I think a good indicator would be when all the anacharis is gone. Of course
koi love anacharis and that might not be very long. Koi are omnivores and
love good veggies, probably more so than goldfish. If they are being under
fed, they should stop growing and start to look emaciated.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html
"Nathan A. Smith" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 21:34:47 +0000, RichToyBox wrote:

Size and number of fish are controlling factors here. A small number of
fish, or small fish, will find plenty of good bugs in the algae sweater
of
the pond, snails, veggies, and the like. As you get more fish, and
larger
fish, the pond gets smaller and the availability of the natural goodies
is
not enough to go around and then the fish need to be fed supplemental
foods.
I feed mine 3 or 4 times a day during the heat of the summer, and since
I
heat to about 70 degrees all winter, I feed twice a day during the
winter.
I have in my larger pond around 25 fish at any given time with an
average
length of about 24 inches and a total weight of fish approaching 250 to
300
pounds. They would not survive without supplemental feeding.

Ok,

This all makes sense -- However, how do you know when the fish can
survive on just the pond and when they need to be feed. My pond for
example has 7 goldfish, 2 Koi, a couple mosquito eaters, and 6 guppies.
My pond is somewhere between 700 - 900 Gallons. It has a water lilly,
anachris, and hyacinth. And all the fish are under 5".

Nasa