when can I start feeding our fish

[wags]

Howdy ponders  It's been a long cold winter but spring is all most here  This is my first winter as a ponder and I'm so thankful that my fish survived.. I was wondering when I should start feeding them again??? I live in central Illinios so it may still have a few more days of real cold weather but my pond water as of yesturday was 60 degrees..The weather is supposed to change in a day or so back down into the twenties at night  .. Thanks for the info wags

[marla]

Wags, glad to hear your fish made it through their first winter, I'm still waiting for the ice to melt up here to see how my koi are in the main pond, the lily pond now has less ice and I do see some goldfish swimming around in there.  As for feeding it is best to wait till the water temps are a constant  55*F (night and day) some fish may be begging at 50*F so if they are go ahead and feed them some low temp food or start with some veggies or fruits, most love orange slices and they get their vitamin c also.  They will eat slower and less at first so don't overfeed and have a net handy and scoop out the uneaten food so it doesn't get in the skimmer.

[wags]

thanks alot marla what other foods can you feed goldfish and koi???    Hope your fish make it through too..  wags

[Sunbeam56]

What Marla has told you is the conventional wisdom. I have a mud pond - so you can't STOP feeding the fish all winter long. They suck on the mud and plants, and so long as the water is warm enough to motor about, they are eating.
They hunker down and don't move around a lot when its cold.

I think its ok to feed at cooler water temps - but only high fibre, low calorie things, like spinach, lettuce, peas...
Sort of what a fish would find in a mud pond.

[goldenangel]

Hi.  Nice to meet another central IL ponder. 

Our weather here is so unpredictable.  I don't start feeding the fish till late March or Early April.  It really depends on the weather.  When the pond water is 50 for several days in a row and no cold spells are in the forecast I will usually start feeding them.  I usually feed a wheat germ based food till Late April or May or whenever the pond water stops fluctuating and maintains a temp around 65-70.  Forgot to mention that I don't feed every day.  When the water is that cold they won't eat as often so I only feed they once every other day. 


This year has been so weird temp wise.  I haven't even tried feeding them yet.  We keep having all of these cold spells.  I'm not even going to risk it at this point.  They have plenty of plants and insects they can snack on.  We have had too many days where it is 70 one day and 20 the next.  Ready for it to warm up and stay that way. 

[Vickie]

Here I don't start feeding them until May. They can eat algae and what ever they can find naturally in the pond. You can feed cherios first if you want to.

[Kris]

I'm outside of Chicago - far west suburbs (actually still corn fields out by me) & I won't feed mine until the water temp is consisantly 55º for 3 days in a row & the upcoming weather doesn't look like it will drop the temps.  I feed a wheat germ based food until the water is consistantly above 60º.  I have a feeder that I can set-up to feed them in the middle of the day while I'm at work so they get a small amount at first & then I can increase as the water gets warmer.  So far I haven't lost a fish yet by sticking to this. 

[tweetybaby2005]

South Central KS here (Zone 6B) I started feeding my fish sparingly with some Spring wheat germ based food.  Sparingly is the keyword.  I did throw in some Cheerios but not much.  But my water temp has been in the 50s in a row for a week now though.

Kuan

[Dkoinut]

Don't be anxious to feed koi much until the water is consistantly above 55* F and then only once or twice per week. It will take 6 weeks for your bio filters to cycle and be able to convert the fish wastes from Ammonia to nitrates. Also once you start feeding, it's time to be water quality testing specifically for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.

[bra8ndy8]

Mine ate for the first time on Tuesday!

[tootsie]

My pond is a clay bottom, AND IS STILL COVERED WITH ICE I walked along one edge tho and found about 250 dead bullheads! Seems when the sun was out and warmed a bit of the one side of pond, the fish decided to come up from the deep and bask in the water along the edge. The temps then raced down into the 20's freezing up the sides. I did see more of the bullheads that were frozen and stuck in the middle of the ponds ice. There must have been a huge crack, large enough for them to swim up and along that too!

[Julles]

Tootsie - that's really tragic!

Even worse is who's going to net them all out, and what to do with them.  250 is a LOT!