Spring and Fall fish foods are important to understand. In this article, we look to explain what spring and fall fish foods are, and why we need them. What’s the difference? Does it really matter?
When we go to a pond supply store, aquarium store or a pet shop, we will quickly see that there are many different choices when it comes to fish food. Most often there are a few different companies that the store will offer that all make similar products, so we may be looking at a lot of the same things, just different packaging. A common choice is often labeled as “Spring And Fall”. Obviously this is a food that is advertised to to be used in spring and fall, but why? Is this just a gimmick?
The What and Why of Spring and Fall food
Actually, it is not just a sales marketing trick, it is a product designed specifically to meet the dietary needs of your fish when the water is colder. It is based on wheatgerm, or what’s called “Staple”. This product is generally lower in protein and more easily digestible that other foods, and this is very important to maintain fish health during colder weather.
When the weather is still cold in the early spring or as it gets colder in the fall, your fish may still want to eat. However, in colder water their metabolism is slower and they are not as active in every aspect of their lives. They may swim around slower and eat less. For this reason the wheat germ based foods are better to feed them in these times because they are much easier and quicker to digest.
It is common that the weather these times of the year can fluctuate greatly. It may be 60 degrees in the day and 30’s at night, and the water temperature changes with it. We do not want to feed the fish a lot of food at this time. But what they do eat can be good for them providing that it does not sit in their gut for a long period of time if it should get really cold. So the staple or wheat germ based foods are digested quickly avoiding many of those intestinal issues.
Another benefit of these spring and fall foods is the fact that they are lower in protein. Again, as the water is colder and their metabolisms are slower, their bodies are not in “full Function”. Protein is what promotes growth. The higher the protein levels available in the foods and the more they eat, the more you can expect higher growth rates. This is great during the summer when their bodies are functioning at their highest levels, but we do not want to push growth when their metabolism is trying to slow their bodies down. It is counter productive to what their bodies need to do to survive in colder conditions.
Those are two very important benefits of using a spring and fall food food. I greatly suggest that everyone should use them. Once the weather warms up, you can start adding a higher protein food to their diet. But feeding this staple in the summer will never hurt them either. So their is not a particular time when you need to stop feeding the staple. I like to mix a few different foods together throughout the summer just to add variety, and each food has different ingredients which can also be beneficial as well. But these mixes should be reduced to just the staple – wheatgerm foods once the water starts getting colder.
Conclusion
For more information about feeding your pond fish please see my videos on my YouTube channel (Jersey Shore Pondscapes Videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwW54gcUZItY2EubRDLBNVw ). There we talk about different types of foods and how much and how often to feed the fish. Also, how to train them to eat out of your hand!
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