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.

  Vitamins 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.