E-Pond•The Story

E-Pond•The Story

Koi are special and valuable animals

Important aspects of the Koi’s care are the nutrition and quality of the water in which the Koi lives. The environment in which the Koi lives can be optimized by using advanced equipment. Equipment that regulates water temperature, water purification equipment and equipment that ensures the correct way of feeding are important to create optimal growth conditions.

To feed the Koi, feeder machines are increasingly used. These machines make it possible to give an amount of food at a given time. With these feeding machines, without the user adjust manually, the same amount of feed is released at every water temperature. However, these traditional feeders leave the food at one concentrated place in the pond. A few disadvantages of that are, for example, the chance of damage to the koi if they simultaneously come to the food at this one place. This also means that the larger fish can eat the most food and the smaller ones get less. To tackle these problems, improvements have been developed by VSZeeland in the traditional operation of a feeding machine and this has resulted in the so-called E-Pond•Management (E-POND) with the associated E-Pond•Koi Feeding System. The following describes the importance of water temperature controlled feeding, which has led to the development of E-Pond•Management.

Water temperature controlled feeding

Koi are cold-blooded animals, this means that they adopt the temperature of the water they live in. They consume a quantity of food that depends on the water temperature. When the water is warmer in summer, more and more active enzymes are present in the intestinal tract. As a result, the Koi consumes more nutrition than in winter, when less and less active enzymes are present in the intestinal tract.

To optimize the growth of the fish, the amount of food, the number of times feeding per day and the type of food given, can be adjusted to the water temperature. This is called water temperature controlled feeding. The advantage of water temperature controlled feeding is that in spring, when the water temperature rises slowly, the feed machine slowly increase the amount of food so that the amount and activity of the enzymes in the intestinal tract of the fish grows. Also the bacteria in the pond, which ensure a good breakdown of the waste in the pond, have the time to grow. The excess food that is given is lost as waste in the water. Therefore, less waste is beneficial to the water quality (the environment of the fish). Even so, polluted water slows down the growth of the fish and increase the risk of disease.

In order to get less feed as waste in the water, it is important to feed several times a day. Giving the food for a whole day at one time causes contamination of the water and thereby, not all of the nutrients from the food are caught by the fish.

Operation

The E-Pond•Koi Feeding System consists of a by VSZeeland developed and designed feed machine and controller with its software. This system ensures that, at any degree of water temperature, sufficient food is automatically released in the pond. This is called water temperature controlled feeding. Using the controller and software, you can install the koi feeder online through our website according to the default settings, or customize it. The E-Pond•Management also allows you to track a database of your Koi.

In brief

E-Pond•Management is a pond management system that supports you in the daily pond work.
E-Pond•Koi Feeding System is part of the E-Pond•Management.
For people who do not have the opportunity to feed their fish several times a day, the E-Pond•Management developed by VSZeeland together with the E-Pond Koi Feeding System offers the solution.
In the future we want to expand E-Pond•Management to a total pond management system, so that water quality can be further regulated.