Goldfish Feeding Tips

What's the best food for your Goldfish?

Goldfish need food that is a combination of carbohydrates and vitamins to help them grow and fight disease. They particularly need vitamin A to make their colors look bright. They do need protein but just about 12% so that they can build muscle. In the natural habitat, Goldfish mainly feed on plants. They eat a fiber diet that includes algae, grasses and aquatic plants in the natural environment. Thankfully you do not have to sweat much to provide them with the equivalent nutritional needs because you can get it off the shelf! These processed food available at pet stores include:

Flake food

This is one of the commonly available goldfish foods, especially made for them and it consists of brine shrimp. It is easily eaten by Goldfish and helps in avoiding a particularly fatal sickness called the Air Bladder Disease.

Pellet food

This is also flake food with brine shrimp but it's packaged as a pellet. The only problem with pellets is that it sometimes swells in the goldfish's stomach and makes it lose its balance. This is what is the Air Bladder disease.

Frozen food

This includes live food that is frozen. You have an array to choose from as in frozen brine shrimp, daphnia, tubifex worms or mosquito larvae. This will come frozen in slabs from which you have to break off bit-by-bit and hand-feed your goldfish. You can also opt for Freeze-dried foods, which includes Krill, Pacific plankton, brine shrimp and bloodworms.

Homemade food

If you really want to make the food for your goldfish and you have the time you can do so. You will find that their favorites are lettuce and peas. Take any type of lettuce, which would be easy for the goldfish to chew on and digest. Wash and rinse the lettuce in warm water and just clip it inside the tank with a lettuce clip. Do not cook the lettuce. As for the peas, cook them till they are soft and refrigerate them. At feeding time, peel off the skin and mash a pea between your fingers and drop it in the tank. Do make sure the peas are soft or you could end up bloating your goldfish. Goldfish enjoy plant food and that's why you can see them happily nibbling away at Anacharis and Romaine lettuce or pieces of cucumber and zucchini which you should make sure to clip on to the tank with a suction cup clip

Live foods

The live foods that goldfish can safely eat include Daphnia, Brine Shrimp, Tubiflex worms, Meal worms, Wax worms and Blood worms.

Special treat for your goldfish You can make a special "gel food" for your goldfish that's quite easy to do. This can be given to the goldfish along with the main staple as a once-in-a-while treat. Here's what you need will need: a packet of unflavored gelatin; an empty ice cube tray and a 2.5 oz jar of baby food in a vegetable flavor such as carrots, peas or green beans.

* Take ¼ cup cold water in a small saucepan and pour the contents of the packet of gelatin in the water and stir over low heat until the gelatin dissolves.

* Add ¾ cup water, stirring till it's well blended.

* Add the baby food and stir thoroughly.

* Now pour the mixture into an ice cube tray and let it cool for about half an hour.

* Refrigerate the mixture for a few hours till it solidifies.

When it's feeding time just pop out a cube, cut it into small strips and feed it to your goldfish! One tray is more than enough for two 4- to 5-inch goldfish for a week. Make sure you dump the leftovers after a week, as it's good to give them fresh stuff.

Whatever it is, you will find that your goldfish are not fussy eaters. They have a wide array of food to choose from and they can eat quite a lot, which you would need to regulate. You will need to remember that they are temperate fish that do not need a diet high in protein. Goldfish are classified as coldwater fish and, as a rule; do not need to eat a diet that is high in protein. What they need is a carbohydrate-rich diet with the adequate vitamins.

That is why the best option for Goldfish are the floating pellets or the flakes which are specially made for Goldfish and have all the necessary nutrients. Ask your goldfish dealer as well as other owners and decide on what is best for the goldfish.

Dane Stanton - www.goldfish-secrets.com

Dane Stanton is an expert on goldfish health care. To visit his website visit http://www.goldfish-secrets.com for more information on Goldfish care and other aquarium related topics. *Recommended*

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