koi stopped eating?

[micaaronfl76]

hi all,

seems that my koi and shubumkins have stopped eating, they just let the food now get sucked up in the skimmer. water temps hovering round 40 degrees with a slight warmup coming this weekend.

i was told to stop feeding when temps hit 32 or below..

should i have concern, should i keep wasting food.

i try to feed in the morning and then again round dinner time

 

[DrCase]

The temp if 50 deg when you stop feeding

 

[Mucky_Waters]

As DrCase says, you should stop feeding at around 50 deg, not "32 deg". Your fish will be fine without eating, but the excess food in the water could contaminate the water and kill your fish.
Rule # 1. Never put more then enough food in the water that it doesn't get eaten. No mater what temperature it is.

 

[CountryEscape]

I guess your koi taught you a lesson, huh?! Yep, I stop feeding when the water temps go below 55 and stay there. If they spike to 55 during the day, and 45 at night, I've already stopped feeding. I did feed another week this year after I had stopped, as we got another warm spell, and the water temps went back up to 60. This weekend it could happen again, as temps today through Sunday predicted 65-72, but I won't feed them anymore. They have been without food for couple of weeks now, don't want to get them going on food again.

 

[Craig58]

We feed a few plain cheerios if the temps spike above 55. But not likely to happen. Water at 44F now. Weather is suppose to get warm in Philly this weekend, up into the mid to high 60's. If the water gets warm, we'll feed a few Cheerios. But only if we can feed in the early afternoon. The fish should be active and swimming if feeding.

Craig

 

[fishin4cars]

If they aren't coming up for food they don't need food. 50 degrees as stated is the low end of when to stop feeding. I feed wheat germ or cherrios as well when temps are close to that 50-55 range, once below no food until the water warms back up for a minimum of one week, then start back the wheat germ and cherrios until it reaches a full 60 degrees day and night. Food going to the skimmer is far more likely to cause health issues than not feeding. FYI, in a established pond with a decent growth of algae and plants it's virtually impossible to starve a fish to death, I would guess 75% or more deaths occur from over feeding or food related issues such as water quality, bloating, internal infections caused by food wasting in the stomach tract, etc. 24% or so die from jumping out, predators, getting caught in skimmers that type of problem, less than 1% die from not being fed. (Note: This is just my guess on percentages, no factual information used)

 

[Mucky_Waters]

If they aren't coming up for food they don't need food. 50 degrees as stated is the low end of when to stop feeding. I feed wheat germ or cherrios as well when temps are close to that 50-55 range, once below no food until the water warms back up for a minimum of one week, then start back the wheat germ and cherrios until it reaches a full 60 degrees day and night. Food going to the skimmer is far more likely to cause health issues than not feeding. FYI, in a established pond with a decent growth of algae and plants it's virtually impossible to starve a fish to death, I would guess 75% or more deaths occur from over feeding or food related issues such as water quality, bloating, internal infections caused by food wasting in the stomach tract, etc. 24% or so die from jumping out, predators, getting caught in skimmers that type of problem, less than 1% die from not being fed. (Note: This is just my guess on percentages, no factual information used)

I think you are under estimating Larkin. I would venture to guess 95% of fish deaths can be attributed to water quality issues alone, and probably 50% of water quality issues can probably be attributed to people over feeding.
(Note: This is just my guess on percentages, no factual information used)

 

[fishin4cars]

Mucky, I agree to some extent. In more experienced situations where a keeper monitors water quality and keeps fish for extended lengths of time (say 5 years or more) the percentages would be closer to be correct for me, with inexperience, and newbies I would say your percentages are for more accurate. Personally I think those that are using a forum or another way to obtain information to improve their fish keeping skills are far more likely to not over feed and watch water quality. But as we know, their are many that keep fish that just start a pond throw some fish in and don't have much of a clue what is going on. So for certain there is some degree of percentage differences. But hopefully the point is clear, feeding in the cold winter, and food being sucked in a filter or wasting away in the pond is far more dangerous to fish health than the fish starving to death from to much love. :highfive: .

 

[adavisus]

The cold jetstream over the Eastern USA has been doing temps 15f below usual for some time, it may cause some fret for fishkeeping if it swings back to normal or above normal temps

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[koiguy1969]

IMO..i think that any food in the filter or skimmer would be even more problematic than in the pond itself... anything organic at all would be broken down into contaminants even quicker due to erosion from the water flow thru and against it. especially in cooler temps where bacterial activity is at a minimum.

 

[micaaronfl76]

thank you all

 

[Dave 54]

Once the temperature hits 10c then you quit feeding and stay stopped until the spring koi have no stomach and feeding bellow 10c is rather dangerous as the food could rot in the gut and it would basically end up ,meaning the death of your koi to put it simply you should not be tempted whether they beg at the surface of your pond or not.
In the spring when the temperature goes above 10c and is stable then you can start of feeding them wheatgerm with a tad of Garlic mixed in .
This helps kick start the koi and goldfish eating but also helps protect them against parasites at their very weakest point the spring it dors this quite simply by making the fish unpalatable to the parasite*** .

rgrds

Dave
Note** Garlic can be fed to fish that have stopped eating due to illnness to kick start them eating again