Winter fish feeding

[n2ponds]

I know you aren't supposed to feed the fish when the water temp drops below 50 degrees. I have an interesting sort of circumstances, I have a semi-natural pond. I can stop feeding them, but there is other food available to them from what is found in the pond naturally. Will the fish stop eating when it drops or will they continue to come into the warmer shallow water and feed? I just put some goldfish in this year so I have no clue as to what they will do.

Any thoughts on the matter?

Steve

 

[addy1]

My pond in arizona has goldies in it, in the winter the water would drop to around 45 or so. The goldies would seem to nibble on stuff that was in the pond, they all did well. They did seem to slow down to doing very little nibbling, just sort of laying around on the bottom.

 

[lifeworthliving]

Mine as well. 7 Koi and 8 goldies. They all just stay on the bottom when the temps dip. Come spring they will pop back up. I can tell when they are ready to be feed. They will follow me around the pond. When it's to cold they won't come up.

 

[j.w]

My water temp was 50 today so the little buggers aren't getting any more food. They sure wanted it tho when they saw me coming out there staring down at them. I felt bad cuz all their little mouths were opening wide and they were almost climbing out on the rocks to get at me saying............FEED US YOU FOOL!

 

[n2ponds]

My water temps are in the upper 50's, but my concern is the fish feeding on their own on the food available in the natural pond after the temps drop below 50.

 

[koiguy1969]

your fish know instinctively when and how to feed on a ponds natural food sources!

 

[carolinaguy]

they will feed on their own just fine. algae has such a high protein content that you might get growth on alga alone.

 

[oldmarine]

Because I am using a submersible heater, my pond water has been staying in the high 50's F, and the low 60's F. My shubunkin's still act like they are starving.

 

[carolinaguy]

i'm not a goldfish ponder, so the information might be different for them, but you might do something to get the temperature consistently above 62 degrees, in koi their immune response shuts down as the temp goes below 62 degrees, but bacteria thrive down to 48, so there is a window of opportunity for bacteria and parasites to have a competitive advantage when the temp sits in the high 50s for a while. just a thought. we used bubble wrap floated on the surface to get a 5 to 10 degree upward shift on our pond.