View Single Post
  #35   Report Post  
Old 17-06-2003, 04:32 AM
~ Windsong ~
 
Posts: n/a
Default catfish food for koi :-)

In the last chapter: picked up the keyboard and
pecked out:
:: I think it comes down to what do the experts feed their koi, their
:: dogs. People like Brett Rowley who breed koi use high quality
:: feed like Rangen, and he has to minimize his costs to stay in
:: business ..... he got more koi mouths to feed than all of us put
:: together. And Brett knows more about breeding and raising healthy
:: koi than all of us put together.

## He's a breeder, not a pet fish owner like most of us out here. He sells
his fish and that covers the cost of higher priced feeds. Also as a breeder
you can be sure he's getting a professional discount - plus he buys a lot
more than we do per year also lowering his costs. And unless he tried
cheaper food/catfish chow and had a problem, there is no way he would know
the difference.
I was sure that wolf, coyote breeder was going to tell me she was feeding
high priced dog food, fresh liver and other meats to her breeding stock -
not so, they ate dry food from Wal-Mart mixed with canned dogfood and some
table scraps.

:: I am on a dog list as well, and the same issue comes up about
:: cheap bulk dog food vs better brands. And part of my decision to
:: feed high quality koi food is because I can actually see the
:: difference between high protein dog food and the cheap stuff that
:: is mostly fillers. When my two big springers take a dump after
:: eating cheap food the pile is enormous. With high protein food
:: there isnt 1/2 the wastes.

## That may be true. The size of my dog's feces isn't important since they
have a very large fenced in area and use the back portion away from the
house. When I bred poodles in NYC I fed them Purina, pure canned meat and
of course leftovers and scraps. I think the canned meat was Cadillac brand.
If these dogs and my koi were part of a business, breeding stock.... I may
look at it differently.

The difference was obvious when I
:: switched from cheap GF food to high protein. My filters stopped
:: getting fouled with undigested food. Bulk is in one end and out
:: the other.
:: I think it is pretty clear all over the world what happens when
:: people eat high starch diets. The majority of them get huge ...
:: but it is obesity, not "sleekly fat"

## I don't disagree, ...because I flush the filters once a week no matter
if they're slowing down or not it doesn't matter to me. Some weeks they
slow-down more than other weeks. If they started clogging every few days I
would still keep the cheaper food and flush them more often - or add another
filter. And again, one must compare to know for sure. If after using a
feed that's only $11 per 50 lbs their filter clogs more often then they care
to flush or clean it, they can always go back to the $5 - $10 a lb feed.
High carbohydrate diets can cause obesity. That's well known. Also known
is that it's more a lack of "portion control" causing the obesity, plus the
sedentary lifestyle so many take up these days. As for our fish and dogs.
If we overfeed them they will surely get overweight and the more carbs the
foods contain the faster that can happen.

Minimize the protein and they
:: are runted, never attaining their growth potential. Limit protein
:: to children and they never develop full brain potential and their
:: immune system is compromised. Those little kids with big bellies
:: are the result of a lack of protein, but plenty of starch in their
:: diet.

## True, those kids have a serious lack of protein. None of us have seen
that happen with our pond fish on catfish food. The goldfish also grow fine
on it.

:: I dont have high dollar koi, but they are my pets.. and they are
:: worth a buck a year each to feed them high quality food.

## A buck a year? My koi can eat a lb of food in less than a week. That's
a lot more than a buck a year! They're fed twice a day, 7 days a week.

Fish are
:: good converters of food, I think it is something like for every 2
:: lbs of food they put on 1 lb of weight. So fish just dont need so
:: MUCH food. And since I want to maintain the highest quality water
:: I want to use food that isnt going to unnecessarily make it more
:: difficult. Ingrid

## This is understandable. So far water quality hasn't suffered. The ponds
are all loaded with plants and the larger pond has a plant filled settling
tank. Both have a UV light. We've had no disease or parasites since the
ponds were netted, everythig new is treated with PP before going into them,
LymnoZyme (now called koizyme ?) is added in the spring, and we started
feeding the catfish chow.
--
*.·´¨¨))
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))*
*((¸¸.·´ ..·´
((¸¸.·´* ~ * Carol * ~ *