Koi Feeding Tips

Seeing koi feeding from the hands of their owners is an amazing spectacle. These fish recognize their owners and gather round for the feast. They can be trained quite easily to eat from their owners’ hands and exhibit playful behavior during these times. Although they are usually bought as decorative and colorful ornamental fish, owning koi is far more than just watching them.

Koi eat anything from meat and fish to fruits and vegetables. Their color can be influenced by their diet and that is how early Japanese breeders developed their glorious array of colors and patterns. When temperatures fall during the winter months they hibernate and don’t need feeding at all though they may eat algae on the bottom of the pond. When the warmer weather comes and the water temperature is between sixty and seventy five degrees Fahrenheit koi have a surprising feeding capacity. It’s important during these times that good quality food is used for koi feeding as this will reduce their tendency to feed on anything else they come across such as insects or even worms and snails. They have even been known to pull themselves half out of the water to feed on vegetation.

A healthy diet is important for the longevity of the fish and also helps to bring out more brilliance in their coloring and this means getting enough protein, fat, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Koi don’t have stomachs; they ingest the food which is then crushed by projections from the gills and passes to the esophagus and down to the intestines. The intestines of smaller fish are quite short and are geared toward digesting proteins but as the fish grows the intestines lengthen up to four or five times the length of the fish to allow for the longer digestion needed for plant based foods.

One of the ways to ensure they are getting the right supply of food is to use pellets from your local supplier. Some pellets are designed to float on the surface of the water and some are designed to sink to the bottom. Using floating pellets encourages the fish to come up for their food. This is the time to inspect your fish and see that they are healthy, colorful and free of any injuries. The sinking form is better suited to their natural behavior of bottom feeding, but it means you won’t see your fish as it eats.

It is not wise to over-feed your fish. Give them enough for about five minutes of eating. You should also make sure during this time that smaller fish get enough food too and this is an excellent reason for training the fish to feed from the hand. Make sure that their diet is adapted to the season. Feeding koi more proteins in the summer months is important for their growth rate, including live foods such as worm and cockles, and cereals in the winter months when the food stays longer in their gut. Their annual growth pattern brings out rings on their scales, like the rings on trees, that can indicate their age.