Feeding Right Food Is Useful to Keep Koi Active in All Seasons

You may be dreaming to possess a beautiful pond in your garden with a lot of Koi fish swimming around happily. In preparation, you must have set up a nice pond after consulting experts; you might have bought the best and healthy Koi fish for keeping in it. However have you considered a very important aspect of Koi care?

Well, it is relating to the feeding of Koi fish. Let me tell you the very easy tips to remember for their feeding. Koi can eat everything they are offered! They can eat meat as well as grass, snails, plants and worms with the same appetite. However, if you offer them food of good nutritional value, they will be healthy; will breed successfully and will live long.

Here are some important tips for their feeding -

1. Decide on the diet of Koi fish according to the size of their body and their weight. So if the fish is about 6" long, it will require about 5% of its body weight as its daily intake. If the fish is 8" long, it will require only 2% of its body weight daily.

2. Another important guideline about feeding is, you should provide Koi only that much amount of food which it can eat within 5 minutes after the feeding. If the fish is taking longer, it is an indication that it is not hungry or it is sick.

3. You should provide Koi some specific diet to brighten its Color. For this purpose, you can feed food with carotene. Vegetables like carrots will be useful for Koi with the red color. If your Koi is pink, you can feed it with algae called Spirulina Platensis.

4. During summertime, when Koi is active, you should feed it food of high quality. That is the need of its body. Food like brine shrimp or blood-worms is recommended at this time.

5. The diet should also include other nutrients like proteins, and minerals, vitamins and fiber. You can get them from fold like watermelons or vegetables like boiled cabbage or lettuce. It should be cut in very small pieces so that Koi can take them.

6. Koi becomes inactive during winter. Its digestive system also slows down. Its movements are lethargic and its food requirements are very low. During this time, you should not feed it in normal quantities. You can feed it only twice in a week which should be sufficient for its survival. During this time, it can eat algae within the pond which is a good diet for that time.

7. You should observe the body of the fish while feeding to find out whether there are any injuries or diseases. If you notice something unusual like white spots on its body, you should act immediately on it. You can also test the appetite of the fish while feeding.

8. When selecting food for the Koi, you should select the food which is floating. This will give an opportunity for the fish to come to the surface to eat. It will also give you a chance to inspect its body for anything unusual. During winter, you should offer sinking food because the fish may not wish to come to the surface.

9. While buying food from the market for Koi, you should read the labels carefully. Have a look at the ingredients. Remember, no single food packet can give you everything what the fish wants. You should make your own combination and if you have some time, you can prepare the food yourself.

Chintamani Abhyankar is a goldfish enthusiast and has been raising and breeding goldfish for many years. He is an expert on their care and an advocate for raising healthy goldfish the natural way. His famous digital book, "Secrets on Keeping Beautiful Goldfish", offers simple, easy to follow instruction for raising healthy, long-living goldfish. Visit his website http://www.goldfishcaretips.com to learn more about expertly raising your goldfish and to receive your FREE copy of his special report, "Fish-Keeping Hobby Secrets Revealed".