Feeding frequency, growth, & water quality

[Lam Nguyen]

Just finished reading an article in KN written by Jasper about feeding frequencies and its impact on growth rates and water quality and now I am one "lost lam", so I thought I would post to see if someone can shed some light on me and steer me in the right direction. In this article, JR states that research studies (oh, how I love these word!) have shown that multiple feedings resulted in less digestion of proteins & fats, resulting in lower water quality and poss less growth.

Wow, I find this very hard to "digest"! Afterall, it has been drilled in me that feeding koi small portions 5-7x/day is much better than feeding larger portions 2-3x/day. In fact, I don't know if it's a placebo effect, but i do notice that my koi grow better when fed 5-7x/day than when they were fed fewer times per day. I just wanted to hear what fellow KBers have to say about this.

[sactownkoi]

Good question. I use to feed 5-6 times a day in summer but this year I'm going to try EA food and they recommend only twice a day.

[farne230]

Thank God for JR, your article has saved me. I thought I was a bad koi keeper, since the only time I can feed is before I go to work and after I return. Most of the time when I return.
Bob

[MikeM]

My personal observation is that my koi like to eat and graze from sunrise to mid-morning. They then like to coast most of the day, with only light, occasional grazing behavior. As the sun lowers, they become more active in their grazing and swim in the areas where food is fed to them. As darkness falls, they move to the 'rest area' where they sprnd most of the night. On nights when the moon shines brightly, I see them venture back to the feeding areas, checking around the pond bottom and the edge of the pond at the water surface near a skimmer where sometimes a floating pellet stays against the pond wall. On moonless nights, when I've shone a flashlight, I have seen much less movement away from the 'rest area'.

I would feed 5 times a day if I could do so regularly... at dawn, about 2 hours later, early evening when the pond is fully shaded, just before sunset and around 1am on moonlit nights. As it is, I feed twice per day, but most evenings I give them a dessert of sinking wheatgerm a while after the regular evening meal (which is given a few pellets at a time over a period of a half hour or so).

I've read the Koi Nations article twice. I am not convinced that I should ignore my personal observation of koi behavior.

[farne230]

I agree Mike, each pond, water quality, locations and environmental conditions most probably influence common behavior and develops into a site specific comfort zone for our koi and stress is lowered and habits are developed.
Bob

[koibooi]

I have an auto feeder, one of those mud pond side ones that you see in Japan. Great investment and imported to South Africa through my local koi dealer. It has an electronic panel that you can set the feeding times and feeding duration. The unit runs off a motorcycle battery that is charged via a solar panel on top of the auto feeder.

I have a 30 ton pond and about 18 x 60+cm fish. I have a hugely over specked filtration system and feed 12 times a day with the morning 3 feeds and the evening 3 feeds being a bit longer (20 seconds) than the others during mid day (15 seconds). In total I feed about 900 grams per day.

I have always maintained that the only reason there are warnings on food packaging is because of poor filtration - not because of the koi. I apply a principle that the koi must have regular feeds of small quantities so that they can forage when they want to and eat when they want to. Summer water temperature between 24 C and 28 C. Winter time I reduce the feeding durations on the machine but not the number of feeds. Winter water temperatures between 17 C and 22 C.