Just like other fish, koi have particular nutritional needs. After water quality, nutrition has the greatest influence on their health and appearance. Diet will affect their growth, coloration, disease resistance and breeding performance.

As koi are traditionally kept in a densely stocked pond, they rely on their keeper to provide a complete and balanced diet. Being an ornamental variety of carp, koi diets are largely based on the nutritional requirements of carp.

If you look at a koi from the side, you can see that its mouth protrudes in a downward direction, which is typical of a bottom feeding fish. Using the sensitive barbells positioned on each side of the mouth, carp root around in the soft sediment of lakes and ponds in search of food items.

Koi are inquisitive fish, constantly scavenging over a natural pond bottom, feeding throughout the day and making the water murky as they dig around. They are omnivorous and readily consume worms, insect larvae, algae, plant roots and shoots and other detritus that may have settled on the pond bottom.

Protein is essential for growth, the repair of damaged tissue and the production of sperm or eggs. Proteins are made up of soluble building blocks called amino acids. Koi require 10 of the 24 essential amino acids in their diet.

They are able to manufacture the other 14 themselves. Raw ingredients, such as fish meal, poultry meal and wheat germ, are included in the diet as high quality sources of these essential amino acids.

Protein requirements decrease with the age of koi, but increase with the water temperature. Actively growing juvenile koi requires high protein diets of 30-40% to fuel this rapid growth.

Similarly, metabolic rate and its requirements for energy and protein increase as the temperature rises.

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