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Is it normal for fish to refuse food when you put them into a new tank/pond? How long is too long without eating? Normally when I put fish in my 10g tank, they won't eat during the first day, but are fine after that. I just cleaned out and set up my 200g outdoor pond and put two 3 inch koi in it. I bought them 3 days ago and they still haven't eaten any pellets. They just hide at the bottom of the pond behind the pump. Is this ok????????

Okay, Did they adjust to the water yet? Is their breathing regulated? Is there any algae they could be eating?

Chris

They seem to be breathing fine. They do not look stressed, but they are acting hesitant to leave the bottom 6 inches of the tank. I drained the pond and started it up from scratch about 2.5 weeks before I put the fish in, so there is very little algae. When I put the fish in, nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia were at zero. The pond is starting to cycle, so the nitrite and ammonia are slightly present now. They could be eating the "pellet dust" from the soggy pellets sinking too. I've never seen koi that refused food, though. I know they were fed pellets at the LPS, but a group of 8 were kept in a 12 gallon tank.

Do you hand Feed them, Like Roll it into their mouths?

Chris

If there was a major drop in temperature from where they were kept before (ie indoors) they will go into immediate fasting, but they will loosen up and feed again once they get used to it. Going outdoors is a big deal for koi raised indoors at higher than normal temperatures to bring them on for size,(quite a common practice) indeed the shock can kill quite a number of them. If they dont want to feed , dont force them, it will help minimise the impact of the cycle on the water too. It takes a koi many months to starve, so theres no need to keep putting food in to see if they eat. Leave them a week and try feeding them again. In many countries koi will barely eat all winter. Whats the temperature of your pond?

The temperature idea makes sense. The koi were kept in water at 78 degrees F at the pet store. The pond is at 67 degrees F and the outdoor temperature is between 83 and 60 for the highs and lows. When I go to feed them, I just throw some pellets on the top of the water, but the fish stay at the bottom. I'll try holding off on the feeding for a little while.

The bottom swimming when cold is totally characteristic for koi, they are least likely to feed when doing this. Catch them on a nice sunny day and you'll see them swimming near the surface catching a few rays. Then is the optimum time to feed them, their digestion is temperature dependant to some degree. Even so I wouldnt push the limits of digestion with high protien food, they will need to take in nutrition gradually at first so use a nice gentle veggie based food to start with. Basically feed them as you would if winter was approaching, and feed them the higher protien foods when they are acting more normally and are more used to the temperature difference. Don't forget they may be experiencing daily water temperature changes of several degrees for maybe the first time in their lives, and that can be very stressful for them.

Overdo the feeding and the water quality may be affected and undigested food in the gut can swell with gas as it rots and swim bladder issues could kick off with the resultant pressure on the internal organs. As it is there may be complications with whitespot and parasites and fungal and bacterial infections due to the fish suffering from temporarily reduced immune system. So make sure you check out the meds for koi , just in case you have need of them.

Good luck