good video for beginners

sissy

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the only thing I don't agree on is the amount of times you should feed a day .He says to much feeding is bad but to me 2 times a day is to much.But great video .I hope more watch it and learn from it .
 

fishin4cars

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Sissy, I agree but in the other direction. Over feeding is dangerous, but I think a pond should be designed to allow for a larger waste load so as KOI can be fed more often. I feed sometimes up to 10 times a day. Probably a 1# of food a day during the peak of the growing season. Now this is for Koi, Not goldfish. also this should ONLY be done if there is adequate filtration to remove all that waste. With several koi, that needs to be a pretty good size and very efficient filter, and good water quality is a MUST!
 
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Yeah, the concept of under or over feeding is defined by context. Andy Moos grows large Koi in small ponds. It is impossible for any "rule" to be valid for all cases.

Doc Johnson's video is targeted at inexperienced pond keepers. He says it's general and gives references to more info. In that context I think warning about over feeding is good advice and putting a number of once or maybe twice a day is a reasonable estimate. I don't think Doc Johnson can do a 5 hour lecture on all the edge conditions in this video. His other web sites provides a lot more info. I doubt Doc Johnson would tell Andy Moo what he's doing is wrong. I doubt he'd advise a person with an ammonia problem to feed the fish once or twice a day, he'd say stop feeding completely until corrected...and he does other places.

This business of taking what people say out of context, or thinking advice applies to all possible cases, is silly imo. Is the purpose to "catch" people or to learn about pond keeping?
 
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Sissy, I agree but in the other direction. Over feeding is dangerous, but I think a pond should be designed to allow for a larger waste load so as KOI can be fed more often. I feed sometimes up to 10 times a day. Probably a 1# of food a day during the peak of the growing season. Now this is for Koi, Not goldfish. also this should ONLY be done if there is adequate filtration to remove all that waste. With several koi, that needs to be a pretty good size and very efficient filter, and good water quality is a MUST!
I have to give my head a shake sometimes when I hear how much food you Koi people feed your fish. It's not that I don't understand where you are coming from, you have lots of big fish and you want them bigger, it's just that the scale of things compared to what I'm use to kind of blows my mind. A pound of food would last me a couple years, and yet I still feed my fish a 2 or 3 times a day. But mostly I feed for fun, not for growth, and of course my fish are much smaller.
I know you guys go to great lengths to raise those big fish. In fact I'm amazed they haven't genetically engineered a super breed of koi yet that will grow to 800 pounds or more. I would get a kick out of watching the owners feeding their fish Koi pellets the size of basketballs.
 

fishin4cars

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WB, I simply was making comment to sissy, nothing more. Actually I think over feeding for beginners should be higher up the list. But he puts water testing up high and that would be way up there as well and would catch the overfeeding faster.
Mucky, Koi eat and grow, don't feed them and they start looking skinny and starved. When I was keeping a more true water garden with garden with goldfish I too would feed in a year what I feed my koi in a day. Even in my 150 gallon tank inside with south American cichlids, I make no attempt to feed multiple times a day. Once a day is plenty of food for them. I like BIG fish. I like watching them grow, I wouldn't mind having a pond with 2-3 100# + South American redtail cats. and a couple of 6' Giant arapaima. Be cool to see how much they would eat!
 

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fishin4cars

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This business of taking what people say out of context, or thinking advice applies to all possible cases, is silly imo. Is the purpose to "catch" people or to learn about pond keeping?

This part kind of left me wondering? lol
 

sissy

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I guess you have to first understand ponds and filtering there and adapt it for your own use .Every pond is different every filter is different and every amount of fish is different and what kind of fish also .Weather even plays a role also .It just comes down to one big huge learning curve .The more video's sometimes you watch the more confused people get and guessing a lot comes down to filters .Over filtering does no real harm .I am just glad my pond is no bigger and don't know how some of you guys do it with the bigger ponds .I always wonder about everything I see on you tube and sometimes see on here .I try to keep my pond chores down to a minimum and keep it simple ,hard scares me .geeze big words scare me if I can't spell it then it is useless :razz: I am not a pro and never will be just a home ponder .
 
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This part kind of left me wondering? lol
I see your point. Sorry. I should have added @sissy to that part. The whole taking words out of context is a little fresh in my mind, and probably shouldn't have mentioned it. Does bug me, but a little more recently than normally.
 

koiguy1969

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the feeding schedule is 4 or 5 times a day for my guys outside..2 - 3 when inside. but the basement pond is only 800 gals,& theres no plants or alge to use up nitrates. i gotta keep a check on the water bill. which is already outrageous. so i try to keep water changes down. i have circulation set to "whirlpool" the wastes into a pile for easy netting and removal. which i also due at every feeding. and any time i visit them and see some.
 

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I only feed my fish 2 or 3 times in a whole week .I guess if I fed them more I would need a bigger filter .It all seems to be a mystery and if it works it works if it doesn't then try something else .If it was not for aggie and bert I would give on the pond and just put in a pondless water feature down part of my front slope .Gosh i could add spa scents to them and make my whole yard smell pretty .
 
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I also feed my fish once or twice in week but after seeing this video i am confused how many times should i feed my fish in a week?
 

sissy

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well I used to feed mine more and water quality was terrible and since last year when I started only feeding 2 or 3 times a week they clean up there own house and i don't have to do it for them .So I will stay with these feedings .When I was away for over a week my son was feeding them more than that and said he would come over and feed them 2 times a day every other day and I came home to a murky pond and dirty filter .
 
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I also feed my fish once or twice in week but after seeing this video i am confused how many times should i feed my fish in a week?
The point of this video imo was to make some basic points in a short period...which is what he said at the beginning along with providing references for more detailed info. If you're confused you may want to take his suggestion and research the topic further.

My opinion would be that most of the points were about water quality. For most ponds feeding fish 3,4,5 times a day is not needed for healthy fish and can lead to poor water quality. If you have a system that keeps your pond clean then feeding 3,4,5 times a day is not problem. If your pond is over stocked and no cleaning system then feeding once a week can be too much. Not feeding fish daily when water is warm enough is not great for fish but poor water can kill them much faster.

But in all cases feeding fish more food than they can eat serves no purpose than to reduce water quality.
 

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