Water Gardening Direct Blog

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Winter will soon be here.

As any Koi keeper (from amateur enthusiast to professional breeder) will tell you, UK Winters provide a different set of challenges. Koi themselves aren’t native to the UK and so some care needs to be taken to ensure their comfort and survival.

Garden Pond Protein Froth and Foam

Protein Froth is an unsightly foam which sits on the water surface and can look like some one has tipped washing up liquid in to your pond. Protein Foam is normally formed where the water comes back in to the pond at waterfalls and filter returns, but can also happen around fountains and venturi’s. In most cases it is caused by Protein, which is an oil based chemical that floats on the surface of the pond and makes the bulbs last longer. This oil is a natural chemical and will eventually disperse by itself, the problem is it will take months to do so and your pond can look awful until it goes. Not only is it ugly, but it can be dangerous to fish as well. The surface of the pond is where most of the essential gas exchange takes place, allowing Carbon Dioxide out and Oxygen in to the water, if the surface is then coated in protein oil it can hinder or even stop the gas exchange. So solving this problem not only to improve the appearance of your pond, but also ensures the health of your fish. Thankfully this is one of the simplest things to eradicate in your pond, TAP Anti Foam will literally make it disappear in front of your eyes.

Click here to go to our TAP Anti Foam Treatment Page

TAP Anti Foam is designed to breakdown the froth in garden ponds, created by the excessive build up of protein in the pond water. TAP Anti Foam is non toxic, harmless to plants, all fish and other aquatic life and does not affect bacterial filters.

Where did it come from?

It helps to understand why it has occurred in the first place, because in some cases it is preventable. The two most common causes for Protein Froth are spawning from fish/ frogs/toads and feeding the wrong type or quantity of food. Spawning is not something you have control over, but you can control the amount and kind of food you feed. If the fish are fed too much in one go, they will wolf it all down, but it will pass through them quickly and much of it comes out as waste including Protein. In the summer month’s food should not last for more than 5 minutes, any more and you will be overfeeding. If you are not convinced that the fish will get enough food this way stick to the 5 minute rule but feed them several times a day. To help you keep an eye on how much food the fish receive you can use a floating feeding ring, these float on the surface of the pond and keep the food in one place. In the cooler Spring/Autumn weather, fish are programmed not to absorb Protein, so feeding them a growth or high protein food at these times of year will mean it passes straight through them and comes out in to the water. Use the low protein wheatgerm foods at these times of year.

So the best way to prevent the protein foam from occurring is to feed your fish the correct kind of food for the time of year (and temperature) and to feed little and often.

How And When To Feed Your Fish

Fish have evolved over the years to extract the appropriate nutrition from the food they eat. Commercial foods have been designed to offer what they need when they need it. During the cooler temperatures fish do not absorb as much Protein, so Wheatgerm Fish Food has been developed to meet these demands, it is low in Protein, but higher in other nutrients. In the warm summer months, fish want to take on as much protein as they can, either for body growth or to help create eggs and so Growth Foods are available which are high in Protein. The table below offers a guide to which food type is best for the time of year or temperature. Knowing how and when to feed your fish is both good for your fish and your pocket.

Summer Feeding

During the Summer months your fish can seem to be ravenous and feeding them multiple handfuls of food, which they wolf down is very tempting, but this is not necessarily a good thing for them, the pond or your wallet. If you feed the fish a lot in one go, they will get full and the food will pass through their body quickly leading to much of the food coming out as waste. This will pollute the pond leading to foaming (protein froth), filters which need cleaning more frequently, added nutrients for algae and over weight lazy fish.  In the wild your pond fish would naturally look for food all the time and would eat little and often, so this is what we should try to help them do.  Feeding small quantities of food which can be consumed in 5 minutes only is ideal, this can be done as often as your lifestyle allows, but if you want to promote growth the more frequent the better.  By feeding in this way, not only do you ensure that most of the goodness of the food is used, but also it keeps the fish slightly hungry and they will explore round the pond looking for more food, this is good for muscle growth and general health.  You will also probably spend less on food.

Using the little and often option for feeding will soon lead to your fish coming to you when you approach the pond.  This is ideal, it allows you to appreciate them better, to visually inspect them to ensure they are all healthy and can be the beginning of being able to hand feed them.

One of the problems with feeding fish in a well planted pond is that the food can float off in to the marginal plants making it hard to know if it has been eaten or is just rotting away.  This can be avoided by using a feeding ring, this is a very simple floating ring which keeps the food in one place, so that you know what is being consumed.

Click here to go to our Feeding Rings Page

Keeping an eye on things

One food to stay away from, or at least be very careful of, is flake food.  Around 50% of flake food sinks, which is fine in aquariums, but in ponds it can mean that you do not know how much is being eaten and can lead to a rotting pile at the bottom of the pond.

In short the best thing for your fish is to feed them the correct kind of food for the temperature/season and do this little and often.

Despite the small amount of sunshine and the slightly warmer days, we are still getting lots of customers telling us that the fish have only just started feeding.  Just like many creatures who fast during the winter, a fish’s body has evolved to take certain nutrients from the food it eats and ignore other nutrients.  When they start feeding in the Spring the fish needs to regain the weight lost and they will not take on Protein. As such feeding foods high in protein will be a waste and can also lead to foaming (Protein Froth), which can be very unsightly.  As such we recommend initially feeding them Wheatgerm, which has a low protein content but is high in fat, and is ideal for cooler weather.  It produces fewer pollutants and gives the fish the nutrients they require after the winter. As the temperature rises to 10-12 °C (50-56°F) you can start feeding the fish on Staple Food.  These contain everything needed to keep the fish healthy through out the summer months.   As the temperature drops again in the Autumn/Winter you should again move back to the Wheatgerm food to give the fish the nutrients they require.

Please follow the link below to see what foods should be fed at what temperatures.

https://www.watergardeningdirect.com/acatalog/How-and-When-To-Feed-Your-Fish.html

If you would like to see what Wheatgerms foods we offer please follow the link below.

https://www.watergardeningdirect.com/acatalog/Wheatgerm_Foods.html