There is a big difference between Saki Hikari at R1800 per 15kg and the rest of the range. Hikari makes a food that competes (and in our opinion exceeds) the best of the local foods called Hikari Economy which sells at R275 for 4kg, and R525 for 10kg. It is available in large and medium pellet sizes.

Hikari Staple is a leg up on that - R395 for 5kg and R745 for 10kg. Sorry folks, this is not expensive if you are able to keep Koi.

I would challenge that you can't afford to feed pond fish Saki Hikari. Work out your running costs on your pond for electricity alone. How much more important is food for your Koi? Plus with Saki you can get away with feeding 30% less and STILL have better results owing to the superiority of the formulation.

I still find it amazing that people judge foods by protein content. As Hikari have proven (they've been making Koi foods for 132 years now) the protein content is complete rubbish. It is the profile of the protein and the balance of the ingredient composition in the food that all combine to deliver results - if you are short of just one trace ingredient the Koi might just pass a lot more waste and not assimilate the food into useful things like energy and muscle (not fat!).

Hence you get Koi that feed like gluttons on Koi food because they are not getting a complete nutritional profile. They either then dvelop pot bellies over the years, or they get sick as if they were eating McDonalds every day - same thing. These issues can take YEARS to manifest and once they are there they can not be rectified.

Put another way. A Koi starting on Hikari Economy suddenly started to grow again having not put on an inch in over 2 years.

Case closed. There is no substitute for the correct ingredients, and the correct ingredients are expensive. Period. I often wonder as to the quality of ingredients used when I see the kind of price comparisons going on - because Hikari have stated on numerous occasions to us that they cannot even manufacture a product suitable for Koi at these equivalent prices in Japan, the most advanced manufacturing economies in the world. In other words, the difference in price lies entirely in the ingredients.

And if we could export these self same ingredients to Japan, trust us - we would have been doing it already!! :-)

Koi Nutrition is a very interesting subject. Moving brands to one side there are some fundaments that apply to all koi foods.

Koi need several things in their diet. Firstly they need an energy source. The body needs energy to metabolise the food, the heart to work the lungs/gills to breath and function. So when designing a koi food the energy needs are the first to be taken into account. Then the nutritionists seek sources for this energy.

Energy sources are usually carbohydrates in the form of grains as well as lipids (fats) in the form of marine oils. Massive amounts of carbohydrates are grown in different countries and vast quantities are moved around the world each day. Not all countries grow all their needs especially when it comes to animal feeds such as koi foods.

Carbohydrates are an essential ingredient of koi foods. And different manufactures import what they need if their particular country cannot supply everything.

Protein is the next critical ingredient of a koi food. Protein is absolutely essential and the protein needs of fish are way above the needs of mammals. Proteins ensure the growth of the creature as well as daily cell replacement of the body.

Strange as it may seem but the body cannot actually utilise protein as such. Proteins are composed of smaller molecules – amino acids. It is these amino acids that the koi can utilise and it is the quantity and balance of each one of the 22 amino acids that is critical to the success of a feed. A deficiency of one essential amino acid can result in the formulation not working properly. Once you have reached the levels of amino acids you want in a feed formula you will get a protein percentage.

Nutritionists source raw protein from anywhere they can in the world. For example two of the richest anchovy fishing grounds are off Namibia and off Chile. Anchovy is a major protein meal source in animal feeds.

Then you get sources of protein from plants such a soya, wheatgerm meal etc. By the way all carbohydrate has some protein in it. And all plant protein sources are deficient in some or other amino acid.

What the nutritionist does is source protein from different suppliers, (very often price dictates the source) then a profile is composed of what the animal needs (in our case – koi) and what the amino acid profile is of each component. You may get a formula which has three or four different protein sources. With the aid of computer technology the nutritionist juggles the levels of each protein source to get to the levels of each amino acid he or she is aiming for.

In the end you have a feed with a certain level of protein. This level of protein yields a certain balance of amino acids as well as the amino acid profile the koi needs. It is possible to get to amino acid levels needed with low protein content but this would usually have been supplemented with artificial amino acids. Very expensive.

Another important point to consider is that a feed may have a high protein level – say above 36% - and yet still be out of balance and or deficient in certain amino acids. This is the art of feed formulation.

If you used feather meal (80% protein in its raw state and a cheap protein source) and mealie meal for your fish formula it would yield a good level of protein but because feather meal is grossly deficient in certain essential amino acids it would not work. The amino acid profile is closely interlinked, must be in balance and in the right quantities to work. The amino acid requirements vary from fish species to fish species and well as to mammals.
Then you have the vitamins and minerals. These can be considered the spark plugs of the formula. It’s quite interesting to see the results of feeding a feed without any vitamins and minerals. It’s devastating. And this happened in the trout industry about 10 of years ago. You can have the best protein and the best carbohydrate – but leave out the vitamins and minerals premixes and the feed formula is a waste of money. The levels of vitamins and minerals also varies according to species. Added levels of Vitamin C, A and E produce great results.

Colour enhancers are also use in koi feeds. Spirulina is one that comes to mind. There are vast spirulina farms in America and China. Spirulina like all raw materials is simply moved around the world according to supply and demand. The local grower of spirulina in our country is more expensive than imported spirulina!

William is absolutely correct when he says that koi food that is nutritionally poor results in koi wanting to eat more – yet they do not grow properly, have poor skin lustre and often put on weight.

Regards,
Chris

Hi Chris

Very informative posting, Thanks

I do believe one should buy local when at all possible.

Quote :

Hikari Staple is a leg up on that - R395 for 5kg and R745 for 10kg. Sorry folks, this is not expensive if you are able to keep Koi.

Hikari is a very good product i have no doubt about it but i really dont agree with this. There are many people at different levels in the hobby, small pond, big ponds, cheap koi, expensive koi, small budgets, large budgets.

One should try and buy the best koi food that you can comfortably afford. As i see it hikari is for the high end of the market if Hikari Staple is the anwer for the bottom end of the market then hikari is missing the boat cause the entry level products are usually priced according to where your competitors entry level products are. For everything in live there is a entry level product, mid range product and a top of the range product.

Yes hikari has made koi food for the last 132 years but koi has only really gone global in the last 40years. So are we now going to really be so closed minded to think that no-one else in the whole world can produce a product that even comes close to it? Is everything else always going to be second best?

As i said above Hikari is a great product and i have seen from a fellow koi keeper the diffirence that it makes to koi but not everyone can afford it. I for example cant afford R745 for 10kg Hikari a month so i feed Shogun and unfortuantly there are alot more average people in life than people at the high end of the spectrum so the most sales are going to happen at the average persons level.

William why dont you sponser the food for a grow and show or prizes for the western cape koi show for example? That would be a positive way to show off your product.

Chris why dont you sell your product in Cape Town?

Quinton, shogun is being sold here...you just need to know where to go.

that tells me everything and nothing at the same time Wayne

Sorry Quinton, you can get it from christie or from paul.