Fish food getting expensive! Alternative choices?


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Hi all, as the title states...fish food is getting very expensive. I thought dog food was expensive...not compared to fish food. I'm talking warm weather food for koi, goldfish, comets and shubunkin.
So, I searched the forum and didn't find much, but I do recall there were things like watermelon, peas etc.
So I'm asking for a list of common foods to feed these guys. Floating food would seem best, I think, so it doesn't just sink to the bottom and rot.
Thanks,
Joe
 
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I'm by no means an expert on fish nutrition but I think fruit, peas etc.would be best as treats. How much do you want to spend and how much do you go through? I recently read through a thread on another forum and there was a discussion on lower priced fish food.

In my experience, my pond is less cloudy when I feed a higher quality koi food.
 
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I stick to commercial fish food for every day feeding. I worry that I don't know enough about fish nutrition to offer then a well balanced diet. After all, a koi doesn't eat peas and watermelon in the wild. I read about people giving their koi Cheerios and I'm like "really? I won't even eat that stuff!" So for treats, maybe, but your fish count on you for good quality food. (I'm really speaking mainly for koi - I think goldfish can do fine in a pond with no outside food source. Koi are just too big proportionate to the average garden pond.)

Having said that, I do shop for price. We buy our food 50 or 60 lbs at a time and get a much better price that way. We store it in sealable buckets so it stays fresh.

Some people (@callingcolleen1 comes to mind) do feed their koi puppy food and have great success doing it. Maybe she will pop in here and explain her rationale and what she looks for in a dog food for her fish.
 
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OK, so maybe it's best to keep feeding quality commercial food as a staple. So, how about suggestions on where to get the best prices online. I just bought 20 lbs from a major online pet supplier and that bag cost with tax and free shipping $52. That to me is too much, but it was the best price I could find for a medium quality food.
 
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Joe, We buy Strike pond fish food...a 40 lb bag costs 25.00.
On LI it's sold at Agway...It's actually meant for big natural ponds,
It floats and the fish thrive on it and love it as well. They are healthy
and very active.
We have 17 large koi, between 18 to 21 years old, and don't actually
go through the entire 40 pounds each season.

We also have a compost pile in the backyard where we bury all our
veggie scraps and coffee grinds...this compost pile produces many
earth worms. We feed the koi earth worms about three times a week.
They love earth worms and it's very good for them (100 percent protein)
Hope this helps.
 
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Joe, We buy Strike pond fish food...a 40 lb bag costs 25.00.
On LI it's sold at Agway...It's actually meant for big natural ponds,
It floats and the fish thrive on it and love it as well. They are healthy
and very active.
We have 17 large koi, between 18 to 21 years old, and don't actually
go through the entire 40 pounds each season.

We also have a compost pile in the backyard where we bury all our
veggie scraps and coffee grinds...this compost pile produces many
earth worms. We feed the koi earth worms about three times a week.
They love earth worms and it's very good for them (100 percent protein)
Hope this helps.
40 lb bag for $25...that's a great price. I think there's an agway somewhere here in the Poconos. Or maybe I can order it online. Thanks!
 
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Joe, I googled Agway stores in Pa...and got this

More results for Agway near Pennsylvania


any near you? You could also call Strike and ask where they sell it
near you,
 
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I forgot about the worms my fish get! My vegetable garden is situated near the pond - the fish all line up and wait for the goodies they know are coming when I'm out digging in the garden!
 
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Joe, I googled Agway stores in Pa...and got this

More results for Agway near Pennsylvania


any near you? You could also call Strike and ask where they sell it
near you,
Hey! Thanks for that!
 
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image.jpg
hand feeding the pups Strike...yumm...
 
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If you are looking for nutritious food, made from fresh fish with just a bit of veggies/fruit added - no added wheat or unnecessary carbs - take a look at Orijen's Six Fish cat kibble. No...seriously! Forget for a moment it says "cat food" on the bag and just read the ingredients and how it is made. Folk over here use it to raise discus (I feed mine wild salmon), but I whizz the kibble down and feed it to my smaller fish. It is expensive as cat food but actually Lb/£ it works out better than half decent fish food. (Also forget the class action against the company, probably bogus)
 

callingcolleen1

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If you are looking for nutritious food, made from fresh fish with just a bit of veggies/fruit added - no added wheat or unnecessary carbs - take a look at Orijen's Six Fish cat kibble. No...seriously! Forget for a moment it says "cat food" on the bag and just read the ingredients and how it is made. Folk over here use it to raise discus (I feed mine wild salmon), but I whizz the kibble down and feed it to my smaller fish. It is expensive as cat food but actually Lb/£ it works out better than half decent fish food. (Also forget the class action against the company, probably bogus)
I have been feeding my Koi a grain free diet of Origen Puppy Chow for last 15 years or so. Its made fresh right here in Alberta Canada and is a high quality puppy chow. My two oldest koi are about 27 years old or so, and the rest of my koi are all doing just fine. I feed them different sizes, large breed puppy for the big koi and small kibble for the rest. My fish live outside year round and they need the high fat diet. Fish love that food!

I also have heard of many people feeding them the cat food as well with good results.
The problem with high priced Koi food is that it sits on the shelf at pet stores for a much longer time than the dog food, and so the dog food is very fresh. Some of that high priced koi food is way over priced and a small bag costs about 100 Canadian dollars and my koi eat that in less than on month, where as the dog food you get a really big bag for about 80 dollars that feeds my puppies and my koi all summer!
Koi food is way too expensive and way over priced, and lots of it is old, still sitting on shelf at store in many cases....

Then Koi are really just Carp scavengers and eat many different food that they would find in a natural pond bottom, including dead and rotten animal's that may have met their demise in nature, and sunk to pond bottom, so feeding them them over priced koi food seems senseless.
 
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I actually wrote to the HQ of Champion Petfoods (who make Orijen's and Acana) to ask if they would consider making 2-3 mm granules but they answered they were only aiming to make dog and cat food
 
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