No matter the time of year or size of fish, it is important never to over feed. Adding too much food to the pond will increase the workload of the filtration system, increase the amount of ammonia in the pond and reduce the amount o foxygen.

Unless you are actively growing the fish, such as show fish in a Koi pond, the fish should not need feeding more than twice a day, ideally only once. The pond should only receive the amount of food the fish will consume within 5 minutes, any uneaten food left after 5 minutes should be scooped out with a net and discarded.

Fish should never be fed spoiled food. Food which is past its best before date will have lost much of its nutritional content and the fish may begin to show symptoms of vitamin deficiencies. The food may also have started to rot or may harbour fungi or bacteria, which could have detrimental effects to fish health.