How to feed Koi and Goldfish, including winter feeding, what how and when to feed Koi.
Welcome to FeedingKoi.com - I hope this site helps!

FEED YOUR KOI
To read about different food and learn about resources to find the best ones, please visit Koinutrition.com
FEEDING KOI IN WARM WATER - SUMMER FEEDING OF KOI
Feeding in warm water

Feeding fish in warm water is an interesting conundrum. To succeed you need a strong equilibrium between the fish, the water's oxygen levels and the demand for it by beneficial bacteria (Equilibrium by luck or by design). The fish NEED a lot of food because they are burning a LOT of calories. The pond's biological reduction system is optimized and working ferociously on fish wastes. Warmer water carries less oxygen. Still, in most ponds a natural balance is forged which can usually handle this. But there's risk.

Feeding Koi a lot of food in the warm months is desirable, and it ensures good health and growth. But if you go too far, and overfeed them, the water quality will deteriorate and if you overfeed enough, there can be a sudden bloom of bacteria that will:

1. Cloud the water

2. Weaken or stress the fish

3. Consume much, if not all, of the available dissolved oxygen.

Don't take this lightly, because even with your years of success, you can get into trouble. I did this one summer. I fed heavily and the fish were doing well. What I did not acknowledge was that my oxygen levels were TEETERING in the danger zone because of the ferocious use of oxygen by the fish, the feeding and the biological bacteria, and the warmth of the water. I went to net my favorite fish up, and she simply stroked out for lack of Oxygen in her peak metabolic condition and then compounded by warm water and the chase.

What Can You Do?

Well, waterfalls do a LOT to contribute oxygen to the scenario. So breathe a sigh of relief if you have a robust set of falls. Additional water pumping with a spray bar can increase oxygen. If the pond is in filtered sunlight or only gets baked for part of the day, it will be cooler, and contain more oxygen. Shade cloth is employed seasonally on some ponds in the hot Southwest. "Feeding hard", but being alert is an ingredient for success. And finally, intermittent water changes can simultaneously contribute to a coler ambient temperature and reduce the fuels used by damaging bacterial blooms.

Water Change Routine During Feeding Season:

10% per week

20% every 2 weeks

30% every 3 weeks

I am a lazy Koi keeper, and so I am the guy who does 40% about once per month. Slap me later.

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Dealers


Finding Reputable Dealers
The fish are only as good as the dealer holding them. Quarantines, guarantees and fish quality all factor in. What to ask, what to see and how to handle your new fish.

KOI ALBUMS

Fish Medicines
Learn about fish medicines, what they do, and where to get them.

HAVE YOU SEEN OUR FORUM?
Koivet.com has the finest of online forums. Help comes from experienced hobbyists and even more than a dozen helpful moderators who attempt to mentor you through a crisis, or make you feel at home. This is a civil board without so much of the snobs and elitists you find featured elsewhere.

Koi health & disease message board for help with sick fish, Koi diseases.


FISHMEDICINESS.COM FAST FISH MEDICATIONS

When fish are sick, you need medications FAST, and you need customer support. Use Fishmedicines.com for your fish medications and take advantage of top notch customer support. The medicines and their purpose can be found at that site as well as resuorces to buy them from various businesses. Fish medicines
Koivet.com
Koivet is a venerable, long lived koi and pond fish health site started by Dr Erik Johnson in 1994 as an off shoot of his first few websites at Mindspring.com. Now Koivet is full of information and movies and more.

Koi Beginner
Once you've leapfrogged through this tutorial you will have a solid, working concept of the Koi hobby and what it's all about. This is done just about exclusively with video and very little written material.

DrJohnson.com
More than koi health, this site spans all things animal, by a real veterinarian who shoots you straight.

Fishdoc.co.uk
By Frank Prince-Iles. A UK authority who put this site together some time ago and which is still relied upon as a major source of good Koi and pond fish information

Fish Medicines
Learn about fish medicines, what they do, and where to get them.

PondCrisis.com
If you have a koi, pond or fish problem, this site takes you through twenty easy questions and at the end you know what you need to fix in your pond to create restored Koi health.

KoiCrisis.com
Koi Crisis has a symptoms chart by system you can choose the symptom by fish part, and resolve a lot of Koi pond fish problems or at least, learn about them understand how to remedy them.

Buying Domestic Koi
What does "Domestic" koi mean? Why would you buy that kind? How do you pick good and healthy ones? Who sells them and where do you find the best ones?

Buying Imported Koi
A Japanese or Israeli imported Koi is a beautiful thing. Why would you buy one of those? How do you identify a "good one"? And what kinds are there? Who would you buy one from?

Koi Filtration - Bead
With a little bit of management every week or so, you can have gin clear water in your koi or fish pond. Bead filtration is more than ten years old and defines the state of the art in Koi and pond fish ponds.

Koi Filtration - Natural
Requiring no weekly management but one big yearly overhaul, natural filtration is the easiest there is. Relying on live plants and organic processes, water quality is usually superb. Described and common mistakes illustrated, visit this site!

Koi Food & Feeding
What should you feed your koi? How many times per day? Is Corn really that bad in a Koi diet? What are the most common feeding mistakes people make? What's the best food?

Koi and Pond Hard Goods
So many places these days, are pure ripoffs. Finding a reputable dealer of koi and pond hard goods isn't as easy as you would think but there's ways to tell. The product line should be to-the-point and not contain shams. Who's doing it right? Visit this site!

Finding Reputable Dealers
The fish are only as good as the dealer holding them. Quarantines, guarantees and fish quality all factor in. What to ask, what to see and how to handle your new fish.

Books on Koi Diseases
You will be introduced to Dr Johnson's Koi Health book but also to other books he's reviewed.

Help With Koi Problems
Koi Community rates a variety of forums and message boards on ease of use, friendliness and quality of help. Not all boards are created equal. Not mincing words here.