Feed or not to Feed

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Do you really need to feed the fish in a pond?
I have a 10x20 filtered pond w/ water plants and river rocks lining the bottom.
I have not fed the fish for 2 months and they seemed to be just fine.
 

sissy

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Mine get fed 2 or 3 times a week and that way they clean their own house .But with koi they also need the nutrients in the food so it does help with that
 
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I only have gold fish. I wonder if that makes a difference. We also just had about six babies this year.
 
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I feed my koi daily. I've read they need to be in good shape going into winter.

When we bought this house, it had a small pond, with goldfish the previous owner said she never fed.
 
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I do think goldfish and koi are different when it comes to feeding, especially when you get a number of good sized koi in your pond. But that's just an opinion - I have nothing factual to base that on.
 
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If you are interested in your goldfish growing a lot then you should feed them on a regular basis. If that isn't a big deal you don't need to really feed them much at all. I like feeding mine because it's fun when they all swarm by where I am feeding them and I like watching them eat. Also I'm hoping they get larger because my pond is large enough for some bigger fish.
 

sissy

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I feed mine a little more before the cold weather sets in but never know when that is going to be .This year it was 70 degrees christmas day and new years was near 60 degrees during the day
 
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I'm not sure why anyone wouldn't want to feed pet pond fish? It doesn't take much effort or money to provide a basic food.

I realize there are natural foods in the pond that the fish can eat but somehow the idea of withholding food is wrong (at least in my opinion)
 
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I think it's important to realize most of the fish, we keep in our ponds come from fish farms / breeders and haven't lived in the wild learning to forage for food....they're used to eating fish food.
 
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When I first started ponding someone I knew that also had a pond asked me how I liked playing God. It was a little esoteric but after I thought about it really your fish's health is in your hands. You can give them as much food, shade, light, space, water conditions, etc that you want and see how those things manifest themselves with your fish. I don't think withholding food is necessarily cruel, but you have to think what you do affects your fish. I think in a lot of ways feeding goldfish in a pond is over rated. There are so many stories even on GPF about people stumbling across neglected ponds with large fish in them doing perfectly fine. The bottom line is I feed my fish because I like to. I don't think it's bad for someone else not to feed theirs, however it is important for fish to fatten up a little before winter so maybe some feeding is really required.
 
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I think it's important to realize most of the fish, we keep in our ponds come from fish farms / breeders and haven't lived in the wild learning to forage for food....they're used to eating fish food.
Tula. Aren't they hardwired genetically to know how to forage for food? Is it something they need to learn when they are young or they just know how to do it through instinct?
 

Rock

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Depends on Fish size . in Koi farms feeding 3-4 times to grow them more.Actually in spring and summer when your water temps touch 50-60 degrees, you should start feeding 1-2 times per day.When the temperatures drop to below 40- 50 degrees stop feeding normal only use vegetables when Fishes are hungry .
 

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