FISH FOOD
Fish, like all
creatures, need food to survive. Aquascape fish foods are
scientifically formulated to provide all pond fish with premium
quality nutrition at a great price. Quality ingredients,
including multi-vitamins and stabilized vitamin C, provide superior
nutrition and will not pollute pond water. Aquascape fish
foods are ideal for all pond fish including koi & goldfish.
NOTE: Fish eat differently in warmer and cooler water
(down to 55 degrees) so be sure to check out the recommended
water temperature for your fish food
Feeding your fish is one of the most enjoyable times you will
spend with your pond. It provides the oportunity to bond with, tame
and train your fish. Always place it in the same place each time
you feed you fish. This way the fish learn that when you are in
this spot, it means they will be fed. Soon you can train them to
eat out of your hand.
Our
pond fish require different types of foods for different seasons.
During late spring and summer you should use a staple that contains
higher amounts of protein. Protein is used by the body for bone and
tissue growth. Fish, as in humans, do not store protein in the
body. It is used for growth, however a small amount may be
converted to carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are burned as engery for
swimming. It is stored in the body as fat so it is essential
that a lower protein content be used during cooler temperatures.
Your fish won't have the benefit feeding on a regular basis during
the winter. Therefore a wheatgerm based diet should be used so the
fish can store carbs and fat for the winter. Fish will eat both
animal and vegetable matter which makes them omnivorous. They do
not have stomachs so they can't eat large amounts at one time. This
is the reason your fish spend a great deal of time foraging around.
Fish will actually eat just about anything that is small enough for
them to swallow whole.
The
hand-feeding process can be pleasurable for both you and your fish
or goldfish. Instead of throwing the fish pellets into the pond,
take the time to place them into the water at the same area daily.
In so doing, the fish will become accustomed to the routine and
will, over time, become friendly and trusting enough to be
hand-fed. Pond fish have even been known to recognize there owners'
footsteps and follow them around the waters edge.
Taming
and training your pond fish is a gradual process, but it can be
very rewarding. Spending this time with your fish will also allow
you to observe any problems early on.
Your fish
should be fed one tenth of their body weight per day. A 12
inch fish weighs approximately one pound. If you have ten, 12
inch fish in your system you should be feeding a total of one pound
per day. Make sure that your filter can handle the processing
of that amount by checking your water quality regularly.
TJB-INC TIP:
ECOLOGICAL
BALANCE. If
you understand this basic fact, your water will always be clear,
not green. FISH AND PLANT WASTE =PLANT FOOD=ADEQUATE PLANTS TO USE
THE PLANT FOOD=BALANCE=CLEAR WATER. Over feeding fish, and/or not
enough plants = green water 90% of the time. A Simple solution that
doesn’t come out of a bottle: Understand balance, and you’ve got it
whipped!! The Ammonia-nitrite-nitrate cycle is a fact of nature.
Fish and plant waste (ammonia) get converted by bacterias into
nitrite, which gets converted by additional bacterias into nitrate.
Ammonia and nitrite in small amounts can be harmful, and even
lethal, to fish. Nitrates, the final step, can be concentrated at
much higher levels without being harmful to fish. If there are not
enough plants to handle this additional nitrate, (plant food), LOOK
OUT!!!, nature will supply it free gratis in the form of green
water and/or string/filamentous algaes. In a balanced pond, these
algaes will still be present, but in low enough numbers that you
won’t even notice them without really, really looking. A mature,
balanced pond will have literally no traces of ammonia or nitrites,
only nitrate. As a result of this information, go slow with a new
pond as far as putting in a lot of fish or feeding them a lot for
the first month or so. Give it a chance to colonize these
bacteria's in sufficient numbers to be able to mature and handle
the pond’s biological needs, as well as letting the aquatic and
marginal plants get established.
Assessment 2: Ingredient splitting. Look for any
ingredient twice on the list. If you were manufacturing a food and
found wheat to be cheaper than fishmeal, you would want to use
wheat to save money. But, you know the consumers want the fishmeal
to be first on the list. So you split the wheat! Here’s an example:
A fish food that has three pounds of wheat and two pounds of fish
meal would have the ingredients listed in order by weight. To get
around this, the manufacturer splits the wheat in half and lists it
as two different forms of wheat. So that label reads fish meal,
wheat germ, and wheat flour (in that order). This makes it appear
to the consumer that the food contains a higher amount of
aquaculture than any other ingredient.
Assessment 3: Protein percent. Let's say a company who
is tailoring a feed to the prevailing market-climate wants to use
four aquacultural proteins, and tosses in shrimp, kelp, spirulina,
and squid meal. That would be awesome! But it could jack up the
proteins to a level unsuitable for fish, or at least unnecessary
(and expensive). Koi can't digest more than 32 to 36 percent
protein in one pass. Feeding more than that isn’t necessarily a bad
thing because fish will simply pass what they don't digest – it’s
just expensive to pay for a fish food unnecessarily high in
protein. So, look for minimums and recognize that an outrageously
high protein percentage is more than what’s
needed.
Assessment 4: Fat content. Find a food between 3 to 10
percent crude fat. The high end of this range is good for smaller
fish, and the lower end of the range is good for adult
fish.
Assessment 5: Ascorbic acid. Make sure ascorbic acid,
or L-Ascorbyl-2-Phosphate is on the label among the trailing
ingredients. It will represent a very small part of the diet but it
should be added to any milled food.
Assessment 6: Immune boosters. Some foods are made
with immune boosters. These are certainly harmless and they may
very well perform as promised depending on which ones we're talking
about. Look for any combination of the following supposed
immune-boosting ingredients: Optimun, Aquagen, Nucleotides, Torula
Yeast, Brewer's Yeast, Bee Propolis, Colostrum, Aspergillus niger,
beta carotene, lactoferrin. Don't hang your hat on any particular
ingredient as a miracle supplement or lifesaver, Just recognize
that the addition of these items represents the manufacturer as a
little more attentive and knowledgeable, and the food worth a
little extra money.
Assessment 7: Color enhancers. Are there color
enhancers in the diet? Look for terms like Spirulina, Bio-Red,
BetaCarotene, Canthaxanthin, Marigold petals, Xanthins, Shrimp Oil,
Synthetic and Non Synthetic Carotenoids, or Color Enhancers on the
label. Generally, the shrimp oil is the most expensive. It performs
as well or better than the synthetic carotenoids but either is
acceptable. Spirulina cannot push color unless the fish are exposed
to sunlight. None of these color enhancers are hazardous to fish
but can make a fish with a yellow head more yellow or a fish with a
tendency towards pink pinker. No color enhancer can replace the
irrefutable contribution of genetics and sunlight to
color.
Assessment 8: Ash content if stated. Sometimes
companies will level with you and tell you the "crap" content of
their food. Ash is what's left behind when you incinerate (or the
fish digests) the food. It's almost all carbon and mineral. So the
higher the ash number, the less likely one is to appreciate it.
Generally, when ash is high, a smart label guy would just leave it
off, and they are allowed to because it's not required on fish food
bags.
