How to Feed Pond Fish

Fish ponds make a striking addition to your outdoor garden. Marveling at your bright and colorful fish can be a way to relax or just whittle away the time. While most people feed indoor bowl fish once a day, pond fish require a more complex feeding regimen. By following a few simple steps, you can help keep your pond fish happy and healthy.

Things You'll Need

• Formulated pellets
• Supplemental foods

Instructions

1. Determine the number of fish you are feeding. Each pond fish will require a regular amount of food. Pond fish should not have to compete with one another for the food that they need. Make feeding considerations for each fish separately, adding your needed food totals at the end.

2. Use fish food formulated for the types of fish in your pond. There are formulated pellets and flakes meant to handle a pond fish's dietary needs, but most fish benefit from variety in the diet. Koi enjoy eating a variety of water creatures including small fish and mollusks in the water and insects on the surface. Goldfish varieties like fantail or pond comets prefer submerged food to avoid too much air intake. Soak goldfish food first so that it slowly sinks instead of floating at the top

3. Look for deficits or problems in your fish and alter their diet to fix them. Infections and other diseases among your fish may indicate a Vitamin C deficiency. Feed fish a formulated pellet with vitamin C, or even try slices of grapefruits or oranges. If your fish's colors are looking dull, try a food that includes spirulina, a common color enhancing seaweed extract.

4. Take the season into account when feeding your pond fish. As the weather cools later in the year, keep track of your water temperature. When the water temperature is 70 degrees, you will need to mix the staple food with a lower protein wheat germ base. At 60 degrees, the normal staple food should be substituted with the wheat germ base entirely. As the water cools, it is harder for fish to digest food and wheat germ is easily digested at cooler temperatures. If water temperatures goes below 40 degrees, stop feeding entirely until spring comes.

5. Break the food up into meals that should be fed throughout the day. Like people, fish metabolism functions best when food is eaten in meals. Higher water temperatures mean a higher metabolism, and food should be separated into three or four separate feedings. When water temperature is on the lower end of the scale, two meals should suffice.

Tips & Warnings

• If food is not being eaten, scale back feeding amounts. Uneaten food can decay and cause bacterial infections.

• Avoid foods where ground corn is a major ingredient. This is cheap filler that will only fatten the fish.

References

• Pond-doctor.co.uk
• Drsfostersmith.com