What Blackwater Wheat Germ Cool Season Koi Food Can Do For Your Fish This Winter

Last month we gave you a breakdown of one of our most popular kinds of cold weather fish food: Microbe Lift Legacy. This month we’re going to give a similar synopsis of another great brand we carry: Blackwater Wheat Germ Cool Season Koi Food.

As we’ve discussed before, your fish’s dietary needs change based on the weather. Once the temperatures start falling, their metabolism slows down, meaning they need to be given food that is easy to digest.

How does Blackwater's brand of cold weather fish food meet this need?

Blackwater Wheat Germ food provides a low fat diet that is highly digestible. Its primary ingredient, as you may have guessed, is wheat germ. This ingredient is great to see in cold weather fish food, because it is designed to take the place of protein and give fish nutrients in a form their systems can handle.

Some of the other key ingredients include: premium grade fish meal, wheat, dried yeast culture, soy protein concentrate and wheat flour. All of these things are easy on your fish’s digestive systems, which makes this food a great choice during the cold winter months.

Something you might not know: this cold weather fish food can also be used in the spring to aid in spawning. Because it’s low in fat, it helps reduce the buildup of fat in your fish’s ovaries, which may reduce the incidence of “egg bound” females. Pretty neat!

The weather is turning colder quickly, so make sure you make the switch to cold weather fish food. Your fish – and their digestive systems – will thank you.

Learn more about cold weather fish food and how it can help your fish stay healthy all winter long.

*Image provided by Cindy Funk on Flickr

Fish Feeding Tips for Winter Weather

As the weather turns colder and the air temperature begins to drop, the fish in your backyard pond need to go on a cold water fish food diet. Lucky for them, their diet has nothing to do with losing weight, but if you don't administer it properly, they won't make it through the winter. This is because fish's digestive systems slow down as the weather cools, and they are unable to digest the same foods they consume during warmer months. If they cannot digest the food you are feeding them, it will sit in their system undigested, and this can result in intestinal or stomach ulceration. Koi are particularly susceptible to this, because they have no stomach and undigested food passes directly into their intestines to rot.

The first step to properly feeding your fish during the winter is knowing the temperature of their water. If you do not have a thermometer now is the time to get one, and Pondliner offers a reliable and inexpensive model. Suspend your thermometer in your backyard pond about 18 inches deep in the water to get accurate readings.

Once you have a thermometer, you can use the temperature of the water as your guide for what to feed your fish. Once the water temperature drops below 65 degrees Fahrenheit, you should start feeding your fish wheat germ-based cold water fish food. Wheat germ is much easier to digest, making it the ideal base for cold water fish food. Pondliner's Micro-Lift Legacy cold water fish food is especially helpful, because it contains Probiotics that produce enzymes to aid the breakdown of carbohydrates, protein & fat.

Once the water temperature drops below 50 degrees Fahrenheit,you can stop feeding your fish altogether. It's likely that they will be spending the majority of their time dormant at the bottom of your pond at this point, and therefore they will not need cold water fish food to sustain them. Cease feeding for the remainder of the winter, unless temperatures warm unexpectedly, and resume a cold water fish food diet once temperatures start rising again in the spring.

As temperatures begin to drop this fall and winter keep your pond fish happy and healthy by feeding them Pondliner's Micro-Lift Legacy cold water fish food.

If you have any further questions, feel free to contact one of our helpful and qualified Pondliner professionals today!