Your Fish´s Diet

Here fishy! Here fishy, fishy, fishy!!!! As funny as it sounds it is one phrase that all fish owners have squealed out one time or another. We love our fish! We cannot help but call after them in an attempt to have them flock towards us like a pack of children behind an Ice Cream Truck on a sweltering summer day. And when our voices fail to bring us our desired results, we resort to the one thing they never resist, FOOD!! Food is the great equalizer in getting your fish to literally eat out of your hands. But did you know that not all food is equal and milled food is not the only thing you can feed your fish?

Feeding your fish anything but a high quality food could hurt your fish plus it could lead to poor water quality issues; like green water, string algae, and poor water conditions. When looking for a fish food you need to have fish proteins because fish eat fish and fish protein is the best for them. So when you look at the label look for ingredients like blood mean, fish meal, squid meal, shrimp meal and other aquaculture proteins as first ingredients. If you see wheat protein list first PLACE THE CONTAINER DOWN and keep looking.

Additionally, the percentage of proteins is important. You should look for food with a percentage within the range of 32 to 36 percent. This is due to the simple digestive track of your fish, any food with a higher amount is just costing you more, though it is not bad for the fish they just cannot absorb anymore than that. Fat content should be between 3 and 10 percent, with more for the smaller fish and less for the larger. Another key ingredient is ascorbic acid or L-Ascorbyl-2-Phosphate, it will be near the end of the ingredients but is a key element in your fishes diet! Also look for additives to help with the overall health of your fishes like immune boosters such as: optimum, Aquagen, brewer’s Yeast, beta carotene. Or even color enhances like; Bio-Red, beta carotene, shrimp oil.

But who wants the same thing over and over and over and well over gain when it comes to their daily diets. Below are a list of smart healthy choices that are easily accessible and will keep your fish swimming back for more!

  • Silkworm papae are available in various places in sealed bags. They are an absolute delicacy that drives koi insane for more!!!
  • Grapefruit, yes grapefruit. Just cut it into quarters toss it in and watch your koi go to town.
  • Oranges slices especially mandarin oranges are just as effect as the grapefruit.
  • Watermelon is also a tasty snack but not as popular as say the grapefruit or even the oranges slices.
  • Romaine Lettuce has real nutritional but make sure you get the darkest head that you can find chop it up into six inch strips and they will go crunch the center spines of the lettuce head.
  • Worms are a given to those who also fish as a hobby, but are sometime over looked by pond owners. Georgia reds, night crawlers, pinks and others are acceptable but the livelier the better.
  • Cheerios are a good all around treat any time of the year especially the Honey Nut Cheerios!