Is Different Food for Seasons Necessary?

[Jason]

I was in a Fish Store yesterday on the Beach here in Florida that I have not been to before, Me and the owner got to talking and he services 6 ponds that he has accounts with, including a Pool-Converted-Pond in Seaside, yes it is a PERFECT (literally) beach side town 30 minutes away from PC Beach and is also where the "Truman show" was filmed with Jim Carey (To give you an idea). The reason I mentioned this is the lady who owns the Pond wants it PERFECTLY CLEAN, like the blue tile in the "Pool" is always blue with not a single spec of sludge in the pond and Crystal Clear water you could drink out of (Not really). She feeds her fish supposedly top quality food that caters to different times of the year and conditions.

The Owner told me that was a myth and just a marketing tool, so I asked him about the two bags of food I have "Koi and Goldfish Color Vibrance" and "Spring and Fall Diet" and he said that they are virtually the same with different amounts of protein etc. but stated it was unnecessary.

What are your opinions on this? He seemed very knowledgeable and wise when it came to ponds and fish keeping, but at the same time came off as a "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" type of guys too?

 

[HARO]

Yes, Jason, there IS a difference! Cool-weather food has more easily-digested plant material rather than animal based products. Is it necessary? In sunny Florida, probably not. Up here in the frozen north, possibly.
John

 

[JohnHuff]

Growth food have more protein in them. It depends on how dedicated you are. I used to feed them seasonal food but now I'm too lazy.

 

[Waterbug]

Also depends on how far you want to go. Most pond keepers I don't think feed multiple types of food. Some keepers will go to the expense and effort for best possible conditions.

 

[capewind]

Wow Jason, this is a loaded question LOL. It comes down to what is in the bag. Some brands are better than others. I feed what I consider a mid grade food, specifically, Tetra Pond's Vibrance; Growth, and Spring & Fall ...

 

[Mucky_Waters]

I was in a Fish Store yesterday on the Beach here in Florida that I have not been to before, Me and the owner got to talking and he services 6 ponds that he has accounts with, including a Pool-Converted-Pond in Seaside, yes it is a PERFECT (literally) beach side town 30 minutes away from PC Beach and is also where the "Truman show" was filmed with Jim Carey (To give you an idea). The reason I mentioned this is the lady who owns the Pond wants it PERFECTLY CLEAN, like the blue tile in the "Pool" is always blue with not a single spec of sludge in the pond and Crystal Clear water you could drink out of (Not really). She feeds her fish supposedly top quality food that caters to different times of the year and conditions.

The Owner told me that was a myth and just a marketing tool, so I asked him about the two bags of food I have "Koi and Goldfish Color Vibrance" and "Spring and Fall Diet" and he said that they are virtually the same with different amounts of protein etc. but stated it was unnecessary.

What are your opinions on this? He seemed very knowledgeable and wise when it came to ponds and fish keeping, but at the same time came off as a "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" type of guys too?

If you had thousands of dollars invested in expensive koi that you planned to sell or breed, and were raising them in a special temperature controlled koi pond, you'd probably want to make sure you grew them as fast and big as you could, and want to feed them the best food possible for their growth and health. But if you have cheap koi pets living in a typical backyard water garden, he's absolutely right about buying those specialized bags of food, it's "unnecessary".
But hey, go for it if you want. I've been raising live crickets and feeding them to my mut fish, frogs and turtles, the fish seem to love them.

 

[dieselplower]

Yes it matters, especially if climate is a factor. In Michigan it gets very cold and the fish "hibernate" under the ice. its a good idea to use a lower protein food that they can digest more easily as the water gets colder and their metabolism slows down. The lower protein food also creates less waste, which is important as I am shutting down most of my filtration for winter as well.

 

[dieselplower]

Also, I was wondering how lazy does a person have to be if they can't just buy 2 different bags of food? That's pretty lazy. How could a person that lazy possibly maintain a pond?

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Also, I was wondering how lazy does a person have to be if they can't just buy 2 different bags of food? That's pretty lazy. How could a person that lazy possibly maintain a pond?

So you think most water-gardeners are lazy then?
It's not that hard to raise crickets, they say live food is more nutritious than packaged food. Maybe anybody that doesn't raise live food for their fish should be considered lazy too. What do you think?

 

[capewind]

LMAO ... the last thing I want to be doing is raising crickets again ... although I shouldnt say raise, as I simply bought smalls and grew them out for a few weeks ... Never tossed any to the fish however ... I think I'll stick to my 3 bags of food, and if that makes me lazy, I can live with that LOL.

 

[JohnHuff]

So you think most water-gardeners are lazy then?
It's not that hard to raise crickets, they say live food is more nutritious than packaged food. Maybe anybody that doesn't raise live food for their fish should be considered lazy too. What do you think?

Different fishies have different personalities. A few years ago, my guys were so hungry they would eat everything I gave them. That included aphids that I washed off lily pads, juicy ants and worms. The bunch of guys that I have now seem more diffident, of course they're just off that predator scare from when I was gone.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

I actually started raising crickets for my frogs, and turtle, but I ended up with so many, and most of them are still too tiny for the frogs anyway, so I just started shaking the egg crates, they hide in, over the water like a salt shaker. My fish go crazy for them.
I have raised earthworms, meal worms, fruit flies (both winged and wingless) and praying mantises at different times for different reasons, but this was my first batch of crickets, and I have say, the crickets are probably the most productive for the amount of work and space involved. I'll definitely be doing it again earlier next spring.

 

[dieselplower]

So you think most water-gardeners are lazy then?
It's not that hard to raise crickets, they say live food is more nutritious than packaged food. Maybe anybody that doesn't raise live food for their fish should be considered lazy too. What do you think?

Youre saying most water gardeners wouldn't take the time to buy a second bag of food?

 

[capewind]

I actually started raising crickets for my frogs, and turtle, but I ended up with so many, and most of them are still too tiny for the frogs anyway, so I just started shaking the egg crates, they hide in, over the water like a salt shaker. My fish go crazy for them.
I have raised earthworms, meal worms, fruit flies (both winged and wingless) and praying mantises at different times for different reasons, but this was my first batch of crickets, and I have say, the crickets are probably the most productive for the amount of work and space involved. I'll definitely be doing it again earlier next spring.

The crickets were not hard to grow, but when they got big, they were noisy. We used to buy 500 at a time from Armstrong's online ... Was primarily feeding two Leopard Geckos and a Flame Bearded Dragon ... Was also tossing the ones that got too big for them to a Black and White Argentine Tegu ... The Tegu passed a few months ago (miss him), and the "mommy" of the others is trying out her first place ... so no more reptiles here to feed ...

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Youre saying most water gardeners wouldn't take the time to buy a second bag of food?

I'm saying most water gardeners probably don't bother to buy different types of fish food for different seasons. But maybe I'm wrong, start a poll thread, lets find out.

In water gardens, fish naturally eat less as the water cools and they constantly nibble on plants and algae all the time anyway. If they need less protein at certain times of the year, just feed them less packaged food and let them nibble on the algae more.
In large koi breeding/growing pond you won't find plants and very little algae, so it might be more necessary to feed the fish packaged food that is low protein and high fiber at certain times of the year.