Feeding pond fish too much increases biofilter load

Pondkeeper's How to...

Feeding pond fish too much increases biofilter load

Feeding fish, improve water quality

During mid summer a fish can easily eat 1% of its body mass. This will reduce as water temperature falls. So the amount of food you can feed your fish can feed depends upon water temperature.
Here is an approximate feeding guide per single fish based upon very average situations at 20 degrees C (68 degrees F) so do not take these figures as absolutely correct under all circumstances. Rather use it as a guide.

6 inch fish ...... weigh about 2 ozs or 50 gms so feed 1% of this weight per fish per day in total

12 inch koi weigh about 400 gms or 14 ozs so feed 1% of this per fish per day in total

You can leave fish for a week and more quite easily without any feeding

At about 15 degrees C (59 degrees F) reduce food by 1/3rd and at 10 degrees C (50 degrees F) reduce to 1/10th

1. Do NOT overfeed fish.
2. Do feed small amounts more often than a single large amount
3. Remove uneaten food before it sinks.
4. If you have mixture of large and small fish grind the food up into smaller particles to give the smaller fish a chance to eat before the bigger ones gobble up the larger particles.

The reason for all of the above 3 tips is that the amount of food fed has an almost immediate and direct impact upon water quality and biofilter load.