It's always been MHO, that we feed our fish way too much, especially fish
that are in a water garden (as opposed to a Koi pond). I feed mine once a
day max. There is plenty of other stuff for them to eat.

Joe

On 6/11/04 3:18 AM, "Tim Downie" wrote:

I've got a small pond (about 570 L, 125 UK gal, 150 US gal) with 4 goldfish
(about 5-6" in length).

The pond hasn't been established very long (only a couple of months) but I
got a reasonable number of potted plants established along with water
hyacinths and duckweed to provide cover for the fish.

Water testing hasn't picked up any significant quantities of nitrate,
nitrite or ammonia but the pH is on the alkaline side (8). Whilst not
clear, the water is by no means opaque. I have a home made bio/particulate
filter that does a fair job of removing algae but I don't think the bio
filter side of it hasn't been established long enough to really work well
yet.

I'm currently feeding my fish with TertaPond floating food sticks that they
seem to love and I'm ensuring that I'm not feeding them more than they can
eat in a few minutes. TetraPond recommend feeding 2-3 times a day and they
have no problem putting away 2-3 sticks each 3 times a day. I suspect that
they could eat more.

So (deep breath), my question is, is this a reasonable rate of feeding for a
new pond of my size? I'm sure the fish could eat more (and have done some
days when the children feed them) but I'm not sure whether a pond of my size
could cope with the extra nitrogen input.

TIA

Tim



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