Natural Diet Question

[Marshall]

I was curious if anyone knows of anything that koi eat in the wild and is also possible to provide in captivity. So I don't really need to know every possible substance they eat naturally, just the ones that are practical to provide to captive koi.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

I was curious if anyone knows of anything that koi eat in the wild and is also possible to provide in captivity. So I don't really need to know every possible substance they eat naturally, just the ones that are practical to provide to captive koi.

Common carp are omnivorous. They can eat a herbivorous diet of water plants, but prefer to scavenge the bottom for insects, crustaceans (including zooplankton), crawfish, and benthic worms.

 

[Marshall]

Common carp are omnivorous. They can eat a herbivorous diet of water plants, but prefer to scavenge the bottom for insects, crustaceans (including zooplankton), crawfish, and benthic worms.

Okay but which of those are easy enough to find and feed to them ? Such as which insect? crustacean ? i.e they probably would not eat a lobster lol etc etc. Thanks.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Koi (carp) diet changes with the age of the fish and also with the time of year. When young, the diet is mainly phytoplankton based. As they age the diet slowly shifts to more animal based, much as Randy described. What many do not realize that in an adult koi (carp) the bulk of the diet is detritus.
There are ways of growing crustaceans and nemotodes for use as feed, but these operations are quite intensive and can be costly. Many of these creatures are readily available on the open market.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Okay but which of those are easy enough to find and feed to them ? Such as which insect? crustacean ? i.e they probably would not eat a lobster lol etc etc. Thanks.

Sure they'd eat lobster, just chop some up and throw it in the pond.
One of the first aquarium keeping books I ever had was about feeding live food to your aquarium fish. The first chapter talked about how much healthier it was to feed live food to your fish then packaged and processed foods. A few examples of easy to raise live foods that I remember were brine shrimp, bloodworms, and earthworms. But I'd say the choices are much easier for Carp (koi), because they will eat just about anything. Duckweed and watercress would be good choices for vegetation to grow in your pond so the koi can nibble on. I sometimes make a recipe of scrambled egg with reptile calcium supplement powder cooked in for my turtles. What the turtles waste the fish clean up.
Whether you intend it or not you can be sure your koi is likely getting a fair amount of extra stuff in their diet already like algae, dragonfly nymphs, snails, etc... providing your pond is a year or so old and you have the right sort of environment for those things to grow in.

 

[slick]

hi i only keep koi, and iv tried all sorts, i mainly just feed a good quality food both floating and sinking sturgeon food of around 40% protein in warm conditions, but koi will enjoy most foods, Mellon bread but not to much as it bloats them lettuce , all your pond plants lol i also got a tropical mix Cray fish shrimp meal worm

 

[MitchM]

People seem to get pretty hung up on feeding their fish, but I've noticed that external feeding only leads to algae problems later on.
Keep your fish population low and don't sweat the detritus that builds up.

 

[slick]

Any type of feeding create pollutants the more food you throw in the more poop, I tend to go with just a Good quality stock food high in protean it fills the fish keeps them healthy, instead of loading the pond with buckets of cheap stuff

 

[Dave 54]

Marshall heres a list you could use of natural or alternate feeds :-

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/articles/alternate-foods-for-koi.4/

Dave