How much should I be feeding my koi?

For koi living in South Jersey, the feeding months run from roughly mid-April through mid-October.  This is the time of the year when the pond water is over 55-degrees, and koi metabolisms are actively digesting food.  The first few weeks you should only feed them a small amount once every other day.  When water becomes warmer than 65-degrees you can begin feeding them every day.  Knowing how much food to give the fish per session is easy, just give them whatever they will eat within five minutes.  One feeding per day is enough.  In fact, don't do multiple feedings per day until June or when the water is safely into the 70's.   

It is  better to underfeed than to overfeed.  Koi are foragers, and in an ecosystem pond there will naturally be lots of stuff for your fish to eat among the plants and rocks.  To keep the system in balance, a good rule of thumb is to stay at 3" of fish for every 100 gallons of water in the pond.  Adhering to this rule will ensure that you don't have more fish waste being created than the filtration can process.  

If you would like to learn more about feeding koi, I suggest reading the following page by our go-to fish expert, Dr. Erik Johnson.  He has written a very thorough article all about koi food, koi eating habits and recommended feeding practices.  

Everything you need to know about feeding koi, by Dr. Erik Johnson.  

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