Temperature and Feeding

[Andy41]

Hi guys,

A quick question about feeding....

I know i'm not surposed to feed the fish once the temp drops below +10C, which it has done already, but at the moment the temp is varying and going back up to +15C.... it's expected to drop again, but no one is sure when.

The question is... do i start feeding the fish again, or just leave it?

cheers,

Andy.

 

[Lisak1]

The temperature you want to watch is the water temperature. I'm guessing you're referring to air temps with those variances. Water temperature changes slowly, as opposed to air temperature which can change rapidly. We've had nights in the low 30s for 10 days but the pond temperature is still right at 55 degrees.

 

[Dave 54]

Hi Andy all well with the fish mate ?
Basically even thought the temperature is on the up again from 10c you can garentee that the nights especially where you are in Austria are very cold., here we had temperatures of 1c then 3c on two consecutive nights and its set to get colder and remember you have two sets of temperature to worry about both air and water.
Do you have a pond thermometer , if so what is your water temperature at right now if its 10c or bellow stop feeding until the temperature starts heading up again in late spring early summer .
If the fish want to eat then there's algae around our ponds that they can snack on so please be firm and dont feed as much as your tempted too .
The covers went on the pond here quite a few days ago now and I know that there is no way you can cover yours our pond temperature is 9c now I'll hassard a guess yours is colder.
The reason we stop feeding is that Cyprinids lack a stomach and as such we dont want food rotting in the Gut when the koi/goldfish shut down for the winter themselves as it could kill them .
Hope this helps mate

Dave

 

[dieselplower]

Throw in a piece of food. If they go after it, throw in a bit more. If they dont, don't throw in more.

 

[Dave 54]

Hi Andy all well with the fish mate ?
Basically even thought the temperature is on the up again from 10c you can garentee that the nights especially where you are in Austria are very cold., here we had temperatures of 1c then 3c on two consecutive nights and its set to get colder and remember you have two sets of temperature to worry about both air and water.
Do you have a pond thermometer , if so what is your water temperature at right now if its 10c or bellow stop feeding until the temperature starts heading up again in late spring early summer .
If the fish want to eat then there's algae around our ponds that they can snack on so please be firm and dont feed as much as your tempted too .
The covers went on the pond here quite a few days ago now and I know that there is no way you can cover yours our pond temperature is 9c now I'll hassard a guess yours is colder.
The reason we stop feeding is that Cyprinids lack a stomach and as such we dont want food rotting in the Gut when the koi/goldfish shut down for the winter themselves as it could kill them .
Hope this helps mate

Dave

Sorry my friend amost forgot to ask you how you are getting along with the book on koi heath we gave you as a gift when you came to visit , I hope your finding it easy to understand ?
If you have any problems or cant understand something then please think nothing of it to email me at our email address and we'll be more than willing to answer your questions,
All we ask is at some stage you in turn pass on some of the knowledge of koi health matters that you've learned and pass it on to others , you'll be able to tell the idiots from the genuinely willing to learn and I mean you will come across them my last was a guy who didnt last too long in the hobby thankfully
Who knows perhaps start up the Grantz koi keepers Scociety and twin it with Plymouth eh Andy?

Dave

 

[Jeff Zimnisky]

Throw in a piece of food. If they go after it, throw in a bit more. If they dont, don't throw in more.

Been working for me so far.

 

[dieselplower]

Been working for me so far.

Right on. I have yet to see a post "i fed my fish and its guts rotted and it died".

 

[Jeff Zimnisky]

Right on. I have yet to see a post "i fed my fish and its guts rotted and it died".

Water temps are between 50 and 55 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT and they are still eating.

 

[addy1]

I watch mine eat all winter. They snack on the stuff in the pond even down into the low 40's, natural plant stuff.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Let the fish decide.

 

[Jeff Zimnisky]

Let the fish decide.

Very cool!!!!!

 

[Mike in Vermont]

Throw in a piece of food. If they go after it, throw in a bit more. If they dont, don't throw in more.

Been working for me so far.

Same here!

 

[Dave 54]

It's up to you what you do Andy I'm just quoting accepted BKKS practices works for me always has and after all only you know what your Austrian Alpine winters get like non of us do so we cant help you there .
Personally we dont and you've seen our koi its done them no harm whatsoever it is also the advice of the many koi organizations

Dave

 

[Dave 54]

There you go Andy here you have the BKKS Do's and Donts you'll note that their advice when feeding koi is to stop at a temperature of 10c for the BKKS :-

http://www.cambridgeshire-koi-club.org.uk/BKKS Basic Rules.pdf

Here is also an interesting rtile written by Chris Neaves of South Africa and is a much more in depth study of koi and temperature plus its effects on them.
You'll find Chris looks at temperature in depth and strangely the advice given by him is again the same 10c

http://koi4u.co.za/index.php?option...:water-temperature-and-koi&catid=9&Itemid=186

http://camelliakoi.org/resources.html

Personally Andy I wouldnt feed below the advice and the information given in all three the above links the last being from a club run on AKCA rules.
Again my friend you'll find that the advice is the same 50f or 10c, which just so happens to be exactly the same advice given from three separate continents by three koi organizations BKKS, SAKKS, AKCA.
As to what other individuals do..... well thats up to them to explain not I.... personally we play it by the rules

Dave

 

[CometKeith]

Andy, One thing to think about it your beneficial bacteria dies out below certain temperatures. You probably don't want your fish eating a lot in the winter and giving off waste if there is nothing in the pond to cycle the waste. I'm sure you can get fish to eat in the winter if you can keep the water warm enough, but you have to consider if you are creating a healthy environment for them. I take my bio-filter out every year before the winter comes and stop feeding usually a week or two before I take it out.