Koi-Food

[bil]

To be honest, I'm not sure. Obviously, it will keep in the fridge for a few days, and in the freezer for much longer. However, as with all foods, the fresher it is fed, the better.


I compromise by freezing the protein base, then adding all the rest when I need it, and only making a day or two's worth of paste at a time.

[B.Scott]

Dick Bill is passionate about all food koi, dog and people!

If I may speak for Bil, he makes a base paste that will last in the freezer several months and then mixes the final ingrediants fresh the same day as he feeds it but it will keep a couple of days in the fridge.
B.Scott

[bil]

Now that's what I call precision posting.


Two minds with one thought.

[B.Scott]

A couple of "red arrows" we are!

[estanque_koi]

Thank you Brian and Bil for your explanations. Still a bit dumbstruck with your news about the short life expectancy of GC... it is hard to believe

I guess that with the recently increased interest in jumbo and jumbo tosai there must be a mixture of expectation and worries about what fate has in store for all these trendy jumbo promisses that seems to start flooding the market...

[Bill O'Brien]

Any thoughts on Hikari Gold now being made with corn ?

[B.Scott]

Diego,

Call me Scott not Brian

[bil]

Actually, it's spelt Brain, but pronounced Scott.

I quite liked JR's description of the GCs as cut flowers. Rather poignant when you realise they have such short lives. Since I don't have the slightest danger of ever going in for a prestigious contest, I can afford to think of my koi as pot plants, rather than cut flowers.

[Mike Snaden]

I notice that there seems to be a bit of a craze about feeding pumpkin/sweet potato, and tofu nowadays. But, I think that some people are jumping the gun a little, and here's why...

Momotaro only feed pumpkin and tofu to the 1500 ton pond. No other pond gets this same supplement. This is because the 1500 ton pond contains jumbo size Koi of up to around 98cm. The eating habit os big Koi differs greatly from that of smaller Koi. Small Koi will eat all of the food that they need within a few minutes. If they are allowed, they will often eat much more, and will get far too fat. Medium size Koi of perhaps 60cm, will eat probably as much as they need in 10 minutes or so. But, Jumbo Koi are very slow feeders, and in the case of being in the same pond as smaller Koi, the food will get finished up by the smaller Koi, with the big Koi going short of food. Big Koi may take up to 30 minutes of casual grazing, to eat the amount of food that they need in order to build a good body, and grow. Pelleted foods will have been skimmed off by this time, or will be of no decent nutritional value after this amount of time has elapsed, since the valuable vitamins and minerals will have been washed out by this time.
Pumpkin and tofu are fed as a once only daily feed, only for the jumbo Koi. This allows the Koi the time that they need to graze for this food, since it will lie on the bottom for around an hour before it is completely consumed by the inhabitants.
As hobbeists, we can only 'feed for the majority', not the minority! By this, I mean, that most people has Koi of greatly differing sizes in the pond. Hence, some Koi will get too much food (smaller Koi), some will get just the right amount (medium size Koi), and some will go short of food (big lazy Koi). So, we have to do what we think is best for the most popular size of Koi in the pond. If one Koi gets too fat, you can't lean off the feeding, and i one Koi gets too thin, you can't risk overfeeding the rest. This is why some breeders, or hobbeists keep different size Koi in different ponds. Naturally, some Koi will behave differently at feeding time, with some being voracious/fat, and some timid/slim, but this can't be helped.
Think a little more before joining the pumpkin/tofu craze. Will it really benefit your Koi?

Mike.

[markgardner]

Mike

But will it harm your koi feeding them sweet potato, tofu and pumpkin, irrespective of their size?

Mark