Use The Best Koi Fish Food | Avoid Trout Food As It Is The Worst Koi Food
I recently received the following email from a newsletter subscriber of mine based in Canada. Verne Gilkes is the owner of Mountain View Koi Club and wanted to know my views about feeding trout food to koi.
Many of his members feed trout food to koi because it is cheap rather than pay a bit extra and get the best koi fish food that actually benefits the koi.
Mountain View Koi Club, Vankleek Hill , Ontario, Canada - Contact Verne Gilkes mailto:gilkes@hawk.igs.net
"Hi Sean
I just noticed you are located in Wigan.
Several years ago I had the opportunity to visit the Nexus plant not long after the Nexus Filter was introduced to the USA at the Mid Atlantic Koi Show held at Quality Koi which was their Grand Opening as a Koi Farm.
Sean Your article on Koi Food is pretty straight forward for a koi keeper who knows how to treat his fish.
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do Not know if you have people in England who feed trout food to their koi?
We have several here in our Koi Club and no matter what I tell them they think it is the greatest food going. Of course the koi will eat it, they will eat anything that has a flavor to it however it is very bad for them. It can lead to all sorts of problems down the road i.e. bladder problems as it is an animal based protein and fat food.
We visited one of our club members ponds for the first time two weeks ago. His ponds were impeccable however he had several fish that were in dyer straights. One we had to put to sleep as its gut was about to blow out because of a 3 inch ulcer and an Aka Bekko 16 inches had 12 ulcers 1 to 1-1/2 inch all over it's body. A third shiro utsuri 18-20 inches was so fat it could hardly turn around.
My personal feelings the problems were from feeding the trout food instead of a top rated koi food brand such as Nishikoi koi food, Saki Hikari koi food or Sho Koi food.
What do you think of feeding trout food to koi?
He has and sells frys. A couple of our members bought some of the frys. As I was examining the little guys they also had a fattish appearance to them. They were not the slender appearance of normal young frys.
One of the hurdles we have to clear is trout food is less than half the price of a top koi food brand.
What could you advise to convince these koi owners who are great water keepers and love their koi a lot to switch to the Best Koi Food?
Happy Koi Keeping
Verne Gilkes
Mountain View Koi Club
Vankleek Hill , Ontario, Canada.
P/S We really enjoyed our Visit To Wigan. We also had the chance to Visit Peter Waddington's Pond and Innovations."
My Response to verne ...
"Hi Verne,
Thanks for the email and yes I live about 4 miles from the centre of Wigan. It is quite a famous town not only because of Wigan Pier and the rugby league club but also because during Roman times it was situated on the main road from Chester to Lancaster.
With regards to trout food I'm not aware of too many people who feed their Koi and gold fish trout food. I suspect that part of the reason is that there are far more trout in your part of the world and subsequently more suppliers of trout food.
Unfortunately I'm not too familiar with the problems that feeding trout food to koi causes; albeit I am aware that trout food is high in fat and not good for koi, goldfish and the majority of pond fish species.
Trout burn a lot more calories and prefer cooler water temperatures, hence the need for a higher fat based diet.
As I'm sure you are aware some people will do anything to save a bit of money and as far as they are concerned the best food for koi is the one that suits their pockets i.e. the cheapest.
In my opinion however one of the best food for koi fish is the Nishikoi brand. Designed with the koi in mind this premium koi fish food brand is amongst the best koi fish food brands around for koi growth and color promoting around.
Nishikoi Koi Food isn't the cheapest although it is critically important to maintain the color, promote growth and maintain the health of Koi.
Like everything else I suspect they only learn their lesson once they have lost a few expensive fish. Why they couldn't spend a bit more money and choose the best koi fish food in the beginning is quite amazing.
Would you mind if I used your email as a basis for a newsletter to my readers. I have readers based in the UK, Canada, USA, Australia, South Africa and most of the English speaking parts of the world?
I could also create a web page and specify that the basis of the article came from yourself. I will create a link to anywhere you specify.
I think this is one way we can try to prevent people from feeding trout food to their Koi and educate them to the dangers of doing do.
What do you think?
Sean
ps I added your koi club to this page on my site. I hope you don't mind.
http://www.garden-pond-filters.com/garden-fish-koifishclubsocieties.htm"