As we head into the Autumn months the temperature starts to drop. This typically brings up the question of what should we be feeding our Ponds in the colder months?

Largely this all really depends on water temperature more than anything else so firstly ensure you have a good quality thermometer in the pond. It also depends on the species of fish you might be keeping.

For Koi, as well as all pond fish, as the water temperature drops so does the fish's metabolism. This means that their food is digested at a slower rate but also not as efficiently as food digested in the Summer. Most summer feeds are high in protein from fishmeal etc. and this can be tricky for the intestines of the fish to break down as it gets cooler. This is because the enzymes and bacteria found in the digestive system become slower and in some cases dormant.

The high protein meal in Summer food can cause bacterial issues if it stays in the gut of fish for an extended period of time. Also, feeding too high a protein level at low temperatures can also cause spikes in water quality as the majority of the excess protein that isn't required by the fish will end up in the water and will need breaking down by the filter. Switching to a lower protein plant meal diet in the winter will help to avoid this issue at a time when the fish, due to its slower metabolism, requires less proteing for growth anyway. The most common of the cold temperautre diets is wheatgerm.

Most standard staple or all year round feeds are suitable for temperatures as low as 14°C depending again on the protein source. However a lot of quality Koi foods use a large base of wheatgerm and spirulina proteins allowing them to be suitable down to around 10°C. For this reason at around 14-16°c is a good time to mix your current feed with a wheatgerm feed. This is suitable until the temperature drops below 10-12°c at which point, feeding with just wheatgerm alone is ideal.

We would also suggest using less food and feed less often for example 3-4 times a week as opposed to daily. As a rule what they eat happily in 5 minutes is plenty and will keep them more than satisfied and will take them longer to process.

It's safe to continue to do this until the temperature drops below 6°C when most Koi will almost switch off anyway and seek warmer water usually at the bottom of the pond. As the water cools further they will become far less active and may enter a type of hibernation state to conserve energy called torpor, where they will be able to survive with little to no food until the water warms.

Goldfish, Orfe and many coarse species can be treated in a similar way to Koi although it is not uncommon for them to want to continue feeding below 6°C. Many of the species that are derived from River fish are more adapted to colder water than still water fish like carp. although it can be a matter of a few cold nights in a row that could lead to digestive problems and on to mortalities.

“But some days my fish are at the surface looking for food”

Carefully monitoring the water temperature and how quickly it reacts to the air temperature changing, whilst keeping an eye on the forecast will allow you to make the best decisions here but if in doubt don’t feed. Most fish will have built up fat stores throughout the year and it is better that the fish use these than feed on something that they may not be able to digest properly.

Sturgeon on the other hand still need feeding everyday even on the coldest days. Again the amount they need is reduced but they still require food everyday. It can be concerning feeding an oily high protein sturgeon food when your not wanting to feed the other fish. In these cases it can also be worth switching to a sinking wheat germ food just in case that greedy Chagoi fancies a nibble.

We hope this helps you in the coming weeks but please get in touch if you need help or if you think we have missed anything they could help others throughout winter. We will follow this up soon with another feeding guide for the end of winter soon.