Moving fish from Flakes to pellets

[natbla]

I want to try and move my fish from eating Tetra Pond Pond food for small fish and koi (a flake food with 28% protein) to Microbre-lift legacy high growth & energy, (40% protein) that comes in small pellets. All but one of my koi are 4" in length, my butterfly koi is 7" and the 4 goldfish are 6-9" in length. My newest koi were raised on pellets so they will eat the small pellets, but the others that I have won't touch the pellets other than to suck in and spit out. All the fish wolf down the flakes and are less enthused about the pellets. I want to make sure I'm doing the transition right, or if I might be doing it too soon given fish size.

What I'm doing is replacing 1/2 of the flakes in a feeding with the same pond surface area of pellets. That is, instead of two large pinches of flake, they are getting 1 pinch of flake and a similar size handful of pellets 2-3 times a day. I figured it was like switching food for the dog - blend over time until only new food. Is this the right way to get them to eat the new food?

 

[don't ask]

don't see anything wrong with trying that way... some fish just might take longer to adapt to the new food and pellet form, once they watch the other fish eating them they will join in sooner or later.. as far as what looks like spitting out, it could be that even the small pellets are too big for the smaller fish.. as it gets soft they may try again and have success... not sure you can only get the small fish to eat flakes until they grow more, but given time they will figure it out, and they can always eat algae.. or you may want to crush or break up the pellets more

 

[natbla]

Right now there is plenty of algae, fly larvae, and as of today goldfish eggs to eat so they are not starving. The pellets are baby pea size, but one does fill the whole mouth opening of the smallest fish so maybe feed a mix for a while longer makes sense.

 

[JohnHuff]

Your method sounds about right but the pellets are too big. Try using small or medium sizes. I remember when I fed them freeze dried shrimp. At first they disdained the haute cuisine but as soon as one fellow eats it the others will try. My fish now will eat anything: I feed them ants, aphids, worms, they'll eat them all.

 

[Shoestring Ponder]

natbla, could you possibly soften the pellets or some of the pellets w pond water. Let them soak a bit and then feed them. That may help them with the spitting out of the harder pellets. Once they get used to the size and softness, then you could not soften them as much and thereafter feed them right out of the container. Maybe they will switch over faster for you? :goldfish:

 

[natbla]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think what I'll do is try and soften some tonight for the evening feeding mix, and put off making the full transition for a week to help them get use to the pellets. I think it will be hard to find smaller ones as these are 1/8 inch or smaller in diameter.