Has anyone had real results from these growth foods, and if so, which ones work.
What about alternative foods, maybe your own recipes.

Hey John

Personally I don't buy into all these growth foods.

I think the secret is keep their diet varied and before you know it they'll be going from strength to strength

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King of the Datnoids

The growth foods usually contain more protein than the maintenance foods of the same brand. This allows the fish to grow faster but if they are given too much growth food, they will produce more waste which can have an impact on water quality.

If you have good filtration and small fish which you want to grow on fast, the growth foods probably are good. Also good for conditioning breeding stock.

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Lucia

Ah interesting information.

Would having a warmer temperature encourage their growth further?

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King of the Datnoids

as with growing any fish on lots of small regular feeds are better than one big one.

i imagin bloodworm and if you can bring yourself to do it chopped earthworms would be full of protein.
with alot of high feeding you may need to up the waterchanges as naiad has allready comented on. good food+good water quality=great growth.

at what size are the koi ?

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Yes, as long as it is not too warm and the water quality remains good.

Robert is right that lots of small feeds are better than a few big ones, and bloodworm and earthworms are great sources of protein. Frozen bloodworms are very good, the same nutritional value as fresh but without any risk of disease. They don't break up into tiny bits as some other frozen foods do, so are not so bad for water quality.

Feeding koi on bloodworms is going to be very expensive though, so the growth foods are still a better option for cost and balanced diet, with the bloodworm and earthworms as a treat.

Some good koi foods...
http://uk.tetra.de/tetra/go/A2BB370A...produkt_list=1
http://uk.tetra.de/tetra/go/A2BC838F...produkt_list=1

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Lucia

There is no doubt that the Tetra sticks go down a treat, only thing is they dont contain enough bulk, lots of air in them.

Fish devour the pellets and always seem to come back for more.

Hikari are hugely overpriced and only copying nature with the added colour enhancers.

I use a staple diet of Jollyes finest lol

If the pond has plenty of live food then protein rich dried foods are not required. If anything the diet should be supplemented with carbohydrates.

Yound koi 2-3" require more protein than the larger ones > 12"

The Tetra foods do give nutritional information on the packaging.

The Tetra Pond sticks do contain a lot of air, but they sell some different goldfish foods which are not in the Pond range and are better.

As D.R. says, it depends on whether they are already getting lots of live and natural foods. If they are, it matters less which dry food you give them. If not, they will need a complete food which contains everything they need.

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Lucia

i use the tetra sticks for all my larger trops, they lurve em...£3.50[ish] from tescos...dont all foods have to have an annalysis label on em?

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