What do you feed your goldfish?

[PotatoFish]

I wanted to share a list of the food I feed my goldfish, compare with others to see what other fun things they might enjoy, and share my observations.

 

Goldfish Staple:

Sera - Goldy Basic (stopped)

Hikari - Cichlid Excel (current)

 

Munch Munch Forage Food

red leaf lettuce

duckweed

steamed broccoli

cilantro (new thing)

 

Treats

garlic (raw, finely chopped)

grape (no seeds, finely chopped)

orange (inner slice skin peeled off)

Millepet - Gammarus (for turtles)

*I THINK Millepet is owned by Sera (can any confirm?)

 

Results:

Loppy the Goldfish (because her abdomen is uneven, bought her that way, didn't know at the time but love her anyway) was bought for a whopping $0.88 (KRW to USD) at 1 inch from nose to peduncle. One year later, she is 4.5 inches from nose to peduncle (easily 6 inches with the tail), and about 3 inches from the middle of her back to the base of her pelvic fins. She does "gulp" air when eating duckweed and bits of lettuce that get ripped off and float at the surface. HOWEVER, she has never had constipation or any swim bladder issues. I feared she might because she's lopsided, but she seems like a perfectly normal wiggly-butt goldfish that is wonderfully active.

Here's Loppy today and on the day I bought her. It's like she was saying, "Pick meeeeeeee!"...so I did.

 

[Alesha]

I don't have goldfish, so can't help with your information-gathering. But I just wanted to say that Loppy is indeed a beautiful swan of a fish! Such gorgeous colors. Thanks for sharing her with us. ❤️ 

[JLAM]

Your goldfish is beautiful!  Every 2-3 days, we feed our blue fantail (Ziggy) 1 frozen pea, thawed and chopped into tiny bits.  He LOVES peas and it seems to clean out his digestive tract very well.  On non-pea days, he gets very small amounts of regular flakes or sinking pellets.  During summer months, we collect duckweed from a local pond and cultivate it in a second tank.  Ziggy eats it up too fast if we try to grow it in his tank. 🙂

[GardenStateGoldfish]

I like to give mine a variety, and depending on where you live you want to be careful what you feed as things get colder and then totally stop once things reach a certain temp. But you have a nice variety! never used the Hikari or the Sera personally. 

[wendypizza]

My goldfish staple is the Xtreme Sinking Pellets. I'd like to feed more Repashy, but I'm lazy 😅 For their foraging I've tried water sprite, watercress, lettuce, and broccoli. They liked all of it, but the watercress was the biggest hit. Unfortunately that left the bottom filled with green poop for a few days till they re-ate it and eventually the filter got it all I guess. I bought some Fluval Goldfish floating food over the weekend, but they didn't go after it as much as they do the pellets, and it made their poop a bit stringy, so I'm not sure I'm gonna keep feeding it. I'm trying to figure out a plant I can throw into the HOB that will grow, then I can cut some and toss it to the fish as needed.

[PotatoFish]

@Alesha Thank you! Loppy is actually the "centerpiece fish" (as described in an Aquarium Co Op video) in a community tank. So whatever I feed the zebra danios, the giant female guppies, the hillstream loach, and the rosy barb also get eaten by the goldfish. The racer nerite snail and mystery snail gladly polish off large broccoli stems that aren't eaten. This reminds me that I should add "Sera - catfish chips" to the list. What fish do you keep?

 

@JLAM Thank you! I have yet to try the frozen peas, but it is definitely on the to-add list. I grow the duckweed in a separate tank too. I tried covering the top of Loppy's tank in duckweed once. The little plants never stood a chance, gone within 2 days.

 

@GardenStateGoldfish I just followed the Aquarium Co Op videos' advice about variety and keeping the temperature pretty regular. It's a bit easier with this tank because it's in our livingroom, and my wife and mother-in-law are always making sure the temperature is not too hot or cold (20-23 C or 68-73 F) all year round.

 

@wendypizza I really want to try some Rapashy, but it seems the only kind available here in Seoul LFS's is for lizards. I haven't looked online though. I'll see about watercress; I should be able to find some.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions! 

Sorry, long reply 😁 I have a cheap alternative suggestion for feeding I'd like to share. After failing to find a vegetable clip, I just used a toothbrush holder with a suction cup, 3 for 1000krw (< 1 USD)!!!

picture: Little Loppy (3 mos. after I got her)

[Alesha]

8 hours ago, PotatoFish said:

@Alesha Thank you! Loppy is actually the "centerpiece fish" (as described in an Aquarium Co Op video) in a community tank. So whatever I feed the zebra danios, the giant female guppies, the hillstream loach, and the rosy barb also get eaten by the goldfish. The racer nerite snail and mystery snail gladly polish off large broccoli stems that aren't eaten. This reminds me that I should add "Sera - catfish chips" to the list. What fish do you keep?

 

@PotatoFish, I've got a 55-gallon FULL of guppies and endlers...literally hundreds of them. That wasn't really my intention, but once you get a few guppies, it's a slippery slope. 😆 I also have a red-tail botia loach and green tiger barbs in a 20-long tank, and in the Qtank right now are a dozen white clouds and a mystery snail. I also have dwarf chain loaches, siamese algae eaters, nerite snail, pond snails and rams horn snails in various numbers in all the tanks. Oh! And skittles shrimp in the 55, as well.