By Fishbowl Adviser
Published: 07:10 pm
As one of the most popular pets to keep in a home, goldfish seem easy to care for and feed. But what is the best goldfish food you can get for your beloved animal? And how much should they eat? To help you answer these (and other) questions, we’ve created the best goldfish food buying guide that will help you choose and create a perfect diet for your pet.
| Product Name | Type | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TetraFin Balanced Diet Goldfish Food | Flakes | 4.8 | Check Price on Amazon | |
| Wardley Goldfish Food | Flakes | 4.7 | Check Price on Amazon | |
| API Goldish Pellets Food | Pellets | 4.7 | Check Price on Amazon | |
| TetraPond Variety Blend Goldfish Food | Sticks | 4.8 | Check Price on Amazon | |
| Tetra TetraFin Plus Goldfish Flakes | Flakes | 4.7 | Check Price on Amazon | |
| Aquarian Goldfish Flake Food | Flakes | 4.8 | Check Price on Amazon | |
| Fluval Bug Bites Tropical Fish Food | Granules | 4.7 | Check Price on Amazon | |
| Aqueon Goldfish Granules | Granules | 4.5 | Check Price on Amazon | |
| Tetra Baby Shrimp Food for Goldfish | Flakes | 4.5 | Check Price on Amazon | |
| Hikari Saki Fancy Goldfish Food | Sinking Pellet | 4.8 | Check Price on Amazon | |
Ratings are from Amazon at the time of publication and can change | ||||
The Best Goldfish Food
1. TetraFin Balanced Diet Goldfish Food
- Staple flake food for goldfish
- Easier-to-digest formula
- Added antioxidants for healthy cells
- Won’t cloud water
- Dispenser lids for hands-free feeding
TetraFin Balanced Diet Goldfish Flake Food was designed to make sure your goldfish is in optimal health. It is used as a staple flake food for goldfish that is nutritionally balanced to keep your goldfish healthy and vital. It contains the precise blend of immunostimulants, Omega-3 fatty acids, biotin, vitamins and minerals.
The custom-designed was made to be easier to digest and to strengthen the resistance to disease and stress. The formula also has added antioxidants that contribute to the cells’lth, select proteins that complement growth, and prebiotics that helps digestion. And it also naturally enhances the colors of your goldfish.
The package itself has dispenser lids that will let you feed your goldfish hands-free. And the flakes will not cloud the water, so you won’t have to worry about any additional cleaning.
2. Wardley Goldfish Food
- Very digestible
- Ideal protein-to-fat ratio
- Help keep the water clean
- No artificial colors
- Naturally enhances goldfish colors
Wardley Premium Goldfish food was scientifically developed with a high-quality protein diet that was made with a highly digestible protein source in order to provide better nutrition, less waste, and cleaner water.
This food for goldfish also has an immune support formula that is filled with vitamin C and other high-quality nutrients which will help support the health and vitality of your goldfish. There are no artificial dyes or colors in the formula, so the flakes will not harm your goldfish or pollute the water.
These flakes have an ideal protein-to-fat ratio that will contribute to the healthy growth of the goldfish and enhance its natural colors without harming it. It also maximizes protein utilization and even reduces the amount of waste goldfish will create and helps keep the water clearer and a healthy environment for your goldfish.
3. API Goldish Pellets Food
- Provides maximum digestion
- Has nutritionally enhanced protein
- Contributes to a clean environment
- Safe for saltwater and freshwater tanks
- Enhances the color of the goldfish naturally
API Goldfish food pellets are made to help goldfish get nutrients and have less waste and clean water. Unlike flakes that require smaller bites and end up floating on the surface of the water, pellets are much easier to dose, and they will sink to the bottom and allow goldfish to have access to them longer. But even though they sink and are left at the bottom of the tank, they will not pollute the water, so you won’t have to worry about waste and raised ammonia levels.
API Goldfish Food has nutritionally enhanced protein that provides maximum digestion and produces less ammonia (up to 30%). The API pellets also include spirulina that will enhance the goldfish’s vibrant colors and provide them with all the essential micronutrients they need. These pellets are completely dedicated to maintaining a clean environment to make sure goldfish have long and healthy lives.
4. TetraPond Variety Blend Goldfish Food
- Softens quickly
- Easily digestible
- Minimizes waste
- Naturally enhances color
- Contributes to growth
- Provides optimal health and vitality
TetraPond Variety Blend Goldfish Food is suitable for goldfish, koi, and other pond species. The blend comes with a mixture of Pond Sticks, Spring & Fall Diet, and Koi Vibrance. It is made with a special formula that is easy to eat and digest for pond species. And it also has vitamins that contribute to growth, health, and metabolism. There are fats for an energy source, amino acids for growth, and fiber for healthy digestion.
The food will soften quickly upon contact with water, which means it will give easy ingestion for pond fish that have no teeth. And, since it’s easily digestible, especially for pond fish that have no stomachs, it also promotes clear water with minimal waste. It will also naturally enhance your goldfish’s color, vitality, and overall health. This variety blend is best to give in the spring, summer, and fall when water temperatures are above 50°F.
5. Tetra TetraFin Plus Goldfish Flakes
- Algae cleaner water formula that will keep the tank clean
- Minimizes waste
- Extra vegetable matter
- Support health and digestibility
- Enhance the color of the goldfish naturally
The Tetra TetraFin PLUS Goldfish Flakes come with an algae cleaner water formula that has extra vegetable matter, which will support the health of your goldfish and its digestibility. It contains a mixture of highly nutritious ingredients, trace elements, vitamins, and minerals that help support the immune system of the goldfish and provide optimal health and long life. The food was designed to be easily digested in order to produce less waste and help keep your tank clean.
It is a specialized formula with high protein that makes it the most digestible goldfish food made. The food will leave fewer uneaten particles and reduce the waste to provide cleaner and clearer tank water. Apart from that, it is a nutritionally balanced staple diet that provides optimal health and will help support the immune system for goldfish or small koi. And It will enhance the color of the goldfish naturally.
6. Aquarian Goldfish Flake Food
- Natural ingredients
- Offers a complete and perfectly balanced diet
- High amounts of Vitamin C and Vitamin E
- Help keep goldfish healthy and active
Aquarian Goldfish Flake Goldfish Food is made with completely natural ingredients, without any natural color enhancers. They offer a complete and perfectly balanced diet that will help your goldfish be healthy and active.
Aquarian Goldfish offers nutritious flakes that help keep goldfish healthy and lively. They have been scientifically proven as a great diet that you will need to feed only twice a day. The flakes contain high amounts of Vitamin C and E that will help the goldfish be in good health, along with vegetables, cereals, minerals, oils, fats, algae, fruit, and yeasts.
7. Fluval Bug Bites Tropical Fish Food
- Offers a completely balanced daily diet
- No artificial colors, fillers, or preservatives
- Contribute to healthy skin, scales, and fins
- Rich with multiple proteins, Omega 3 and 6
- Also contains amino acids, vitamins, and minerals
Fluval Bug Bites Tropical Goldfish Food was made to be small in order to be a great fit for small and medium-sized fish. It contains nutrient-rich Concentrated Fish Protein, Salmon, Black Soldier Fly Larvae, Green Peas, Potato that is rich with multiple proteins, Omega 3 and 6, amino acids, and all the essential vitamins and minerals.
These ingredients offer a completely balanced daily diet for your goldfish that will provide healthy skin, scales, and fins. It also features a unique insect-based formulation that has multiple carbohydrates and high-quality proteins that provide a great diet for your goldfish. There are no artificial colors, fillers, or preservatives that could harm your goldfish.
8. Aqueon Goldfish Granules
- Natural ingredients
- Added minerals, vitamins, and trace nutrients
- Attractive to fish
- Contributes to minimal waste production
- Help keep the tank clean
Aqueon Goldfish Granules provides balanced nutrition that is perfect for the daily feeding of pond fish. The color-enhancing formula of these flakes contains a higher concentration of different ingredients that will enhance the colors in your goldfish (as well as other pond fish).
The granules were specially formulated to help goldfish use more of the food they eat and therefore create less waste that can pollute the water. Granules will sink to the bottom of the tank faster than flakes, making them suitable for fish to eat and leaving less of them uneaten.
These granules will support the healthy immune system of your goldfish and make sure it has optimal health. Apart from that, they will bring out and enhance the true colors of your goldfish. They were made with natural ingredients and colors, along with added minerals, vitamins, and trace nutrients that are part of a healthy diet your fish needs.
9. Tetra Baby Shrimp Food for Goldfish
- Treat that should only supplement staple diet food
- Contains nutritious supplements
- Supports digestion
- Natural color enhancer
- Suitable for all life stages
Tetra Baby Shrimp Sun Dried Treat is a natural shrimp treat that was designed to supplement staple diet food. It has high-quality and nutritious supplements that contribute to your fish’s health and keep their diet balanced.
This sun-dried freshwater shrimp is a great source of roughage that will support the digestion of the fish. The shrimp also has carotene which is a natural color enhancer that will bring out the natural colors of your goldfish. It’s suitable for all life stages, but you will need to feed your fish 2 or 3 times a week, along with the regular staple diet feeding. Just don’t overfeed them – feed only as much as the fish can eat in two minutes.
10. Hikari Saki Fancy Goldfish Food
- Contributes to growth
- Balanced formulation
- Reduces waste creation
- Color enhancer
- Rich in pure cultured spirulina and astaxanthin
Hikari Saki Fancy Goldfish Fish Food has a balanced formulation that contributes to the fish’s growth and development. It is rich in vitamin C and E that support and boost the immune system, along with pure cultured spirulina and astaxanthin which are natural color enhancers.
With its balanced formulation, the Hikari food also helps reduce waste creation in order to provide a clean water environment for fish. The company created a balanced diet with healthy, high-quality ingredients, water conditions, breeding requirements, and coloration in mind. They have produced a specific diet to fit the needs of your goldfish and to make sure it has a long and healthy life.
Best Goldfish Food Buying Guide & FAQ
What Do Goldfish Eat?
Goldfish are one of the most popular and best fish to keep in a fishbowl, but what do they eat exactly? In order to properly take care of your goldfish, you need to get the right food for goldfish and provide your pet with proper nutrition so that they can live long and healthy lives.
Feeding goldfish with proper food is an important aspect of goldfish care. However, in its goldfish lifespan, an adult goldfish has no restrictions on the food it can eat, so you shouldn’t have any problems with finding suitable foods to feed your pet. But what does a goldfish eat? They can eat any of the following:
- Algae
- Algae wafers
- Aquarium plants
- Bloodworms
- Brine shrimp
- Daphnia
- Pellet goldfish foods
- Flake foods
- Frozen or freeze-dried goldfish foods
- Fruit
- Green vegetables
- Homemade goldfish foods
- Insects
- Mosquito larvae
- Shrimp pellet foods
- Small live goldfish foods
- Squid
- Worms
Of course, you don’t have to feed them all of these – you can just pick the most suitable option or mix up a few things. The choice is up to you. But, let’s take a detailed look into the most common types of goldfish food.
Different Types of Goldfish Food
Goldfish can eat different types of food. Before finding the best goldfish food, let’s take a look at what they mostly eat. The most common type of food for goldfish people to feed their pets are:
- Flakes
- Floating food pellets
- Sinking food pellets
- Live foods
- Frozen live food (or freeze-dried)
- vegetables
The best food that you can give them is store-bought flakes or pellets. They have a lot of nutrients that provide your goldfish with everything it needs. But which is better? Flakes tend to lose part of their nutritional value after the package has been opened and exposed to air. Unlike flakes, pellets retain their nutritional value better, so it might be better to get them.
However, goldfish can swallow air while they eat flakes or floating food pellets, especially from the surface of the water in the tank. The air they swallow can cause digestion problems that can later lead to some serious illnesses.
On top of that, pellets can sometimes be too big to fit into the mouth of a goldfish, especially young ones, so you’ll need to do everything to avoid that. If left in the water uneaten, pellets can rot and pollute the tank’s water, so you will have to remove them from the surface of the water if this happens.
They can also eat live food like daphnia, brine shrimp, ghost shrimp, tubifex worms, and many others. They can even eat snails, so you might want to avoid keeping a snail as a pet near them. You can buy these in most pet stores, and they are a great source of protein. Plus, the process of catching and eating food will resemble what goldfish do in the wild.
But, there is a downside. Getting live animals has the risk of introducing disease and infections to the tank. If you don’t like feeding your goldfish with live foods, you can always get frozen life or freeze-dried food – they also offer a good amount of protein without any risk of disease.
In case you run out of food for your goldfish, you can always get something from your kitchen – like some green vegetables or fruit, and add them in small pieces to the tank. They can eat peas (preheated to make them soft and to remove shells), lettuce, cucumber, spinach, and kale.
How To Feed Goldfish
They are opportunistic feeders, which means they won’t stop eating as long as there is goldfish food available. Because of this, they can overfeed and suffer from digestive system problems (in some cases, death). The more food they eat, the more waste there is, which leads to excess toxins in the tank that slowly poison the goldfish and make them sick with other goldfish diseases.
So, with feeding goldfish, less is better. But what is the proper way to feed them? Here are some tips on how to feed goldfish.
The first thing you need to do is create a schedule. You should feed your goldfish at the same times each day, so they can learn to recognize when it’s feeding time and the person feeding them. With a schedule in place, they will also learn when they should start coming to the surface to be fed – they might even learn to take goldfish food off your fingertips.
You should feed your goldfish two to three times a day by giving them tiny amounts for one minute. You will also need to learn to gauge the amount of food you should add in each one-minute section in order to force the goldfish to eat everything and not leave waste, especially if you have a pregnant goldfish. If there is any waste left, you will need to clean the tank. In fact, it is a good idea to regularly clean the bowl or tank after each feeding.
If you want to give your goldfish treats, you can do it once or twice a week with different treats to accommodate their preferences. Just like humans, fish also have different tastes and food preferences, so accommodating their preference, especially if you have more than one fish, is necessary.
How Much do I Feed my Goldfish?
When it comes to the amount of food you should give your goldfish, you have to keep in mind two things:
- They are opportunistic feeders and overeaters
- They have no stomachs
What does this mean? It means they will eat as long as the food is there because they cannot get full without stomachs as humans do. As long as you put goldfish food in the tank, your goldfish won’t stop eating it – even to the point, it becomes dangerous to their health and well-being.
Because of that, you should be careful not to overfeed your fish. Overfeeding will block the intestines and indigestion of your goldfish and cause swimming bladder problems. Apart from that, the tank water can also get contaminated from the excess food that the fish do not eat. The excess food can be hazardous to the health of your goldfish – or any fish.
The best way to determine the amount of goldfish food to give your fish is a rule of thumb and only give your goldfish the amount of food that it will be able to eat in under two minutes. You can also measure the amount of food for fish by matching the size of your fish’s eye.
You should be aware that you will need to limit the amount of food you give your fish when the temperatures are low. Fish are homoeothermic, which means they are not able to digest food when the temperatures are low.
Best Goldfish Food FAQ
Q: How Often to Feed Goldfish?
A: You will need to have a diet that is suitable for their digestive system with a crafted schedule of each feeding time. You can feed your fish once, twice, or three times a day, depending on the age of the fish, size of the fish, the temperature of the water, spawning period, and the number of fish in one tank.
Q: How Long Can Goldfish Go Without Food?
A: Goldfish can go for two weeks without food, but it doesn’t mean they should. There was an extreme case documented of two goldfish surviving without food for 134 days in Christchurch, New Zealand after a severe earthquake happened and they were left alone with no one being able to check on them. However, they might have survived from eating algae or any other possible live food of the tank.
Even though they can survive with little or no food, you mustn’t keep them without food for any period. If you must, you can leave your fish for 3-4 days without giving them food.
Q: Can Goldfish Eat Betta or Tropical Fish Food?
A: The short answer: no. Goldfish and bettas are two completely different species with different digestive systems and feeding habits. While bettas are carnivores that need a high protein diet, goldfish are omnivores with slow and long-term digestion.
Q: Why Is My Goldfish Not Eating?
A: When a goldfish stops eating, it can be due to disease or bad water quality. To prevent bad water quality and pollution, you will need to clean your tank regularly, especially after feeding your goldfish.
Another reason can be bladder disease or constipation. You can notice constipation if you see your fish swimming at the bottom of the tank. If you happen to see that your fish is swimming strangely, like sideways or just floating upside down, it might have bladder disease that can happen from overeating. In either of these cases, you will have to keep your fish without food for 48 hours.
Final Thoughts
Even though goldfish are omnivores and will eat almost anything, that does not mean their diet and feeding your goldfish shouldn’t be a priority. So what and how should goldfish eat? Creating a proper diet and feeding schedule will affect your goldfish’s life quality and lifespan. Because of that, finding the right food with an optimal diet is one of the most important fishkeeping tasks you will need to focus on. But which should you choose? It’s up to you to choose the best goldfish food.
Source:
- What Should I Feed My Pet Goldfish? – RSPCA Knowledge Base
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