veeeery interesting. this dying "with no apparent reason" makes me NUTS. last 2 koi
died 3-4 years ago when I did the "post" on the freshest one all I found was wrong
colored eggs ... meaning possible bacterial infection. that is when I netted over
the veggie filter so the birds couldnt bathe in there.
I dont think I have any fish left from my first batch of koi... the ones I fed crap
rancid trout chow to before I learned better. I feel so bad about losing my first
koi, raised em mostly in a 55 gallon tank. they were very friendly when they went
into the pond. Ingrid

"G Pearce" wrote:
Cancer is what my cat (mentioned above in thread) had and eventually died
from, we used to feed our cats Purina brand food. Purina seems to have a lot
of corn in all of their different pet foods. We are now feeding them Iams
Multi Cat ("corn grits" are listed as 3rd ingredient) Getting back to the
fish, when I started ponding 13 yrs ago, I was using Purina Trout Chow -1st
ingredient, I believe was corn, but I think it was all the fish byproducts
and oils that were the problem - my 1st 2 koi went from 3" to 18" in 3 yrs
and died with no visible problems. The 3rd koi from that group died the
following year of nothing visible other than it went totally blind When I
started to ask around as to why, I was directed to a koi farm to ask . The
first question was "what are you feeding them?" With the Purina Trout Chow
answer, the koi breeder asked me how long do I think I would live if I ate
at McDonalds 3 meals / day, 7 days a week. He said they use some trout chow
sparingly to put some size on their koi until their first cull, then high
quality food to bring out the colours and for health. He also said the
"Chow" was formulated for trout, catfish and salmon farms to get the fish
large enough for market as quickly as possible, typically 13 months. The
effect it has on their internal organs is of no interest to them
jme Gale :~)


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