Whats the best time to stop feeding fish in the winter??

Thanks

Hi Ely - what sort of temperatures are you getting where you are at the moment? I'm guessing your pond isn't heated? I've never kept pond fish but from a bit of a google it seems you need to move to a wheatgerm food when temps get to about 65f/18c and stop feeding at all when it gets to about 50-55f/10c.

HTH for now, hopefully someone with some personal experience of pond keeping will be able to give a bit more info

Hi Ely,
you can get all season feed that can be used down to 6degC. Below this and fish cannot digest food. If you have Koi it may be an idea to use a heater as many fish were lost last winter, the danger level is 3degC or lower, goldfish seem to be quite a lot hardier.

HTH

Byg Nyge

Thanks for the replies

Im guessing them temperatures are Water Temperatures?

The pond just has Goldfish in

We are starting to get light frost on the cars in the morning and the fish seem to be staying at the bottom of the pond alot and not as active as they usually are.

We have Oxygenating pond plants in the pond as well that they seem to nibble on.

We feed them on fish flakes from Poundland and they love them, bought some fish pellets once and they didnt touch them at all.

I will try and get a water temp reading

Thanks

Hi,

When the temperature is below 10c you should think about feeding them wheatgerm based foods. The wheatgerm pellets I have say to stop feeding altogether when the temperature goes below 6c.

Last winter my fish simply stopped being interested in food once it got below about 6c.

Right now the pond is at 6c and the fish are eating a little of the wheatgerm pellets I give them, but their appetite has gone right down. They are massive porkers this year compared to their timid and tiny selves last year, so they might be hungry for longer this winter.

Hope that helps

well I stopped feeding them a few days ago now, the outside temp guage on the car at 9pm last night was saying -6 Deg C and during the day its been freezing

I was told if they do get hungry that they will eat the green thats grown on the side of the pond and pump etc

Quote:
Got a Vauxhall?

I wouldn't trust a car thermometer. (You could have insulated pond walls, bubble wrap on the pool, that?s why water temp, not ambient air temp is important)


May I repectfully suggest you tell who ever told you ?if they do get hungry that they will eat the green thats grown on the side of the pond and pump etc? That they are not right. The ?green? is algae. Hunger has nothing to do with it. You stop feeding them because their metabolism slows so much that they can not digest any thing they eat. Anything that is eaten and not digested will rot inside the fish, so the fish dies. That?s why koi owners change the type of feed to one that is easily digested.