Koi Taste Buds and Blush Under Stress

Did you know that Koi can actually taste their food?  That’s right, they actually have taste buds in many parts of their bodies such as their lips, inside their mouths, in their barbels and even their fins!

Koi taste buds in their lips, mouths and barbels

Another interesting thing is that Koi can actually blush!  But this is NOT a good sign, though.

Because a Koi blushes when it is under stress.  Its fins (between the spines) and bodies (under the scales) turn reddish.

Most of the time, Koi become stressed when the water is not clean.  When you see this, act fast to relieve the stress otherwise your Koi may catch some bacterial infection or parasites that will cause serious sickness or disease.

How To Make Your Own Koi Fry Food

Many of my readers are interested in breeding baby Koi and raising them.

Well, you’ve come to the right place.  There’s lots of information in this blog and more in my e-book, “What Your Pet Shop Owner Won’t Tell You About Keeping Koi” about how to successfully breed and raise Koi fry.

To give you a glimpse of what you can discover in my e-book (and bonuses), I will share about how you can make your own koi fry food.

When your koi fry hatches from their eggs, do not feed them for the first 3 days.  Don’t worry, they will not starve to death.  Their mouths are not fully developed yet, so feeding them the first 3 days would just be a waste of food.  Worse still, the uneaten food will decompose if not removed from the pond and the resulting ammonia build-up will kill the koi fry.  You can read about how ammonia is produced in your koi pond by reading my article The Nitrogen Cycle.

Once you see your koi fry swimming freely, that’s a sure sign that they’re ready to be fed.

The easiest thing to feed them with is hard-boiled egg yolk.  But this is not nutritious enough.  A better option is to feed them with infusoria (minute aquatic creatures and single-celled algae) or daphnia (freshwater crustaceans).  Feeding of 3 day old koi fry should be 4-5 times a day.

Koi Fry Food, Infusoria

Daphnia, another type of natural koi fry food

But you may be thinking, “How do I get infusoria or daphnia?”

Here’s a simple way.

Gather some ‘clean’ pond water (’clean’ means you have removed all organic particles from the water).  Peel a turnip and cut the white inside part into small 1/2 inch squares.  Drop these pieces into the pond water.  After about 5 or 6 days, they will decompose and be filled with visible infusoria.

Now take a syringe and draw out some of the infusoria-filled water from the side of the turnip.  If you fill a clear glass container with this water, you will see it teeming with thousands of tiny single-celled creatures moving about.  This is infusoria.  Simply feed this to your fry a few times a day.

After the first week, you can start feeding your koi with brine shrimp.  As they grow, you can eventually feed your koi with koi pellets.  But make sure that the size of the pellets are small enough for the smallest sized koi to eat.

Do You Know Your Koi’s Nature and Personality?

Many years ago, I used to keep small aquarium fishes indoors.  I had some goldfish, guppies, tetras, black mollies and others.  One day, I bought some tiger barb and green barb fishes.  Tiger barbs are striped while the green barbs are a beautiful emerald green and I thought they would be nice additions to my aquarium.  Size-wise, they were no bigger than some of the other fishes, such as the goldfishes and mollies.

Little did I know how fierce and aggressive tiger barbs and green barbs are.  They killed some of the other fish the day I put them into the tank.  I still remember the look of sheer terror on the face of some of my goldfish being chased around the tank by the menacing tiger barbs.  I then realized that they don’t call them tiger barbs because of their stripes!

I gave up keeping aquarium fishes and eventually took to keeping koi.  What a welcome change!

Koi are very peaceful and non-aggressive fish although they have a tendency to mess up the bottom of the pond and might even destroy some plants.  But koi do not have teeth, so you will not get bitten even if you try to feed them out of your hand (one of the special things about owning koi).

By the way, I’ve just added another interesting page on this website entitled, ‘How To Hand Feed Your Koi’.  Check it out!

Koi are omnivorous fish, which means they will eat both plants and meat, making their diet very versatile.  But the downside of it is that, as their owner you must control their diet otherwise they may overeat or eat food that is not good for them.

Your Koi’s Personality

Did you know that koi actually have personalities similar to other animals?   The more time you spend with your koi, the more you will notice each koi individual characteristics and traits.  For example, I have a Kohaku that is the most active and is the first get to the food everytime.  I call him Speedy.  He’s also a natural leader.  Where he goes, there are bound to be others that will follow.

My special koi, Speedy

Koi have been known to live as long as 200 years, but generally the average lifespan of a healthy koi is about 30 to 50 years.  So if you are looking for a long term pet companion, koi is definitely a good choice.

Learning how to keep koi is easy if you have a good step-by-step guide.

To start on this exciting adventure of owing your very own koi fish and pond, just sign up for my FREE 10-part mini course, ‘How to Keep Koi’ Tips and Tricks.  Signing up is simple.  Just fill in your name and email in the box on the right or down below.

If you want to know everything there is to know about koi keeping, get my e-book ‘What Your Pet Shop Owner Won’t Tell You About Keeping Koi’.  This is the most comprehensive manual on koi keeping available on the Internet.  Just follow my step-by-step guide and pretty soon, you will have the most vibrant, healthy and colorful koi you could ever dream of owning.  Grab your copy today and you will receive some kick-butt bonuses for FREE as well.