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26-05-2019, 02:01 PM #1
Drip feed or large feeds for growth
Hi,
I was wondering how do you find the best way to feed your koi for growth? I have the auto feeder set to 12 times per day, I don't feed huge amounts, but just drip feed, I'm not totally sure this is the best way
Last year at The All England I was chatting to one of the guys showing his koi and they were huge, he told me he only fed twice per day, morning and evening,
I'm intrigued to know what have you found best for growth?
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26-05-2019, 03:06 PM #2
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27-05-2019, 09:41 AM #3
I personally believe small feeds often is better.
It is with Goldfish that's for sure.
Big feeds have too many nutrients for a fish to absorb in one go, so much of it would be wasted, which is evidenced in ponds with excess of protein foam.
Mike Snaden says he feeds small amounts often, but if you feed too much in May the fish get fat or produce eggs so he doesn't feed a lot at this time of year, then doubles the feed once water is over 23C in July/August as that's the time they will utilise all the food for growth.
Maybe not quite the same principle, but if you feed fry all their food twice a day they don't grow, and some die and the water becomes hard to manage. If you feed them the same amount of food spread out on an hourly basis they grow rapidly, and water conditions are easier to manage.
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27-05-2019, 03:16 PM #4
I also think that unlike mammals etc. fish generally don't have stomachs so they can't "store" food for later digestion. Smaller more frequent feed should therefore theoretically be better.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk//Kevin
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27-05-2019, 04:36 PM #5
Carp don’t have stomachs, as many small feeds as possible is best. They are grazers like cows. Eat all day long in small amounts.
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High end goldfish collector
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27-05-2019, 04:41 PM #6
A bit of information about the koi digestive system for anyone that might be interested in why feeding the same daily amount of food in frequent smaller amounts is a more effective way to feed koi than feeding the same total quantity of food in larger amounts but less often.
Food passes through the gut at a steady rate and there are only a limited amount of the enzymes that are available for catabolism (breaking down the food as the first part of the digestive process). If only small amounts of food are eaten at a time then there will be sufficient catabolic enzymes for it to be fully digested. If we feed too much at any one time, there won’t be enough of these enzymes to break it all down in the limited amount of time that the food is in the gut. The result is that the food won't be fully digested and the undigested or partly digested food will simply be excreted.
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27-05-2019, 07:06 PM #7
last year my feeder was dropping in about 25 feeds and then i would drop another 5-6 in, in the evening, they were only 15 gram feeds, got some good growth.
I recently brought 2mm pellets by accident instead of 6mm, by my reckoning theres 29 x 2mm pellets to one 6mm pellet, and so now feeding time has gone from lasting about a minute that was quite frantic tbh, to about 20 minutes of leisurely grazing, im convinced this slow grazing style of feeding is much better for the fish. Its like they are having a meal instead of just stuffing their mouth full once, its also calmed them down because there thousands of pellets on the surface so theres no competition, everybody will get some, and it keeps them interested and active all that extra time too.
My meal time would be rubbish if all I could do was stuff was my mouth full once, and then I had to wait till next meal time for anymore.
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27-05-2019, 07:16 PM #8
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27-05-2019, 07:46 PM #9
not sure tbh, probably 15-20, I think more relevant Is how big are the fish though, because a big fish can take a hand full of pellets on its own in one go.
Ive got a chag that will take down a wholemeal slice of bread in one gulp, and thats the crust too!, greedy begger.
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27-05-2019, 08:00 PM #10
Fish in the man pond get a maximum of 6 feeds a day in late summer when I am feeding at circa 1kg a day. At present they are on a couple of feeds a day, still way too early to throw too much food at the girls..
Tosai will get more frequent feeds - as many as ten a day.
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27-05-2019, 08:07 PM #11
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27-05-2019, 09:22 PM #12
probably just a case of finding what works for you, its all the more difficult when you have fish or varying ages and sizes in the same pond, like Dave says Tosai want loads of feeds, big girls not so much, but how do you manage that when they are in the same pond?
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27-05-2019, 09:37 PM #13
Some interesting facts here,
Its always going to be a tricky one with different age and size koi, but I think drip feeding seems to be the way forward after reading these posts, its just a shame the rest of koi don't seem to grow as quick as chags!!
Getting koi up to 60cm is pretty easy, but going into 70+ range seems a little harder
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27-05-2019, 10:44 PM #14
i suppose my mistake of tiny 2mm pellets helps everybody get their fair share, because the bigger fish cant just gobble them all up, the smaller ones get plenty too, the smaller ones come up and get some, but theres still loads left for them to keep coming back for more for a prolonged period, as opposed to the larger pellets when its all gone in 60 seconds.
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28-05-2019, 10:46 PM #15
Feeding small pellets is one way to "manage" a pond with mixed size Koi. As with anything it doesn't fit all ideally, feeding a mix of pellet size and floating/sinking of each is maybe a better balance? You will I think find that the males benefit from the sinking feed.
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28-05-2019, 10:49 PM #16
The Daily pond temp thread
Still at around 17C, know what you mean about getting the covers off though :D it will be really...