Winter Feeding Koi in New Pond

[ootyboy]

Every piece of literature I read says to stop feeding Koi once the temp drops below 50 F - with a few contrarians that say to keep feeding very small amounts if the fish are active. Here is my questions:

1. My water temp is around 45F, but the fish during the day are very active and moving around looking for food. During the night I have noticed that they stay on the bottom and do not move. Given that my pond is less than a month old, and there is no algae for them to eat, should I feed them anything? Perhaps wheat germ? I would hate to starve them and cause health problems.

I realize that in an established pond there is a lot of stuff for the Koi to each, but in this case there is clearly no food source in the water.

[Rich L]

My only concern is the new filter. It will take a lond time for it to start up when the water's cold.

Otherwise, Koi can be fed a small amount once or twice a week when the water stys over 45 deg.

[ootyboy]

That is my concern as well. I will have to start off very slowly and keep a close eye on water quality. Thanks for the reply.

[KoiCop]

ob . . .

On Winter Feeding I
1 Feb 2007
pond temp is 48.2* . they want food...

On Winter Feeding II
25 Sep 2007
http://koishack.com/forums/index.php...st=20&start=20

On Winter Feeding III
2 December 2007
http://koishack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13378&pid=209699&st=20&#entry2 09699

On Winter Feeding IV
7 January 2008
http://members4.boardhost.com/koimag/msg/1199713708.html

[B.Scott]

With the filter completely uncycled, I wouldn't be feeding thema at all!