beautiful baby koi....

This past spring our koi spawned for the first time. We had just cleaned
and refilled the pond so there wasn't much microscopic life for the babies
to live on - however about 10 did survive in the thickets of water plants on
the shelves. Of the 10 only one has poor coloring. The rest are golden
yellow, spotted, blue ...... I'm thrilled. :-)

Since feeding our koi and goldfish the catfish-food ($10 per 50 lbs) from
the local feed store they've grown like CRAZY! We mix it with about 30%
regular koi chow (small size) for the smaller fish in the ponds.
--
Carol.....
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that
we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
- Theodore Roosevelt -
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Congrats on your babies!
Do you know if it's ok to feed koi and goldfish CAT FOOD? Judi

it is not a good idea. cat food is cheap because it is made out of really cheap
ingredients, mostly grain. cat fish food, OTOH, is made to fatten them up fast cause
they are harvested in the first or second year so quality and the health of the fish
long term is not important.
our pet fish need higher quality higher protein and higher fat food for good health.
AND because we can feed so little of it and get fantastic growth. all food has
"bulk" or fiber that is not digested. cheap food has a great deal more of this that
high quality food. now the results of using cheap dog food is easily seen as much
bigger steaming piles of undigested matter (crap) compared to high quality food.
While those steaming piles may be spread out on a field or picked up, when fish are
crapping all that undigestible matter into the pond it just overloads the filter and
the fish have to swim in fouled water. Overfeeding even high quality food can do the
same thing.
the other issue is what GF and koi can digest. they have evolved to digest water
based food really well, mostly little animal critters with high protein, high fat,
low cellulose content. They dont digest carbohydrates well at all, so all that corn
and wheat in cheap food is in one end, out the other. So you can decide to feed high
quality food most of which is digested, feed very very little and dont foul the
water, or you can feed lots of the cheap food that does foul the water. Up to you.
Ingrid

(Judi9000) wrote:
Congrats on your babies!
Do you know if it's ok to feed koi and goldfish CAT FOOD? Judi



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Thanks for the info. I was just curious because birds fly off with pieces of
our dogs food and sometimes they drop it in my ponds. The fish seem to love it.
I also have a friend that knows someone who feeds his koi cat food. Is it ok to
sometimes give the fish dog or cat food or to avoid it altogether? Also my fish
love oranges and lemons. Judi

you want to give the fish a real treat.... but small cocktail type shrimp for em.
Ingrid

(Judi9000) wrote:

Thanks for the info. I was just curious because birds fly off with pieces of
our dogs food and sometimes they drop it in my ponds. The fish seem to love it.
I also have a friend that knows someone who feeds his koi cat food. Is it ok to
sometimes give the fish dog or cat food or to avoid it altogether? Also my fish
love oranges and lemons. Judi



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

Every time I tried to feed my koi the cat food. I always got an "oily
rainbow sheen" on top of the water.
Anyone else get that?

You know, after reading your messages I decided to check out some other koi and
gf foods. I noticed that the first ingredient in all of them was wheat and the
second corn. What food do you use that doesn't have the grains as the first 2
ingredients? I also read somewhere that wheat germ based is best for the fish
when the temp.drops. Judi

I usually drop just a few pieces at a time so the water doesn't have a chance
to get oily. Judi

Where do you get the cocktail shrimp? And is it bad for the fish to eat lemons
and oranges? It seems like this would be a real healthy treat for them with all
the vitamin C. Judi

On 11 Nov 2003 05:00:30 GMT, (Judi9000) wrote:

Where do you get the cocktail shrimp?

Same place you get ...

And is it bad for the fish to eat lemons
and oranges?

all of which are fine for them to be eating. My favorite process food is
ShoKoi & ShoGold www.pondepot.com or www.pondrx.com are a couple of places
that carry these. ~ jan
See my ponds thru the seasons and/or my filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Defrosted~
Tri-Cities, WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website