Koi Fish Food: What to Feed Your Koi?

You have to be very careful about Koi fish food because these Koi fishes love to experiment with several kinds of food stuff, often consuming food that is unhealthy for their constitution and because of their voracious appetites, tendency towards gastronomic experimentation and robust eating habits; they stand the chance of falling sick often.

It therefore depends on you to oversee their eating habits. When it comes to staple Koi fish food, you can give them commercially prepared Koi feed that are sold in the markets under various brand names.

You can simply do a search in the internet and you will be bombarded with many different varieties of commercial Koi food which are all nutritionally balanced. Another plus point of Koi food is that they have been designed in such a way that the food will float on the surface of the water and therefore, the Koi fishes will be enticed to come up to the water surface.

Other things that you need to feed your Koi fishes to offer them a refreshing change are citrus fruits like watermelon, oranges and lemons, lettuce, shrimps, fish and peas, since Koi fish food has to be suitable for omnivorous taste buds. These fruits should be fed to Koi fish occasionally because they are an important source of vitamins and minerals, essential for the koi’s growth.

But remember to deseed the fruits and halve or quarter them and when the Koi School has finished nibbling at the pulp, you have to remove the skin from the water. The 2 kinds of Koi fish food that are sold in the market are pellets and sticks.

Since kois enjoy a peaceful temperament, they can be fed out of your hand and while feeding them, you can check out their bodies for ulcers and parasites. You will feel flattered to find that your Koi followers recognize you (if you feed them regularly) and they will surround you at their feeding times.

One more thing that you have to remember is that Koi fishes, being omnivorous by nature, love to chomp on plant matter and they will dig through the mud and try their best to reach aquatic plant roots and nibble at them. So you have to take necessary precautions if you keep aquatic plants in your Koi pond.

During winter times, Koi fishes go into hibernation and their digestive system starts slowing down till it grinds to a halt and in these cold months, they consume negligible amounts of food. Usually they survive on algae nibbling that they find at the bottom of the pond. When the temperature rises in spring and the water starts growing warm, their appetite also records a slow return.

Under 10 degree Celsius bitterly cold temperature if the Koi fishes continue to eat food rich in protein, they can fall sick because the Koi fish food they consume may turn rancid in their tummy.