Just curious, how often do y'all feed?

[PondMomma]

Just out of curiosity, how often do y'all feed your pond fish? When you buy fish food it always say the same old 2 or so times a day as much as they can eat in X amount of minutes. But the more I read about other pond people, it seems like maybe a lot of people don't feed very often!

 

[addy1]

Very seldom. They are always eating on the cams, love picking at the hornwort.

 

[mrsclem]

When I was trying to grow my koi out to sale size- 4-5 times a day with color growth food. Now, maybe 2 times a week with just color food. Will increase it as it gets later in fall so they are well fed going into winter.

 

[Tula]

Every evening.

 

[j.w]

Hardly ever feed my goldfish. They eat bugs,algae, worms, plants and their own eggs and offspring!

 

[Lisak1]

We usually feed our fish every morning. But if we're busy, or it's raining, or too hot, or too cold, or we forget they're on their own. And the looks we get the next day... haha!

 

[poconojoe]

We feed twice a day during the summer.
Depends on the type of fish and how many the pond can sustain. I think goldfish can do fine with less or no feedings, but koi need to be fed. It probably also depends on what is in your pond. If there are a lot of plants, roots or algae for them to eat, then maybe you can get away with feeding them less commercial food.
That being said, I think feeding them is part of our human enjoyment of owning a pond. I still enjoy seeing them go crazy for a couple handfuls of food. I get to see most of the fish and if there are any health problems I can spot that too.

 

[Ray G]

depends on the season. In the middle of summer when the temperature is often well over 100F during the day I would feed my koi up to 5 times a day with high protein pellets. In the middle of winter when the temp is about 50-60F I feed them maybe twice a day. Usually during the afternoon when the water has warmed up a bit. Koi need a fair bit of food when the water is warm and their metabolism revs up. I haven't kept goldfish for a few years now but they were more able to look after themselves I found. Note I have no plants in my pond so the koi eat algae as soon as any appears. Also I have a large filter to handle the biological waste. my pond has a long waterway they can swim in so they get a fair bit of exercise.

 

[addy1]

Mine are all nice and fat even with out feeding. I never see a starving looking gold fish. I do feed now and then, but not often. They do fine over winter even without fluffing for the winter. But I have a ton of plants, algae, bugs etc for them to eat.

I watch them on the cams eating the hornwort during the winter, constant snacking going on.


All goldfish/shubunkins

 

[Jhn]

Feed roughly three times a week. Have goldfish, koi, orfes and catfish in the pond. I wouldn’t even feed them that much, but the turtles I keep need to be fed every other day, so the fish need to be distracted, so the turtles can eat there food. My pond is heavily planted though, with plenty of plants for the koi and goldfish to pick at, also there are tons of aquatic insect and worm life in the pond

 

[cas]

Every morning except in winter.

 

[Lisak1]

That being said, I think feeding them is part of our human enjoyment of owning a pond. I still enjoy seeing them go crazy for a couple handfuls of food. I get to see most of the fish and if there are any health problems I can spot that too.

Totally agree with both points - I like to convince myself that my fish are excited to see ME, but I know it's really that handful of food they hope I'll be tossing in the pond. And I do like to get an up close look at everyone, count heads, see who's growing, make sure everyone is looking good. And when we had a bunch of koi we were more diligent about keeping them fed. I wasn't worried so much about them starving as I was about them deciding to eat all my plants... I think once they start that, it may be hard to get them to stop.

 

[j.w]

I think those pigs ate all my Hornwort! I need to throw some duckweed in there for them as they munch that stuff up quick. I raise it in another small pond I have as if I put it all in the fish pond there would be none left.

 

[PondMomma]

@Jhn what type catfish? I think it's so neat when people have fish other than koi and gold's. I would love to have 2 ponds one day, one for my gold's and one for fish like cats, bluegill, bass.

 

[PondMomma]

I love to feed them daily but I think my little pond does better if I feed every other day. I like when they get super excited for an easy meal and they look like some crazy scary movie coming at you so fast