Suitable Goldfish Food for Good Health and Color
Your goldfish are entirely dependent on you for their food and you should offer it to them regularly and in a varied form. Commercially manufactured foods contain all the essential nutrients and vitamins to keep goldfish fit and healthy.
It is best to feed goldfish a pinch at a time, offering them as much as they will eat in two or three minutes on a twice-daily basis. Initially, healthy goldfish are very keen to feed and will greedily eat the food being offered. As they consume it, however, they will gradually become less active and this is the point at which to stop feeding. This will avoid overfeeding and the problems of polluting the aquarium.
The basic diet
Flake foods are probably the most common type of manufactured diet for aquarium fish, but you can also buy pellets and foodsticks for larger fish. Always gauge the size of food you offer your goldfish on the basis of the smallest ones to ensure that they all get sufficient to eat.
Feeding Fancy Goldfish
Short-bodied (egg-shaped) goldfish may need extra care with feeding. They are prone to buoyancy problems and floating foods can cause a problem if the fish gulp air when feeding, it pays to soak their food for a minute or so beforehand so that it sinks below the surface. Avoid soaking food for longer than this though, otherwise water-soluble vitamins such as asorbic acid (vitamin C) will begin to leach out. Some types of fish food are not suitable for soak and will disintegrate.
Treat foods
In addition to proprietary diets, goldfish appreciate the occasional treat food. Manufactured treat foods are available in tablet form. Natural foods are always popular and very good for getting adult goldfish into breeding condition.
Frozen foods, such as bloodworm, chopped mussels and brineshrimp, are very beneficial to fish. Always thaw them out first, then give them to the fishstraight away. Never try catching your own from a local pond as they may introduce disease.
You can also offer your goldfish pieces of orange and lettuce leaves to browse on, but remove any uneaten food before it can pollute the water.
Don't overfeed
Overfed goldfish can produce more waste than the filtration system can handle, while leftover foods will foul the water further. Poor water quality leads to health problems.
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