Fish Nutrition

Protein                  

• Essential to Koi and Goldfish
• Do not use a one-sided protein source as certain essential amino acids may be lacking.
• Choose 2 good quality foods and mix them (along with some treats!).
• Some foods become rancid at room temperature.
  • Do not freeze food unless specified to do so.
  • Refrigerate foods that might get rancid.
• Choose foods that have fish or other water creatures as top ingredients.

Carbohydrates    

• Koi and Goldfish are functional diabetics since they don’t produce insulin.
• They do seem to enjoy foods with high carbohydrate content.
• Carbohydrates help improve their body shape.

Treats                    

• Koi and Goldfish seem to like the following foods as treats:
  • Cheerios (especially Honey Nut Cheerios!)
  • Krill
  • Dark green vegetables
  • Silkworm Pupae
  • Earthworms (if fresh from soil the soil won’t hurt them)
  • Watermelon
  • Cantaloupe
  • Grapefruit – Good source of Vitamin C, they love it, and it floats nicely when cut into pieces.
  • There are others – be creative!

Feeding                 

• One of the biggest mistakes people make with their ponds is to overfeed their fish!  Overfeeding can result in a big increase of ammonia and/or nitrites and nitrates, thereby affecting water quality.  Water quality is the most important factor in fish health.
• Feeding your fish can be fun so don’t deprive yourself (and them) of the activity!
• Feed only what your fish can eat in 5 minutes once or twice a day.  Do this by tossing a few pellets at fish who are “begging” at the surface.  When they take the food then toss a few more pellets.  Don’t just toss handfuls in and hope that all the pellets get eaten.
• In the Spring, don’t start feeding fish until the water temp reaches the mid-fifties (F).
• In the Fall, when the water temp drops into the mid-fifties, stop feeding your fish food that contains protein. You can continue tossing Cheerios to your fish for awhile (for perhaps a few weeks because the breakdown products do not include ammonia and they are easily digested by the fish).
• If fish had a health problem going into winter, you might feed medicated food in the spring, as that is a stressful time for them.