When purchasing your pond fish food, consider the size of the foods you’re buying as smaller fish will struggle to eat huge pellets that don’t fit into their mouth. Also consider the temperature, if the temperature is below 5°C then it’s pointless feeding your fish, this is because when it’s this cold the digestive system of your fish will shut down and the fish will normally just ignore food put into the pond during this period. But, if they do eat it, then due to their digestive system not working the food will sit in their belly and rot, causing major problems for the fish even leading to fatality.

Pond Food During Winter

If the temperature is 5 – 10°C then use wheatgerm based foods. Wheatgerm is easier for the fish to digest, so during cooler weather when their digestive system is slower, they can still eat and digest.

Feed When It's Warmer

During warmer weather, such as 10 – 30°C, you can use much higher protein food, anything over 30°C and it’s best to stop feeding.

Types of Fish Foods

Floating Sticks: these are probably the cheapest and most commonly used food, they are easy to remove from the pond if uneaten and they are quite good value for money. Varieties available include growth, vitality and colour sticks.

Floating Pellets: a very common pond food, there is a range to suit particular fish size and many varieties such as growth, colour and vitality just like sticks.

Sinking Pellets: aimed at bottom feeding fish such as Sturgeon, but most fish will eat them anyway. Be sure to check that they have been eaten from the bottom as this is the easiest type to over feed.

Flake Fish Food: every one knows what flake food looks like, it is usually best for smaller fish, especially fry (baby fish). Be careful, flake can be messy and is no use to large fish such as koi.

Silkworm Pupae is a high protein koi luxury food. It will aid both growth and colour and best used as a supplement to another food.

You can buy a huge range of coldwater fish food from GardenSite. Call our Aquatics Department on 0121 355 7701 for free independent and impartial advice.