Claudia wrote:

now the 5 minute rule you are talking about is when it gets colder right?
b/c food doesn't last 1 minute and my GF are growing by leaps and bounds -
literrally.

Well, no. It's a basic rule of thumb in the aquarium hobby, and it seems
like a good rule for the pond too, never to feed more than the fish will
finish in 5 minutes. Some people would say even less. But that doesn't
mean that you _must_ feed them for five minutes. In fact, I believe in not
feeding pond fish at all. When I only had GF I never fed them. When I got
Koi, I fed them only to get their attention. If you don't overstock (I had
7 under 1' koi in 5000 gallons), they'll do fine on the things they find in
the pond.
--
derek