Winter...

Have you ever noticed when someone starts talking to a South Florida Koi Keeper about wintering their koi, that their eyes kind of glaze over? And why not, we live in the warmest spot in the USA, but perhaps we should be paying a little more attention.

The first thing you need to know is that koi are cold blooded. This means that their metabolism is regulated by the temperature. So, even though your koi are begging for food at 60 degrees, they are not processing the food as quickly as they did at 70 degrees and some where between 55 and 50 degrees the processing of food stops. So far no big whoop right! You have to combine this knowledge with the fact that most of us only feed high protein food and the koi start to have a problem. You see that high protein food attracts bad bacteria to the fishes gut. Now normally, when the koi’s metabolism is high, this food is processed quickly and the bacteria are flushed out of its system before they have a chance to do any damage. However, when things start slowing down in the koi, the food just sits there and the bacteria have time to work. Add to this that the koi’s immune system is down when the water gets cold and the fish can be in trouble.

Up north, because it gets cold gradually , the koi keeper usually has plenty of time to prepare his/her koi for the cold. They switch their koi to a high carbohydrate diet and then at about 55 degrees they stop feeding the koi. We on the other hand usually keep feeding high protein food to our koi till they stop feeding.

What should we do? Because our weather is unique to our area, I don’t thing that anyone has studied the problem or even determined that there is a problem. That said, I think that the logical solution is to stop feeding your koi whenever you expect a cold snap in the next 24 hours. I know it’s hard to do when it’s 70 degrees out and your koi are looking up at you saying “feed me”. Just remember you’re doing them a favor and that we live in South Florida and it will be over in a few days.