Baby Koi Food: 3 Best Feeds to Help Small Koi Grow Fast

Most people know what koi are, how they look and what colors they come in. These fish, linked with good luck, have beautiful patterns along their backs, which draws many people to keep them. Because koi are believed to bring good fortune, many owners hope that prosperity will come to their homes once they keep koi. Raising koi takes the right techniques, and their food can't be just anything if you want to keep the fish healthy and their colors bright.

This time we look at baby koi food, meaning feed for small koi, or fry. The wrong feed can stop the fry from growing large, and the wrong nutrition can simply kill young koi that are still tiny and unable to survive. Here are some of the koi food options for small koi or fry that you need to know about:

Larvae

The first food for small koi is larvae. Larvae suit newly hatched koi that are still very small. They are usually given to koi that are 3 days old, because right after hatching the fish still have their own natural food in the form of egg yolk.

Tiny Organisms

The next special food for small koi is tiny organisms. These can be water fleas, algae and seaweed. This feed suits koi that are still 1 cm long. You can stop feeding water fleas once the koi reach 1.5 cm and are ready to be moved to the rearing aquarium.

Silk Worms (Tubifex)

Koi that are 1.5 cm long can be fed silk worms. As the name suggests, these worms are fine in size and bright red. Once the koi grow up, you can give them pellets and various other supplementary feeds.

How to Feed Baby Koi

The type of feed for small koi is not the only thing to watch. How you feed them matters too, because feeding the wrong way also affects the fish's survival. You can feed small koi in the morning, at midday and in the afternoon, in an amount of one third of the pond. If some koi have grown big, separate them from the small ones so the feed is shared evenly.