What Are You Feeding & Where are You Buying Your Koi Food ThisSeason?
 

Koi-Lo wrote:

My NR can't tell who this is addressed to as it's under Jan's but the quote
is from my message. I have between 20 and 25 koi that are up to 6 years
old, about 120 year old koi (that are being delivered this coming week) and
probably 50 goldfish of various sizes and ages. That's why we buy our feed
in 50 lb bags. Last year they and all the fry went through about 100
lbs of
feed. We have a long feeding season here in TN, from mid/late March to
late
Nov or early Dec.

120 koi? Wow. Where are you going to put them all? Are any BF koi?
Yellow BF koi are my absolute fave, with orange a close second. :-)

--
Put the word aquaria in the subject to reply.
Did you read the FAQ? http://faq.thekrib.com

What Are You Feeding & Where are You Buying Your Koi Food This Season?
 

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:13:05 GMT, Altum wrote:

Koi-Lo wrote:

My NR can't tell who this is addressed to as it's under Jan's but the quote
is from my message. I have between 20 and 25 koi that are up to 6 years
old, about 120 year old koi (that are being delivered this coming week) and
probably 50 goldfish of various sizes and ages. That's why we buy our feed
in 50 lb bags. Last year they and all the fry went through about 100
lbs of
feed. We have a long feeding season here in TN, from mid/late March to
late
Nov or early Dec.

120 koi? Wow. Where are you going to put them all? Are any BF koi?
Yellow BF koi are my absolute fave, with orange a close second. :-)


I thought you had ordered some really old koi. I was going to ask how
long koi lived.

Galen Hekhuis NpD, JFR, GWA
Stings like a butterfly, floats like a bee

What Are You Feeding & Where are You Buying Your Koi Food This Season?
 

"Derek Broughton" wrote in message
...
~ janj wrote:

I don't think any of us here on this newsgroup has a koi in the 50 year
age range, that they've raised in a garden pond setting. When someone
does, that's the person who will get my attention. I bet we find out it
comes down to not just processed food, but quite a bit of natural whole
foods too. :o) jmo, ~ jan

On the side of the cheap-food feeders, there's the argument that nobody
here
has a koi in the 50 year age range :-)

I've never lost a koi to disease or starvation. I don't intend to fatten
them up on expensive food just for the sake of the Herons and Raccoons :-)
(I doubt anyone would ever accuse me of overfeeding, either).
====================
They always seem to fall back on those using cheaper feeds as "overfeeding"
their fish. My koi and GF ate the *SAME AMOUNT* of expensive foods they did
the cheaper foods when I switched. My filters still had to be cleaned every
2 weeks or so - there was no difference in the amount of feces, mulm or
algae. They spawn perfect fry with almost 99% survival rate. So why feed
the expensive foods? I just don't get it?!?!?!

It kind of reminds me of the vets who charge the farmer 25¢ for a capsule of
antibiotic and the poodle owner $2.50.
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
rec.pond's FAQ are at: http://www.geocities.com/justinm090/faq.html
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

What Are You Feeding & Where are You Buying Your Koi Food This Season?
 

"Gareee©" wrote in message
...
"Derek Broughton" wrote in message
...

On the side of the cheap-food feeders, there's the argument that nobody
here
has a koi in the 50 year age range :-)

My opinion? I'm cheap, I spend as little as I can when I shop for myself,
and the fish aren't any better then me.
======================
Gareee, look at the pics of the GF and Koi on my website below - do they
look obese, half dead and/or sick from trout, catfish, puppy and kitty chow?
The pics I see of show koi are all fatter than my koi. Some look like
stuffed sausages that couldn't even turn around if their life depended on
it! I'm with you and don't plan to make a few obscenely greedy feed
companies richer......
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
rec.pond's FAQ are at: http://www.geocities.com/justinm090/faq.html
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

What Are You Feeding & Where are You Buying Your Koi Food This Season?
 

"Altum" wrote in message
. net...
Koi-Lo wrote:

My NR can't tell who this is addressed to as it's under Jan's but the
quote
is from my message. I have between 20 and 25 koi that are up to 6 years
old, about 120 year old koi (that are being delivered this coming week)
and
probably 50 goldfish of various sizes and ages. That's why we buy our
feed
in 50 lb bags. Last year they and all the fry went through about 100 lbs
of
feed. We have a long feeding season here in TN, from mid/late March to
late
Nov or early Dec.

120 koi? Wow. Where are you going to put them all?

Almost all are being delivered (next week) to a store in the city that sells
pond fish and supplies. :-) I also have about 6 adults that he'll take in
a few weeks. We have to remove some from the 2000g pond as it's getting
overcrowded.

Are any BF koi?

Yes, many of them being sold are BFs. But I will still have a 680g tank of
about 25 small butterflies because I haven't decided which to keep for
myself yet. I want them to pattern and color up a bit more before I sell
them. Eventually I will have *only* butterfly koi. They're definitely much
more beautiful than the short-fin koi. I have both scaled and scaleless,
mirror and diamond-scale BF koi in many colors. I even have two
ghost-diamond-scale BF koi.

Yellow BF koi are my absolute fave, with orange a close second. :-)

YEP!!! I love the orange and yellow diamond-scale butterflies and have
several breeders. :-)) My 800g has nothing but young adult diamond-scale
butterflies. I also have a gorgeous blue mirror butterfly.
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
rec.pond's FAQ are at:
http://www.geocities.com/justinm090/faq.html
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

What Are You Feeding & Where are You Buying Your Koi Food This Season?
 

I hate to jump into this thread as it is a pretty passionate one here - I
have to agree with Jan as I went thru the same experience as Jan a few years
ago - my cat had to go in for a operation and the vet gave us some "high
end" food for her recovery - 3 days later we called him as she was passing
almost no waste compared to before and we were worried something was wrong -
he said the food we were feeding her before was loaded with filler and less
nutrients that she could use - it was not medicated, just more expensive
food because of less filler, ergo less waste to pass - I went to better food
for the pond and now clean my upflow filter once a season rather than 3 to 4
times / season with same amount of food (my choice - I spoil my pets when
they beg :~) )

Gale :~)
I found that out with dog food years ago. Small dog, grocery store "cheap"
brand, feed 3 cups. Higher priced, but vet recommended brand, feed 1 cup.
Price difference, practically nil, when one takes in that ratio. Big
difference, how much comes out the other end.

In fish, if your filter can handle it, and you're not worried about the
other concerns, no biggie. With dogs, again if you're not worried about
health concerns (which was the reason that made us switch), if you don't
mind picking up more poo. No biggie.

I don't think any of us here on this newsgroup has a koi in the 50 year
age
range, that they've raised in a garden pond setting. When someone does,
that's the person who will get my attention. I bet we find out it comes
down to not just processed food, but quite a bit of natural whole foods
too. :o) jmo, ~ jan


~ jan/WA
Zone 7a

What Are You Feeding & Where are You Buying Your Koi Food ThisSeason?
 

G Pearce wrote:
I hate to jump into this thread as it is a pretty passionate one here - I
have to agree with Jan as I went thru the same experience as Jan a few years
ago - my cat had to go in for a operation and the vet gave us some "high
end" food for her recovery - 3 days later we called him as she was passing
almost no waste compared to before and we were worried something was wrong -
he said the food we were feeding her before was loaded with filler and less
nutrients that she could use - it was not medicated, just more expensive
food because of less filler, ergo less waste to pass - I went to better food
for the pond and now clean my upflow filter once a season rather than 3 to 4
times / season with same amount of food (my choice - I spoil my pets when
they beg :~) )

Gale :~)


OK, I hate to jump into this as well but....now I will certainly agree
that there are fish foods as well as other pet foods on the market that
do not contain as much fibre or filler - hmmm, aren't we all encouraged
to eat fibre that we cannot digest as part of a healthy diet??? and
doesn't this apply to the health of our fish as well....a natural
balanced diet contains protein, roughage, vitamins, minerals etc in fact
fibre is seen as a very posititive thing for our well being and the
health issues without it are quite significant - it might suit us if our
pets poop a little less but I very much doubt that it is beneficial to
their health....our medics would be in a panic if we didn't produce
sufficient waste products diagnosing all sorts of stuff...over here, in
the UK, the more regular and sufficient quantity the better (without
wanting to get gross) for our health as far as our medics and health
education is concerned...I don't think animals are any different...

Now, I don't seem to remember anyone suggesting that they are buying
cheap food full of fillers just alternative commercial options...the
fish food for commercial use is cheaper because of the quantity it is
purchased in...does it need to say Koi on the label??? or is that just
another marketing ploy....if the fish are breeding and healthy and have
good colour do we need to take issue just because of a labelling issue????

Gill

What Are You Feeding & Where are You Buying Your Koi Food This Season?
 

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 10:15:11 -0700, ~ janj
wrote:
snip
I don't think any of us here on this newsgroup has a koi in the 50 year age
range, that they've raised in a garden pond setting. When someone does,
that's the person who will get my attention. I bet we find out it comes
down to not just processed food, but quite a bit of natural whole foods
too. :o) jmo, ~ jan


~ jan/WA
Zone 7a
Perhaps not, but I do have two koi and a few white amur that were
placed in the pond back in early to mid 80's and are doing just fine?
I have to think that a natural pond and chepaer food is more of a
better deal than a liner type pond and cheaper food would be. I can
probably in all reality, get by without feeding anything to the fish
at all and they would do just fine, but that takes a wqay a lot of fun
and getting them to be so frieindly. Oh and corn, well, my babies
would have to dissagree on that too, as many a time I set out by the
pond and share a lage bag of Popcorn with them, often times popping a
bag just for them..They like the cheese flavored or the extra butter
flavor best.
--
\\\|///
( @ @ )
-----------oOOo(_)oOOo---------------


oooO
---------( )----Oooo----------------
\ ( ( )
\_) ) /
(_/
The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....

What Are You Feeding & Where are You Buying Your Koi Food This Season?
 

"Koi-Lo" wrote in message
...

Gareee, look at the pics of the GF and Koi on my website below - do they
look obese, half dead and/or sick from trout, catfish, puppy and kitty
chow? The pics I see of show koi are all fatter than my koi. Some look
like stuffed sausages that couldn't even turn around if their life
depended on it! I'm with you and don't plan to make a few obscenely
greedy feed companies richer......

Yep.. I can see no reason why I can buy 50 lbs of food for $6 or for $30.. I
might was well buy the fish shrimp and toss it in there.

Course I suppose if I was making $300,000 a year then I would buy the
expensive food, just because I could.

--
Gareee©
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

What Are You Feeding BF Koi
 

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:13:05 GMT, Altum wrote:

Yellow BF koi are my absolute fave, with orange a close second. :-)

Oh man, I wish I had a digital picture to send you of some of my 2 year
olds. Yellow and black. One of them currently has fins that are orange &
black, while the body is yellow and black. The fins look just like a
leopard, very cool. I'm down to culling so I'm not over crowded, and the
choice is really hard, after culling several times before this last year.
In fact, this time around I'm selling my first baby who is now 5-6 years
old. The bigger the fish, the more room I gain. :-) I was also going to
sell Wally, at BF (butterfly) koi I got for a $1.50 at Walmart over 10
years ago. I recently found out he's a Kikokuryu. The interesting thing
about this fish, is the pattern changes on his head. At one point it looked
like a cat face, with whiskers, ears, eyes, etc. This year it looks like a
black spider with 6 legs. Kind of hard to sell him now, as I really like an
odd koi. ;-) Yeah, yeah.... Takes after the owner. ~ jan


~ jan/WA
Zone 7a