10 Best Goldfish Foods You Need to Try
Goldfish have been bred for hundreds of years to have special features like elegant double tails and egg-shaped bodies. This compact body can cause constipation or digestive problems. Goldfish owners spend a lot of energy and time finding the best food for their water piggies. Here are the top 10 foods we love to feed our goldfish after decades of keeping and raising them.
Some believe that floating foods should not be allowed to goldfish as they could swallow air from the surface, causing intestinal problems. We have never seen any problems with our fish eating floating food. This is despite years of experience. In fact, floating fish food is sometimes preferred because it remains at the surface for fish to find and doesn’t get stuck in the substrate or behind aquarium decorations.
1. Saki-Hikari Fancy Goldfish
Saki Hikari Fancy Fishfish is our recommendation if you want a professional-grade, fish-specific prepared food. This 3mm sinking pellet is rich in beneficial probiotics, wheat germ and seaweed, which help improve digestion and support intestinal flora. Astaxanthin and Spirulina are color-enhancing ingredients that help increase the red color of your goldfish without muddying the white. Finally, these pellets are packed with Vitamin E and C to strengthen your fish’s immune system against diseases. It is no surprise that the Saki Hikari range of specialized foods are so beloved by goldfish owners.
2. Vegetables
Double-tailed goldenfish, on the other hand, have sleek, torpedo-shaped bodies. However, single-tailed ones have balloon-shaped bodies which can lead to blockage and bloating. To increase their intake of fiber, many fish owners will supplement their fish’s diet with vegetables as a preventative measure. Our preferred vegetables include canned green beans, zucchini slices, canned carrot slices, and leafy vegetables like lettuce and spinach. If the vegetable is not soft enough for the goldfish to nibble on, you may need to blanch it first by briefly boiling it in water until it reaches the desired tenderness. Also, unshelled peas are often recommended as a cure-all for constipation issues, but be aware that they are a bit messy when placed underwater and can be labor-intensive to feed on a frequent basis.
3. Frozen Fish Food
Although goldfish are advised to eat lots of plant matter in order to maintain their digestive systems working efficiently, it’s important to remember that they are omnivores, which means they also require healthy amounts of protein. Frozen foods can be a high-quality, safe food that doesn’t quickly dissolve in water. This allows your goldfish to explore the tank and find any leftovers. They are available at many local pet and fish shops. You can buy them in individual foil-sealed packs or frozen slabs, which you can then break into smaller pieces. Our favorite frozen foods for goldfish are spirulina brine shrimp, daphnia, and krill. The exoskeletons of these crustaceans, which are similar to fiber, do not normally get digested. They help flush the fish’s bowels out and keep them moving along smoothly.
4. Hikari Cichlid Excel
To avoid bloat, freshwater herbivores as well as African cichlids need a plant-rich diet. We love feeding these specially formulated Cichlid Pellets. They contain a complete nutritional mix of fish protein, wheat germ and alfalfa for easy digestibility, as well as spirulina or krill for color enhancement. Hikari Cichlid Excel pellets come in both floating and sinking versions, just like many Hikari brand food products.
5. Repashy Super Gold Gel Food
You are looking for a specific food for goldfish that is not a pellet. Repashy worked closely with experts in goldfish nutrition to create a premium gel food that uses the most effective ingredients. Gel food is easy to digest and soft for goldfish. If you really want to spoil your goldfish, Repashy Super Gold contains an incredible blend of krill, algae, black soldier fly larvae, squid, seaweed, egg, plant proteins, fruits, flowers, and more. This mixture is also chock-full of essential vitamins, calcium, and beta carotene for color enrichment. Goldfish owners also love Repashy Soilent Green. It is an algae-and plant-heavy gel mixture with an astonishing 8% fiber. This article will show you how to make Repashy Instant Gel Food in just 10 minutes.
6. Xtreme Pellets
Xtreme Aquatic Foods has one of the best, all-in-one formulas for omnivore fish, and we regularly feed their pellets to our goldfish, community fish, and cichlids in our retail store and personal aquariums. Their special recipe contains appetite-enticing ingredients such as krill, shrimp, squid, and spirulina algae. They also contain important nutrients, vitamins and minerals to ensure a healthy diet and natural color enhancement. Xtreme fish foods are all made in the USA, and depending on the size of your goldfish, you can choose between their 1.5mm Floating Pellets, 1.5mm Slow-Sinking Pellets, and 3mm Big Fella Pellets.
7. Hikari Gold
Have you ever wondered how goldfish are related to koi? Both of these distant cousins were originally created from carp in East Asia. Consider including Hikari Gold Koi food in your goldfish’s diet. This floating pellet, which is high-quality, was designed for cold-water fish. It contains simple ingredients that can be absorbed quickly by the body, even at lower temperatures. The food is specifically formulated to provide excellent health and prevent fat accumulation. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly, daily diet that will bring out the best growth in your goldfish, give these pellets a shot.
8. Xtreme Spirulina Flake
Spirulina, a blue-green algae or cyanobacteria, is widely used for food. It is used to feed humans, poultry and livestock. It is rich in vitamins, minerals, protein, iron, beta-carotene, proteins, and fatty oils. Xtreme makes a spirulina flake meal that fish love by adding it to fish, shrimp, or other beneficial supplements. When raising goldfish fry, the flakes can be easily crumbled to a smaller size that the babies can eat. Hikari Algae Wafers are a great choice if you want to feed your fish with sinking food. They contain a good balance of protein and vegetables like alfalfa and seaweed.
9. Hikari Red Parrot+
Most of the foods on this list have been focused on providing good fiber and roughage, but what about getting your fancy goldfish to display the most amazing colors possible? Hikari developed a floating pellet for boosting the coloration of blood parrot cichlids, and we’ve found it also works well for goldfish. The recipe includes a lot of natural color-enhancing ingredients, including chili pepper, phaffia yeast and marigold flowers. The beneficial probiotics in this recipe promote healthy growth, and aid digestion. Add Hikari Blood Red Parrot+ to your goldfish’s weekly meal rotation for the ultimate boost in color.
10. Algae and plants left over
As you probably know, goldfish are more than happy to eat most aquarium plants if given the chance. You might be able to feed your goldfish from an aquarium that is too full of plants or algae. Got aquarium decorations covered in hair algae? You can temporarily move your aquarium decorations into your goldfish fish tank to give them a thorough cleaning. Prune your overgrown stem plants, scoop out your excess floating plants, and toss the trimmings into your goldfish aquarium.
If your tank’s water surface is completely covered in duckweed, consider transferring a goldfish into the afflicted aquarium until all traces of duckweed are gone. (Just be aware that your water piggies may snack on smaller fish if given the chance.)
Thankfully, there are some live plants that are tough enough to withstand goldfish, so if you’re looking to set up a planted goldfish tank, see the following article to learn about the top 5 easy plants we recommend.