Fresh Fish for Koi Food?

[PapaBear]

We often talk about different types of food for Koi and cooked shrimp and fish meal is mentioned, but never fresh or canned fish.
Does anyone out there feed cooked fish or canned such as Salmon or Mackerel canned in salt water brine?

[dick benbow]

my main concern with fresh raw freshwater fish is that problems could be transmitted thru the flesh...like disease etc. Salt water fish fed to fresh water consumers would work. Cooked is ok either way. careful with the oily fish, that's why most manufacturers use whitefish and not anchovies etc.....use sparingly

[PapaBear]

I was thinking much the same, but wanted some conformation. Raw would definitely be out of the picture for me and the oily types would have to be used sparingly. (anchovies yuck)

[Steve Nguyen]

I have been feeding my koi with raw shrimps once in awhile. didn't think of transmitting disease. it's a good point to take into consideration.

Steve

[PapaBear]

My koi go nuts for it Whenever they see me come in the room (the babies in the qtank) they start begging and literally tear it from my fingers when I feed.

[aquitori]

I leave all the animal protein in the pellets for my fish and balance the carbs out with Sweet Potato raw for the veggie protein. Animal protein is good but it should be as fresh as can be and from a relible source.

[kingkong]

I was told once by a Cal. koi grower that he had the most healthy and most robust koi in the area. He said it was due to using such oily fresh fish such as sardines, mackeral, kingfish and others I can't remember. They are very high in B12, sel.,mag.,omega 3 fatty acid and good in E and A with 42% fat and 57% protein. Weight for weight, the food value of fat (oily fish) is much higher than that of protein. The fish containing the most fat yields the highest food value.

Dry pellets' fish meal, comes from fish scraps, left over grizzle and fins, but still of value.

Shrimp like turkey is high in Tryptophan amino acid which can make one sleepy. Don't let those koi doz off on you.

[PapaBear]

Thanks KK, I didn't know that. That could help to explain thier feeding habit with shrimp. When I begin they are all at the top of the water going nuts, but once they've all gotten a good taste they are less agressive and just wait for it to sink down to them.
I tried a bit of mackerel yesterday. They went after it at first, but after one bite they all went to the corner and sulked . No kidding, I think it pi##ed them off . They forgave me later when I fed them some pellets .

[dick benbow]

just for clarity, most pellets contain white fish meal because it's better for the fish than oily fish. The buyers who buy the white fish for fish food have to compete price wise with buyers buying it for human consumption. It's the same quality. Prices continue to escalate and many food companies either raise the
prices or look for other sources.

as a personal observation I have seen a oily film on koi ponds where the owners feed pellets with anchovy.....

keep in mind I think the best food is that which can be easily digested and therefore used by our wet pets.....

for example did you know that spirulina has a 6 month shelf life? that most of the companies that sell this stuff have big promotional sales to move it off the shelf as it ages. The heat process of processing also does a number on it...what I'm saying is we could very well be paying for something the fish can't use.....so you have to ask how valuable is a food ingredient?

[Gallagher]

Hi Dick,
you bring a good point to our attn. How does anyone truely know the value of the pellet food we feed unless it's been tested for nutritional value by an independent lab. From wheat germ, spirulina to white fish every ingridient has a specific shelf life and I would guess nearing the end of it, if not expired, by the time it reaches us.
I remember in the late 60s when wheat germ was used by the health food co-ops etc. you aways had to be concerned that it would go rancid.
If you consider the time it takes from harvest, initial processing,delivery to the pellet food plant, where individual ingedience are mixed, processed and stored I cann't see where pellet food has anywhere near the nutritional value of the raw ingredience that went into it and it still hasn't gone through all the middle men and warehouse storage it takes to get it to shelf where we can buy it.
My point is, does anyone really know anything about the food we feed our koi?
If we are conciensious we feed, watch behaviors and the skin luster of our fish and settle in on what works for us.
Jim