Kois are friendly fish and koi are valuable fish. Clearly, these little darlings deserve only the best feeding. A small overview of the feeding of the koi and the types of food available from us:
How often does a koi have to be fed?
A koi is an omnivore. Like us, he eats animal and vegetable food, and there is also an optimal composition for a healthy diet for the Koi's body. It starts with thinking about the frequency and amount of feeding:
If the Koi is allowed to live in an environment that corresponds to its natural environment, it will live in fairly warm water in summer and then need nutrient-rich food. The koi is native to every mild body of water and generally eats at any water temperature between 7 and up to 30 degrees, but the digestive system is at temperatures of 23 to 26 degrees most active. If it gets warmer or colder, the digestive capacity decreases, so the amount of feed has to be reduced. This is often overlooked, many koi have died from overfeeding, and some have probably never starved. The amount of feed should therefore be measured with care.
How often is fed therefore depends depends on the water temperature, the lowest measured value is decisive. Since koi don’t have a stomach, they cannot eat in advance; they need small amounts at the right intervals. As soon as excretions float on the surface of the water after feeding, you have through them Feeding causes digestive disorders in the koi, the amount of feed should then be reduced will.
Warning: risk of overfeeding
To avoid overfeeding your koi, you should first observe the following rule of thumb: Smaller koi always get as much food as they can eat in 5 minutes. Medium-sized koi can take 10 to 15 minutes with their meal and large koi 15 to 20 minutes.
Setting the ideal amount of feed becomes difficult when small koi and large koi are combined in one pond being held. Small koi eat more than large koi in relation to their own body weight, and they also eat faster. With such a mixed pond you cannot do much more than calculate the daily amount of feed afterwards, that you determine the optimal amount for the total weight of all fish and this amount by the number of feedings share.
In summer, the koi should be approx. Getting and eating 1 to 2% of their weight in food. If you do not do this, if you suffer from a loss of appetite, the water quality should be checked. In addition, the koi need a quiet environment so that they can eat in peace. In any case, it is important that the amount of feed is reduced when the water temperature is lower and that it is fed less frequently.
If the water is below 10 degrees, the koi are fed no food at all, between 10 and 13 degrees they are fed once or twice a week, from 14 degrees two to three times per week, from 16 degrees once or twice a day, from 18 degrees two to three times, from 20 degrees you get 3 to 4 meals, from 23 degrees 5 to 6 and from 26 degrees then only 3 to 4.
What does a koi eat?
For the Kois, food is available for sale, which is supposed to bring about an optimal nutrient balance. There are different shapes for fish of all sizes, powder for baby food, crumbs for fry and pellets for adult fish. This feed is sold as swim feed or sink feed, which is usually the case for the garden pond Swim lining chosen, the koi should be watched while they are being fed.
Most of the food is dried to a water content of around 10%, but now vacuum-packed food is also being offered. Whether this is a good idea or just suggests senseless freshness to the consumer depends on the ingredients. In any case, you have to pay close attention to the shelf life of this food and use up opened packages quickly. The feed is usually composed of:
- approx. 30 to 40% crude protein,
- 5 to 8% raw fats,
- 3 to 4% raw fibers
- and approx. 10% crude ash.
The mixture is made from fish meal, shrimp flour, wheat flour, alpha flour, wheat germ, wheat bran, rice bran, soy, yeast, skimmed
Milk. Also some insect pupae, sodium phosphate, minerals, vitamins and substances like salt and Spirulina, which are supposed to aid digestion, are included, with differences from manufacturer too Manufacturer.Anyone who knows a little about nutrition will immediately shy away from mentioning wheat germ and skimmed milk, that is certainly not what a koi eats in natural waters. So it is, especially the carbohydrates in the given form and quantity are not only small in koi food but are also associated with frequent inflammation in koi fish by experts brought.
Best composition of Koi food
According to the current state of science, a feed with 41% raw protein and 21% raw fat is ideal for koi. The fat is needed to use the protein. If it gets too little fat, the fish uses larger amounts of protein to meet its energy needs and releases ammonia in the process, which can be fatal for the pond water and for the fish.
Fish feed with such a composition is rarely offered in stores to consumers, only if you click on it professional fattening feed or look around carefully on the Internet, you could find an appropriate one Find food. At Koi Landau from 76829 Landau in the Palatinate there is z. B. Koi Balance, a year-round food that has been put together according to scientific considerations.
However, you could also produce your own Koi food if you have the appropriate information. Koi eat a lot of things in natural conditions that you can buy in any grocery store or already have in the pantry or refrigerator. There is also a lot of koi food in the garden. It is not for nothing that the fish with the wide-ranging appetite are also called pond pigs Most Koi even have their favorite food that you can explore while preparing the food yourself could.
