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Old 09-11-2003, 03:12 PM
 
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Default beautiful baby koi....

it is not a good idea. cat food is cheap because it is made out of really cheap
ingredients, mostly grain. cat fish food, OTOH, is made to fatten them up fast cause
they are harvested in the first or second year so quality and the health of the fish
long term is not important.
our pet fish need higher quality higher protein and higher fat food for good health.
AND because we can feed so little of it and get fantastic growth. all food has
"bulk" or fiber that is not digested. cheap food has a great deal more of this that
high quality food. now the results of using cheap dog food is easily seen as much
bigger steaming piles of undigested matter (crap) compared to high quality food.
While those steaming piles may be spread out on a field or picked up, when fish are
crapping all that undigestible matter into the pond it just overloads the filter and
the fish have to swim in fouled water. Overfeeding even high quality food can do the
same thing.
the other issue is what GF and koi can digest. they have evolved to digest water
based food really well, mostly little animal critters with high protein, high fat,
low cellulose content. They dont digest carbohydrates well at all, so all that corn
and wheat in cheap food is in one end, out the other. So you can decide to feed high
quality food most of which is digested, feed very very little and dont foul the
water, or you can feed lots of the cheap food that does foul the water. Up to you.
Ingrid

(Judi9000) wrote:
Congrats on your babies!
Do you know if it's ok to feed koi and goldfish CAT FOOD? Judi




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