Wheatgerm is the highly nutritious ‘heart’ of a wheat grain. It provides a high quality patirotein source that is easily digested and has been the favourite foundon ingredient for low protein diets for many years.

Koi and other pondfish are poikilothermic (cold-blooded) where their body temperature and metabolic rate is governed by the temperature of the surrounding water. As the water temperature rises from 8°C to 20°C, the metabolic rate increases as does a fish’s ability to digest and assimilate increasing levels of protein from the diet.

However, when water temperatures are hovering around the 8°C to 12°C mark, metabolic rates and digestion efficiencies are low, as is a fish’s protein requirements. For this reason, it is wise to offer a low protein vegetable-based diet.

If a higher protein diet was offered to koi and other pond fish, a significant quantity of protein would not used for growth or energy but simply wasted and excreted, largely as toxic ammonia.

A wheatgerm diet allows fish to feed on a diet to meet their lower protein requirements which leads to better water quality.

When fed at low water temperatures, Nishikoi® Wheatgerm provides koi and other pondfish with sufficient highly digestible vegetable-based protein, reducing excretion of toxic ammonia and thereby improving water quality.