Being aristocrats, Smart Koi have nothing but fine taste! They love variety. They spit food that they do not like and ask for something else!
Their food preference is as follows
Pellets: 1. Sera 2. Dainichi 3. Saki Hikari 4. Tomigai Taberu & Fuzizakura 5. Blackwater Gold-n These pellets are fed at 0.5%-0.75% of their body weight in
summer. Feed only 0.25-0.5% of their body weight in winter even if they are at 68*F because short daylight hours triggers winter metabolic rate in Koi. Do NOT overfeed. Once every week, soak their pellets in cranberry juice or orange
juice until they are soft (not soggy).
Treats
- Twice a week- Any one of the following Baby food via spoon Stacy’s chips or Baked vegetable fries or Multi grain biscuits from Costco or multi grain bread or Cheerios or Doritos English (seedless) Cucumber, Water celery Bananas (sparingly, has very high potassium and can damage kidneys), mangoes or cantaloupe
Occasional: Manda Fu Multi grain Bread dipped in Indian or Thai curry sauce Muffins or short bread or scones Home made spicy or sweet rice noodles (recipe follows)
Drinks: Yes! Smart Koi love juice. They do not like sour taste. Give juice in a baby bottle or from a can. But give sparingly because even fruit juice has
high sugar and Koi can not digest carbohydrates as well as we do.
Recipe for Spicy Rice noodles:
Cook 1 cup Jasmine rice (in 2 cups of water) with a 1/4 teaspoon of cumin seeds + one pod of anise star seed, a pinch of Indian curry powder/thai curry paste or 1/4 tsp of
chili powder and salt Do not cook the following. Mix cooked rice with freeze dried (do not buy sun-dried as it may contain spores of parasites) Daphnia or Brine Shrimp + Cyclopeeze. Jehmco sells all of these. These are what Koi like
to eat and they enhance Koi color naturally. (Do not buy algae. Koi do NOT eat algae). These zoo-plankton have 60% protein. So adjust the quantity so that your noodles will have 30% protein. Add 2 tablespoons Gerber baby vegetable
puree. Sprinkle some water (I use a spray bottle) to make the mixture soft and pass through a pasta maker or manual food processor (available at Bed Bath and Beyond). Cut into 1-inch long pieces and give your Koi. I leave the pump on and
turn air off. The noodles wiggle like worms, and make Koi happy.
Recipe for Sweet Noodles: Cook 1 cup Jasmine rice (in 2 cups of water). Mix 1/4 cup cookie crumbs + 1 teaspoon no trans fat peanut butter+ Mango puree + Cantaloupe
puree. Pass through pasta maker/food processor. Cut into 1-inch long pieces and give your Koi. This version should be given only once in a month or less
Recipe for medicated Noodles: Cook 1 cup Jasmine rice (in 2 cups of water) with a 1/4 teaspoon of cumin seeds + one pod of cardamom, 1/4 tsp garlic
powder + 1/4 tsp pepper and salt. Mix cooked rice with freeze dried Brine Shrimp (final concentration of protein should be 20%) and antibiotics (40mg per kg body weight each of Oxytetracyclin and Sulfa 4 TMP OR combo of
Erythromycin and Oxytetracycline). and 100mg per kg body weight of Metronidazole (only one time) if you suspect internal anaerobic bacteria/worms/protozoa. Pass through pasta maker/food processor. Cut into 1-inch long pieces and give
your Koi for 7 days.