and watch beautiful fish swim quietly nearby…often begging for food as well!!.. And don’t feel to horrible about loosing fish last season. You will never know the cause, but you have learned a great deal making the hobby much more enjoyable now. Even those of us with a great deal of experience and have cared for large koi for many years (many years) can loose fish. We recently went through it also. Lost 1/2 of our collection to something unknown after a parasite treatment. We’re trying to figure it out now. All of our show koi are now gone. Very sad, but we’ll recover and move on. Those two large holes in my backyard deserves more fish otherwise they’ll simply become garden planters….and that’s not in the cards….. Sue

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Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society