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Hey carl...good questions....
fasting koi is an effort to duplicate the natural conditions from which they are subject to. in a lake of any depth where temp is not subject to turn over by a pond pump, fish will head for the depths to a temperature they can be comfortable at. It amounts to about a foot a degree. So if the surface is 33 f then at 25 feet they are comfortable at 55 F. Their metabolism is controled by temperature...that's why ice fisherman chop thru feet of ice and still find hungry fish!
Vegetable protein is easier to digest over animal protein hence the popularity among koi keepers in lower temps to feed wheatgerm over white fish meal.
Whether you subscribe to the theory that the koi should be subjected to a cold period, mother nature to insure the procreation of the species has the females putting protein into egg production in advance of spring spawning.
Therefore this means that if you heat and feed that's what they're doing with it as opposed to putting on length. If you don't have a pond spawn every coupla years and the eggs are not re-absorbed then you can have some losses thru a condition known as being egg bound. Since the pond population
can be injured in a spawn most don't care to have one in an uncontrolled environment. So many will deliberately spawn their show females....carefully under controlled environment and limited males.
Toshio sakai of matsunosuke fame confided to me many years ago that it was important to hold the females at 52 F and allow them to experience winter while not feeding for several months. I have followed his regiment for a coupla decades now.
My own wisdom is you can feed tosai year round, most nissai as well as all the protein is going into growth length as sexual maturity is not a concern. I felt that if top breeders had their valued breeders and tategoi go thru winter
( and it would be just as easy if not easier to heat and feed) to take the path of more resistance..there has to be a purpose for it. My hosokai tosai are at 55 F because they're in with the girls and while I believe it may slow them down in growth compared with others fed the next two years I believe over their live time they will equal out.
in ending let me say that i have never lost a female to being egg bound. I can name names of thos who had. Also the color went to #$%^&*! and the body shape looked something akin to a sumo wrestler after years of mid 70's F round the clock...in short I endorse it as a logical path to take.
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