Feeding

Goldfish can have voracious appetites. If you're not careful you can easily overfeed your fish leading to ruptured intestines. This is not a pretty sight. A common mistake that beginners make is to give their fish too much food, thinking that it would make them grow faster. As you can imagine, this is a common misconception. Putting too much food into the water only serves to dirty the water and make more frequent changes necessary.

The common wisdom is to feed the fish 2-3 times a day. Each time, give no more than what the fish can finish in 2 minutes. Any more than that would be a waste.

DRY FOOD
Dry types of food are the most common type in the market today, they consist of pellets or flakes. They're are made of a balance of protein and carbohydates and are made mostly of fishmeal, grains and vegetable. The more premium varieties even include more expensive ingredients such as krill, seaweed, spirulina and with added vitamins and minerals. One popular brand in the market today is Hikari. Of course, there are even more specialist food type available through special/mail order.

When feeding dry food to goldfish, it would be good to soak the pellets or flakes in some warm water first. This is to ensure that the the food is properly moistened and does not cause any unexpected problems to the fish. One common problem is with floating type pellets. They are known to cause swim bladder problems in the fish. When this happens, the fish has difficulty maintaining it depth control, usually floating near the surface. When this happens, stop feeding the fish for a few days to allow it to get back to normal.

In addition to protein, goldfish diet will also need to be supplemented with 'green' food such as spirulina. Spirulina will enhance the digestive functions and prevent common dietary problems.

FRESH FOOD
In addition to dry food, fresh food is also a good supplement to the goldfish diet. In fact, I've noticed that goldfish seem to prefer fresh foods such as bloodworms, although they don't take to boiled peas and lettuce as quite so eagerly.

The only problem to look out for when feeding fresh food is the risk of parasites in the food. This is especially true in the case of bloodworms. Make sure you get your supply from a reputable supplier.

FROZEN FOOD
Fresh food can also be frozen to make it more convenient for storage and dispensing. Make sure you use a airtight container to keep the food isolated from the rest of the freezer. Of course, you need to defrost the food in some warm water or allow it to thaw before you feed it to the fish.