What do you feed your Koi?

[Airic]

Are you serious? How many Koi do you guys have?

 

[RSFish1]

Well I raise and sell Koi every year. It's a hobby turned obsession. Right now I have 60 Koi 6" to 20". Add in another 300-400 babies from 1" to 4". The bigger Koi go through 5-7 pounds a week minimum when it is warm enough. The babies go through a couple pounds a week. I may actually go through more pounds then I wrote earlier. LOL

 

[Airic]

RSfish1, Do you have a web site or details on what you sell? I'm curious on what you have available. I'm here in Indianapolis as well. As I'm developing my pond and learning more I'm becoming more interested in specific type of Koi.

 

[27goldfish]

Purina game fish pellets

 

[carolinaguy]

a nationally known koi vet uses three different foods simultaneously for feeding. he is very familiar with pellet manufacture and does that to avoid buying a feed with substandard ingredients. the manufacturers buy lowest cost raw materials and could use a substandard ingredient in a given production run, so by mixing three, you avoid that problem. we buy in bulk and use a mix of hai feng, blue ridge, and blackwater gold in the 33 and 50 pound bags. we can get hai feng at 2.91 a pound total cost, blackwater at 2.83 and blue ridge at 2.21 per pound so the cost isn't bad. we have used mazuri platinum, 1.20 a pound, tetra, and purina fish chow at 90 cents a pound. the purina and mazuri use an attractant that discolors the water, but the mazuri isn't as bad as purina and its a good food.

as for food ingredients, i'd really steer clear of corn and beef based ingredients because of the digestion issues. koi also use aqua sourced protein better than land sourced and they can't digest carbohydrates very well. carbohydrates are usually used as binding agents in food to keep the pellets together rather than as nutrient sources. they use aqua proteins at 80 percent efficiency or higher and land based at around 60 percent according to one aquaculture guy i know.

as for hai feng, it's simply the best darn food we have ever used from both a growth and waste perspective. we cut our solid fish waste down by as much as 80 percent with hai feng. as for growth, our fish have simply outgrown the charts in many cases. of course genetics plays a roll as much as nutrition, but we had one that went from 5 inches, standard length to 14 inches in maybe five months, but then he's a pig anyway and is the first and last to eat.

 

[carolinaguy]

on amounts of food, you can figure on 1.5 to 2.5 percent of total body weight per day for the 6 to 8 month feeding season. we have about 65 pounds of fish in our pond right now so we fed about 18 ounces a day over the summer. we bought about 180 pounds of different feeds this year. that's probably about $500 for the season. we also tried ziegler aquaculture feed this year, and it came in at about $2.35 a pound i think. bought it at the orlando show. good stuff too.

 

[sanrem]

Not happy with commercially produced koi food, I decided to make my own, or rather, to have my house staff make the most nutritious koi food ever. It is really as simple as making dough for bread with a lot of nutritious condiments thrown in, then shaping the dough with the three fingers of the hand into round pellets. It is a labor intensive and time consuming process but it gave me peace of mind, knowing that I am feeding my pet kois with the best fish food on the planet. Freshly caught krill ( yes, it’s the same shrimp-looking little creatures that whales gobble up daily by the tons) serves as the main attractant and protein source. Dried krill gives off that delicious aroma that fish loves. It is mechanically fast- dried and pulverized and added to the combination wheat flour and oatmeal (for carbs and fiber), together with carefully measured multi-vitamins, minerals and trace elements, cod liver oil, omega-3 oil, vitamin E, Beta Carrotene, amino acid supplement and dried and powdered moringa leaves ( google moringa and be surprised by its tremendous nutritive value). Not only do kois love this food, it is also making them more healthy and robust and gives intensity and more brightness to their colors.

 

[DrDave]

So are you here to give us the exact recipe and how to make it ourselves, or to try and peddle it on our forum?

Not happy with commercially produced koi food, I decided to make my own, or rather, to have my house staff make the most nutritious koi food ever. It is really as simple as making dough for bread with a lot of nutritious condiments thrown in, then shaping the dough with the three fingers of the hand into round pellets. It is a labor intensive and time consuming process but it gave me peace of mind, knowing that I am feeding my pet kois with the best fish food on the planet. Freshly caught krill ( yes, it’s the same shrimp-looking little creatures that whales gobble up daily by the tons) serves as the main attractant and protein source. Dried krill gives off that delicious aroma that fish loves. It is mechanically fast- dried and pulverized and added to the combination wheat flour and oatmeal (for carbs and fiber), together with carefully measured multi-vitamins, minerals and trace elements, cod liver oil, omega-3 oil, vitamin E, Beta Carrotene, amino acid supplement and dried and powdered moringa leaves ( google moringa and be surprised by its tremendous nutritive value). Not only do kois love this food, it is also making them more healthy and robust and gives intensity and more brightness to their colors.

 

[sanrem]

So are you here to give us the exact recipe and how to make it ourselves, or to try and peddle it on our forum?

The recipe can be anything. If you know how to make cookies, you'll know how to make koi food. All I'm saying is, if you have a dog you love, you either give it dog pellets which you buy from the pet store or supermarket or throw it a juicy piece of steak. No hidden agenda there.

 

[DrDave]

Just checking.
Welcome to our forum.

 

[ponderpaul]

I have bought all my fish from the same breeder. He raises them on catfish feed, I buy it from him and continue to feed it. The fish seem healthy and happy - good growth rate also. I know, the purist are pulling their hair out at this -- budget also enters in here. After I have time to find my way around, I will post some pics

 

[carolinaguy]

the only feeds i've heard about not using are dog food and maybe trout feed but not sure about the second one. i just heard about a ziegler product that was recommended by the user and was really, really low cost ----something like 50 cents a pound. i'm thinking of adding it to my food mix.

 

[ponderpaul]

I realize this thread is about normal diet stuff but; I have one fish that is fond of the big white grubs that are common in our part of the world! But, none of them will take an earthworm???

 

[lifeworthliving]

Mine won't even eat grubs!