How to Find the Best Koi Food for your Fish
Anyone who has ever owned a koi has faced the problem of what to feed them. What is the best koi food to keep your new pet happy and healthy? It's a great question and not one that many koi parents know. As with every pet food some are better than others, so to find the best koi food for your fish your going to have to do the unthinkable. That's right you are going to have to look at the ingredients label - here's what to look for.
Protein
This is extremely important for koi fish especially when they are young. In fact during the summer between twenty-five and thirty-six percent of a koi fish's diet should be made up of protein(in the winter less is recommended), so it only makes sense that the first ingredient of a good koi food should be a protein. The best sources of protein are fish meal, soy beans, or other fish sources because koi cannot easily digest animal protein.
Fats
For adult koi only three percent of their diet should be made up of fats but for quickly growing young koi it should make up a whole ten percent! Clearly the presence of fats is important and it can be obtained in a few ways depending on the season. In the summer can be obtained through animal protein so if the first ingredient on your koi food's ingredient label is fish meal or another fish source it has already passed the fats test! However if the first ingredient was soy beans look for at least one fat rich ingredient in the first five ingredients.
Carbohydrates
The majority of a koi fish's diet is made of carbohydrates around sixty to seventy percent of it. Carbs provide your fish with easy energy as they don't have to do much to process them. By providing your koi with the proper amount of carbohydrates you can reduce the amount of ammonia in your pond as well as keeping your koi healthy. However you have to watch out for foods with to many carbohydrates as that can lead to chubby koi. The best koi food's will have wheat, corn, soybeans, or rose hips as sources of carbohydrates and at least two of those will be in the first five ingredients.
vitamins and minerals
Vitamins and minerals are one of the more mysterious factors in a koi fish's diet. No one knows the exact amount that a koi fish needs, but every expert agrees that they are a necessary part of a koi's diet. The best koi food will include calcium and phosphorus for bone growth, magnesium to assist their metabolism, and sodium and potassium to help nerve function.
Now you know how to find the best koi food for your fish! Tailor what you look for to your koi's age and size as well as the season to keep your koi looking and feeling great. If you want to improve their lives even more you can give them the occasional treat of watermelon or oranges they love it!
What is the best koi food you found for the summer? What about the winter? Are you interested in learning more about how to keep your koi happy and healthy? If so sign up for our Survive and Thrive mini-course!
