Moon's Graden

You are putting out bad information again.  Goldfish and KOI do not need
high protein and high fat foods.  Maybe this is why you have trouble keeping
your fish alive.  A number of books on nutrition, including the Halver book
say that goldfish need lower fat and protein.  In fact, according to the
experts in fish nutrition they should be fed foods that are 28-32 % protein
content.  When the you are feeding fry and fish up to 9 months of age 50 and
60% are important and is no problem, but after that you have the chances of
creating floaters (this is experience talking here).

If you feed fish continually diets high in protein and fats, if you dissect
them you will find that the heart and liver are surrounded by layers of fat.
The fat around the heart and liver stays there and is not metabolized like
fats in the tissues, which is where the fats belong in goldfish and KOI, in
the tissues.  As the fish's heart and liver have additional layers of fat
built up on them, they fail, which may be why the heart attack problems you
are always suggesting is what is actually killing the fish.

I talked to the owner of Aquadine and he was telling me that a lot of fish
food producers have gotten themselves in a vicious loop of putting more and
more protein in their foods because of comment like yours (not yours
specifically, but the general consensus that they hear) and they figure to
sell food they need to increase the protein content.  In any event, the
foods for most species are too high, but it hard to back the protein content
off once it is up there, which is why Aquadine has strived not to raise any
of theirs any more.  He says though that it is hard when the uninformed are
the loudest demanding higher protein concentrations.

So in any event, goldfish and KOI are omnivores not carnivores and "require"
protein levels in the 28-32% range to be in continued good health.

HTH

Tom L.L.
==============================

Do you mean we are spending our hard earned money to kill our koi????

Ultra Balance... ..............35% Protein
Mazuri........................... 36% Protein
Nozomi Four Seasons......35% "
Nozomi Spirulina..............40%"
Niigata.............................40%"
Chengro..........................32-38% Protein

All above the 28-32% range you quote as ideal.

Also, I had no idea that Ingrid had trouble keeping her fish alive.  How did
you learn of this???????

Mike

I am not sure if this thread was just about Koi or all kinds of fish
but surely just as we would not put a lion or mako shark on a hay
diet, we wouldn't think of feeding a cow or a pleco fish big chunks of
meat.

J

Speaking of greens - my fish (koi, goldfish, rosie reds and - orfe - not sure
about them) have been chowing down on bunches of water cress.
I buy them at my store with nice roots.
The now leafless stems and roots sink to the bottom and they are sending up
tiny leaves from
two feet down!

k30a
how to cure green water
http://hometown.aol.com/k30a/myhomepage/writing.html
herons eating your fish? fancy a turtle? need to bag a bullfrog?
http://hometown.aol.com/k30a/myhomepage/garden.html