a Product Profile by PondDoc.com

So many koi foods and so little time!  There seems to be hundreds of brands of koi and goldfish food and each brand has its own set of specialty foods.  All the choices out there will make your head swim.  We've made it easier for you to wade through them by providing "food for thought".  We'll explore the ingredients and what constitutes healthy pond fish food, the prices and how to know if you are getting a good deal and the different diet choices of food and how and when to offer them to your fish. 

For all practical purposes, koi and goldfish have similar dietary needs.  Most foods are designed for both koi and pond goldfish and can be fed to both.  There are a few exceptions.  Fancy goldfish with fat, rounded bodies should eat sinking food instead of floating.  Koi tend to grow larger than goldfish so we tend to push higher protein foods for koi.

Quality is in the Ingredients

Koi and goldfish food is no different from any other pet food except that it may be a little harder to find.  There are some brands that provide the necessary nutrition for healthy pets while others are basically junk food.  One cannot depend on the fact that the brand name is well known or that it's higher priced to determine its quality.  One must read the label.  The label should clearly state the ingredients and nutrition analysis.  This information should be readily available online if purchasing over the internet.  If you can't find the ingredients and analysis online (perhaps purposely left out to hide the fact that it's lower quality) my advice is to NOT purchase the food. 

The two most important pieces of information on the label is the very first ingredient listed and the "Crude Protein" percentage.  As with packaged food for people, koi and goldfish food will contain more of the first ingredient than the others listed on the label.  If the first ingredient listed is fish meal, that's great.  If it's a type of cereal or meal (such as soybean meal or corn) it is what we refer to as "junk food" so run as fast as you can away from it.  Wheat germ is okay in certain kinds of food which we'll cover later in the article.  The protein in the food is what makes the fish grow.  The crude protein percentage should be 36% to 38% in regular staple foods.  There are special growth foods that may have higher percentages of crude protein.  A good high-growth food will have a protein percentage of about 40% to 42%.  Anything over that would be a waste because the koi cannot absorb all the protein.  Lower protein levels are okay in seasonal wheat germ foods when growth takes a back seat to digestion.   

What's Up with these Fillers?

Some koi and goldfish foods are packed with inexpensive fillers that add no true nutritional value.  They add weight to the product without adding a lot of cost.  They also add waste to the pond because corn and cereal fillers are not digested.  They pass through the fish and come out the other end as waste which dirties the water and can cause cloudiness.  Healthy, nutritious koi and goldfish food is mostly digested and leaves little to waste.  For that reason, some of our customers prefer to purchase high quality koi foods for the sake of keeping a cleaner system.  "Corn Gluten" is okay if listed as low as the third or fourth ingredient but watch out for other corn or cereal fillers such as corn meal or soybean meal.  Something else to watch out for is when manufacturers list an ingredient twice so that it doesn't appear as the first ingredient on the list.  For example, corn content may be listed as corn gluten and corn meal.  Although there may be more corn content in the food than fish meal by splitting the corn content in half the fish meal will come first.

Price by the Pound -- Not by the Package

High quality koi and goldfish food does not necessarily mean high prices.  Knowing what I know about koi and goldfish food it's hard for me not to say anything when I'm at pet supply places or depots and see folks buying fish food.  Most of the pre-packaged koi foods at these places are not deals at all.  To add insult to injury the prices are often twice as much for less product.  Look at the weight on the package and calculate how much the koi food costs per pound.  That's the only way to know what the true cost is.  Packages often contain air to fill them up and some koi foods are puffed out with air so that a couple of pounds of food requires a huge package.  SO - the size of the package is not a good indicator.  Neither is the fact that it is a "name brand".  Some of the highly-marketed name brand koi and goldfish foods on the shelf are low quality and high priced.  Once the price per pound is determined check the label for ingredients and analysis information.  You may be amazed at the price you are paying for sub-standard quality!

Do you eat at a 5-star restaurant every night?  Would you like your koi to dine in that kind of style?  You can do so - for enough money.  Use common sense when purchasing koi and goldfish food.  Hikari koi foods are famously rich in proteins and, in our opinion, the best koi food on the market.  We even depend on their fine research for how we base our knowledge about koi and goldfish foods.  They also are very expensive.  Some people will pay the extra money if, for example, they are feeding koi that cost over $10,000 each or if they simply have the money to spend on it.  The fact that most all the food is consumed and practically none of it goes to waste is easy on the filter and helps keep clear water. 

We have many large, hungry koi and, with that number of mouths to feed, cannot afford the Hikari (or similar koi foods) so we happily feed our koi a diet of food that is highly nutritious but will not break the bank.  I will, of course, recommend our own line of foods (the Macrobiotic series).  We have chosen koi foods from the mill that measure up to our high standards of content, consistency and protein levels.  So - inexpensive and healthy koi and goldfish foods are out there.  You just gotta know where to look -- and that's at the label.   

Koi and Goldfish Food Diet Choices

There are many different choices of koi and goldfish diets on the market.  They all fall into one of three categories.  Those are: 1) Staple Foods, 2) Seasonal Foods and 3) Medicated Foods.  Almost every brand has its selection of at least one from each of these categories.  When each is used is often based on water temperature and time of year. 

• Staple Koi and Goldfish Foods

This is the type food that is most often fed to koi and goldfish.  It is protein-enriched and formulated for them to eat throughout the growing season.  When the water temperatures rise past 64 degrees we begin feeding our koi and goldfish staple food and continue until the water temperatures fall in Autumn.  Many brands refer to this type of diet as "Spring and Summer" or "All-Season".  Normally fed twice a day, koi and goldfish will develop enough fats from this diet by the end of the season to survive during the lean months of winter when they should not eat at all.   Look for fish meal or a variation (whitefish is excellent) as the first ingredient.  The crude protein should be above 35%.  Staple foods are most often available in a couple of pellet sizes and in floating pellet only.

A special kind of staple diet can enhance the reds in koi and goldfish.  This kind of koi (or goldfish) food is often referred to as "Color Enhancement" or "Spirulina".  Color enhancement is a little misleading because it really just brings out the reds.  Spirulina is the ingredient that actually reddens the flesh of the koi so white fish, over time, may turn pink.  We recommend this food if you don't have white koi.  It works wonderfully in goldfish ponds to produce strikingly handsome reds.  The same rules apply to Color Enhancement foods as with the Staple.  The first ingredient should be a type of fish meal and the protein should be above 35%.  You should be able to find it available in at least two different sizes of floating pellets.  I know of no sinking color food.  The Pond Doc suggests that you feed color food for a full four weeks then go to staple without color enhancements for four weeks then continue to alternate.  That way the red is enhanced some while the whites do not turn pink.    

Koi have the ability to grow up to three feet or more, given the right circumstances.  For those who want their koi to grow as much as they can there are higher than normal protein enriched staple koi foods.  Look for no less than 40% protein percentages and healthy fish meal content.  These koi foods rarely are available in small pellets.

The Doc's Prescription™ M-Grow GOLD is our high-growth, high-protein diet food especially formulated for koi.

	The Doc's Prescription™ M-Grow The Doc's Own Macrobiotic High Protein Food for Koi Especially formulated for koi!  M-Grow GOLD is higher in protein than regular M-Grow so that koi grow more quickly and healthfully.  Available in Large Sized Pellets Only. Feeding Instruction / Ingredients / Analysis
			Large Pellet Size ONLY (1/4")
		2 # Bag @ $15.95
		4 # Bag @ $29.95

Wheat germ is easy for koi and goldfish to digest so they digest it quicker than high-protein foods.  If the water temperature plummets to below 50 degrees any undigested proteins in koi and goldfish will sit inside the digestive tract and can spoil causing septicemia and possibly killing the fish.  That's why seasonal foods are great to feed our koi and goldfish during early spring and fall when pond water is in those in-between temperatures.  During the growing season koi and goldfish need lots of protein so wheat germ-based koi foods are not designed to be fed after the water temperatures have risen above 64 degrees.  A good wheat germ koi food will have wheat germ as either the first or second ingredient and will be no higher than 35% protein.  The wheat germ diet may be packaged as "Spring and Fall" or "Seasonal" koi and goldfish foods.

Although medicated koi and goldfish foods are not considered staple foods to be fed on an every day basis they are extremely important foods when trying to battle internal infection and ulcer disease or preventing infections in spring.  These foods are milled and coated with antibiotics.  Some are strictly Romet while others are milled or coated with three or four different antibiotics.  Some pellets float while others sink.  It's rare to find one with some floating / some sinking pellets -- but it's a good idea.  All contain some sort of protein base but the main function of a medicated food is to get antibiotics into the koi's internal system and not for long-term nutrition.  Medicated koi foods are meant for short-term administration and should not be fed for more than three weeks.  Antibiotic koi and goldfish foods are restricted to just feeding to ornamental fish.  They cannot be used on any animal, fish or other, intended for human consumption.

Romet vs Triple Antibiotic Food

Romet Medicated Food is a koi food that is milled with two kinds of antibiotics.  Years ago Romet was the only antibiotic food available on the market for use on koi and other ornamental fish.  As with all antibiotics over time koi (like humans) become immune to them.  Romet was used so often we noticed that Romet, by itself, would not work as well as it once did.  That's when we first saw the introduction of triple antibiotic koi foods.  Although more expensive to manufacture, triple antibiotic foods were much more effective.  The antibiotics it contains target different bacteria and can work on a much larger spectrum of infection.  Here, at PondDoc.com, we are proud that our own Triple Antibiotic Food was one of those pioneer medicated foods that hit the market by storm.  Romet still works in some cases but triple antibiotic, which contains Romet as well, works better. 

Medicated "Parasite" Foods

Good googly-moogly!  What will they come up with next?  The truth of the matter is that no antibiotic will cure koi from external parasites.  Our take on medicated foods specially formulated for parasites is that it's a gimmick for selling something no one else thought of.  While it's true that parasites often lead to infection it's the infection that antibiotic food battles so there's no need for a special parasite medicated food.  The other ingredients of the parasite food is to boost the immunity system of the koi, etc.  There is nothing in it to kill external parasites.  It's actually a dangerous thing to market because I've had more than one person tell me they purchased medicated koi food for parasites and can't understand why it didn't get rid of the parasites.  If you'd like to throw away some money go ahead and purchase the medicated parasite food but DO NOT use it in the place of proper external parasite treatment! 

In all fairness to the manufacturers of these parasite foods there are internal parasites that these foods treat.  In our years of working with fish health we've come across, let me see, ZERO cases but I'm sure it happens.  The problem I have with "parasite" foods is that they are OFTEN mistaken for treatment of external parasites.