[ppp]

JR posted under another parish that following too aggressive a feeding routine may often shorten the life of a koi (hope I didn't misinterpret you there, JR?). As a relative newbie who has not yet seen the full cycle of koi keeping, I am curious as to the following.

Take a base case situation of an aggressively fed koi. It reaches its peak size (let's just say 85cm) at the age of 7 (at which time its skin quality and colours also peak), lives for another 3 years and dies at age 10.

If I reduce the feeding routine significantly from the start and, let's just say, succeed in prolonging the koi's life span to 15 years instead of 10 years, can I envisage a situation where the koi's skin and colours already peaked at age 7 when the koi was only, say, 75cm - which is too small to compete for GC - and when the koi finally reaches its peak size of 85cm at age 10, the skin and colour quality has already gone downhill? In such a case, the koi never really fulfilled its potential (together anyway), did it?

The next question then would be, IF feeding 3% of body weight is considered to have adverse effects on the life span of a koi, what is the maximum that one can feed without unnecessarily inadvertently shortening the life of the koi whilst at the same time still be on track for the koi to attain its full potential albeit at a later age?

I realise that there may not be an altogether scientific answer to these questions, but all input would be greatly appreciated.