Vitamin & Mineral Deficiencies
What exactly happens?
I constantly hear people say that they save money by feeding their Koi something other than a quality koi food. Normally I keep my mouth shut in response, but since this is my article, I can give my opinion.
Yes, your Koi will “live” on trout chow, catfish chow, or other types of food. I even met a person who fed ground up cat food, not catfish food, CAT FOOD. Likewise, you and I could live on Donuts, or bacon cheeseburgers, but we wouldn’t be in the best of health.
If you expect your koi to grow healthy, strong, & disease resistant, make sure you feed a healthy “Koi” food. I’m not going to endorse one food over another here, because there are many quality foods out there and they keep getting better. I just ask that you read the labels, compare brands, & buy food designed specially for koi. It is even a good idea to use more than one so you are sure to get enough of the proper vitamins.
You have probably heard not to use food that has “corn” as one of the first 3 ingredients because Koi can’t digest it. But did you know what the following deficiencies can do?
| Vitamin A | Impaired growth, body depigmentation, pop eye. |
| Vitamin D3 | Poor growth, impaired calcium balance. |
| Vitamin E | Anemia, increased water retention. |
| Vitamin C | Scoliosis, deformative growth, hemorrhagic skin, liver, kidney, intestine, and muscle. |
| Riboflavin | Cloudy eyes, hemorrhagic eyes, dark body coloration. |
| Niacin | Loss of appetite, jerky or difficult motion. |
| Menadione | Prolonged blood clotting, anemia. |
| D-pantothenic | Loss of appetite, clubbed gills, gill exudate. |
| Folic acid | Lethargy, fragile caudal (tail) fin. |
| Pyridoxine | Hyper-irritability, loss of appetite, rapid and gasping breathing. |
| Thiamine | Poor appetite, convulsions, loss of equilibrium. |
| Biotin | Spastic convulsions, skin lesions. |
| B 12 | Poor appetite, anemia. |
| Calcium | Reduced growth. |
| Manganese | Loss of equilibrium, dwarfism, high mortality. |
| Zinc | Anorexia, fin and skin erosion. |
| Iodine | Thyroid hyperplasia (abnormal increase of thyroid cell growth). |
| Copper | Lack of important metabolic enzymes. |