When you go online or local pet stores, there are just too many choices of Koi food to choose from and you wonder what is the right one for your Koi. Here are some helpful tips.
What types of Koi food do we feed?
We can roughly categorize all Koi fish food on the market into:
- All season type: you can feed the food all year around above 50F and up
- Color enhancing type: It enhances red color of Koi
- Growth promoting type: It has higher protein, which promote the growth of Koi
So depending on your purpose, you can choose the type of Koi food. Please be careful color and growth food are usually for warm water only. There is a good chance you will use a combination throughout the year.
If you are not sure, I recommend you go with All season as the main diet and add color up food during summer. Mr. Kodama All Season Koi Food is the same food we feed our koi on the farm and developed by Koi Master and Kodama Koi Founder, Mamoru Kodama. Color Up is also a great option, due to it’s use of Spirulina, which has many benefits!
There are many choices to make and we have described the top considerations and our list of products from Kodama and other manufacturers that we really trust at the bottom. Ingredients are everything and you koi are what they eat!
Do I Choose Floating or Sinking Koi Food?
The most popular one is the floating type. Nothing is more fun than feeding your Koi. With floating food, you can see your Koi eating just in front of you. You can also check health condition of the Koi by observing the body.
Sinking food is preferred by more experienced hobbyists. Because Koi are bottom feeders, they eat more from the bottom. They grow bigger with sinking food. Because you can not see them eating well, however, It does require some skills and experiences to check their health condition daily.
So unless you must feed sinking food, choose the floating type.
What size of pellets do we feed? Small, Medium or Large?
There are usually small, medium and large Koi fish food pellets.
The size varies among the brands, but the following are the average size:
- Small pellet is 3mm
- Medium pellets are 5.5-6.5mm and for Koi over 15cm or 6”
- Large pellet is 7.5-8.5mm and for Koi over 14”
If you are not sure what size pellets you should feed your Koi, buy medium pellets.
How do you choose the right koi food for your Koi?
If you love your pets, you want them to stay healthy, don’t you?
For us to stay healthy, eating fresh and fine quality food is very important. It goes the same with your Koi and Koi food. The quality of ingredients determines the quality of Koi food, that influences the health of your important Koi.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell the quality of ingredients from packages. One piece of advice is that you should not choose the food based on price.
Quality ingredients are not cheap. Cheap food, most of the time, means low quality ingredients and a lot of fillers.
At least I guarantee the quality of ingredients for the food in our store. They have been loved by the Japanese Koi hobbyists for decades. They deliver excellent results for the health and beauty of Japanese Koi.
When will the large pellets floating food in all season and color up be in stock?