Feeding the fish

[BlueCrystalMan]

My pond has Koi and goldfish... and two big black somethings... not quite sure what they are... see them zip by now and then. A friend was over yesterday and said his buddy hasn't fed the fish in his pond in over five years... the pond is slightly smaller than mine... said they do fine with just the algae...

Anybody heard of this? I noticed that my boys don't seem to bother with the food by day, but go nuts at night feeding... either on the Koi sticks I toss in a few times during the day or picking at stuff on the bottom...

Any thoughts? It makes sense what he's saying, cause who tosses them stuff in the wild?

I feed in late spring when they are breeding, figure they need extra food. I also feed in the fall so they can bulk up for overwintering. Both times of year I use the cool-weather food (easier to digest).

I do this for 2 reasons:

1. Nutrient reduction. outside food means extra nutrients in the water, which means more algae. I have enough as it is, no thank you to extra!

2. I want the fish Hungry! This way, they will constantly be on the prowl for mosquito larvae (and whatever else they can eat). The more skeeter larvae they eat, the less skeeters there are to bite me!

My pond has Koi and goldfish... and two big black somethings... not quite sure what they are... see them zip by now and then.

Did you buy feeder goldfish? My experience is that with feeders, the ones that look silvery and/or brownish in the store turn black after a short while in the pond. I cull mine every 2 years or so, that black/dark brown gene seems to be dominant, after a couple years almost all the babies are that color. I feel kinda bad about it, but I want fish I can see, durn it! The dark ones are almost invisible, what's the point of that to me?

[BlueCrystalMan]

I put three Koi in... thats it. They were three inches long... now, two or so months later, they have to be close to seven inches... that alone is crazy. I had a friend ask me if I wanted a few fish... 'sure' I told her. I ended up with eight more... I think a few baby Koi (that are now three inches or so themselves) and regular goldfish... BUT... last night I saw two dark things go zipping by... is that what you were referring to?

Yeah, I'd prefer to see them too... but what'rya gonna do... ??? Thanks, [acronym:6a02fdb197="Crushed Coral (if substrate) or Counter Current (if referring to a Protien skimmer) or cubic centimeter (if referring to a measure of volume)."]cc[/acronym:6a02fdb197].

[ddm_aet]

i noticed that they tend to turn black over time to must be a dominant trait. I have to remove all the babies like twice a year even though the fish eat quite a few of them i have one 10-12 inch orange gold fish that started out as what they call a large feeder hes 5 years old now and 2 koi about 12 inches each. i used to have a saltwater eel tank once with three 2-3 foot eels in it and my girlfriend at the time thought it would be nice if she saved the eels lunch a bag of about 12 feeders so she through them into the pond ever since the then i can't stop them from mutiplying