The proper goldfish food can help your fish look and feel his best and increase his life expectancy. Goldfish have special feeding needs, their digestive tract is “smooshed” up in their squatty bodies and they are prone to digestive disorders and swim bladder problems so it is important that they don’t gulp air as they are feeding. For this reason, you should never feed them a food that floats on the water and even sinking foods should be moistened before put in the tank as they can contain air in the pellet.
Goldfish are omnivorous and have different nutritional needs than other tropical fish. Using a special food blend specifically for gold fish should ensure that they will get the nutrition the need. You should also supplement this with some fresh food once a week or so. If you want to feed your goldfish a treat, try putting some romaine lettuce, peas, grapes or spinach in the tank, but don’t forget to remove them if not eaten in an hour or so.
How Much Should You Give Them?
The biggest cause of goldfish death and disease is over feeding. Goldfish are scavengers and will continuously be picking at the bottom and on the decorations for stray scraps of food. This does not mean that they are hungry so don’t feel like you are not feeding them enough if you see them doing this. Overfeeding your goldfish will cause excess waste and decaying food to “pollute” the water which will weaken the fish and leave them susceptible to disease and early death.
You should feed your goldfish a pich of food – only as much as they can eat in 2 minutes. Feed them like this once or twice a day. It may take you a few feedings to figure out how much food your goldfish can eat in 2 minutes but it will be well worth your while to experiment until you get the proper amount and then make not of how much that is so you can be sure to feed just the right amount of food each time.