How often to feed goldfish?

[LoriF 12]

I feed my angelfish twice a day and they seem to do fine with that. But the goldfish seem to be another story. I seem to be feeding them a lot and wonder if I'm feeding them too much. They are hungry all of the time. They spend most of their time foraging for food. The questions in my head are: Do I feed them more because they are growing? Do I feed them more often because they don't have stomachs and are grazers? Or, Am I overfeeding them? Any advice of what works best from anyone? I am feeding rapashy, sinking pellets, a variety of vegetables, and bloodworms.

[motherredcap 6,284]

They are basically all day eating and pooping machines. I feed mine small amounts constantly when home - literally every couple of hours I will drop a mushed pea, or some pellets, or very small repashy junk in his tank.

[LoriF 12]

Thanks for the reply,

That's what I've been doing and became afraid that I'm feeding them too much. They all seem to be looking good though. They remind me of my horses. It's lke they have conveyor belts built in. In one end and out the other Constantly. Which would lead me to my next question of what about when I'm at work all day? Would putting in a bigger gel cube of Repashy work? And, would one day of fasting per week hurt them?

[Helen 8,511]

they can muscle you into feeding them 24/7.. but stick to your guns! generally, most like to feed twice a day.. small portions two or three times a day. mine get fed once daily and if i forget one day to feed, it's not the end of the world. they destroy the plants and mess with the spray bars.. i know they're super hungry when both spray bars have hit the bottom..

[ema0140 35]

i feed mine 2 to 3 times a day, but they would happily eat all day long if i let them

[motherredcap 6,284]

Fasting definitely doesn't hurt them but it isn't necessary. I wouldn't put a large cube of repashy in the tank. My fish reacts badly to large amounts of repashy (becomes, if not floaty, lethargic and stays near the top of the tank). He has a diet of 50% or less of repashy, always with peas, beans or spinach the feeding afterward.

I think they are natural grazers and so like to give small meals at regular intervals. That said, he also did fine when we had a twice a day feeding routine. His tank is near the kitchen and so small veggie scraps make their way into the tank while dinner is being made. Pellets in the morning and sometimes right before bed.

[MummyDJ 90]

Mine get a small feeding 1-2 times a day with a fruit/veg every other day. Favourite fruit/veg so far are peas, broccoli, mango and pear.

I do a fasting day once a month.

[GoldenSpoiledRotten 6,786]

I generally feed 2-3 times per day, progold and salad supreme wafers. They have a day once a week or more when only veggies go into their tank. Fruits should only ever be fed sparingly as they are high in sugar and this can both harm the fish and water chemistry. Mine eat fruit once a month if that.

[4prettyfish 2,702]

I feed my goldfish twice a day. Morning and evenings. Sometimes during the day. When I do feed them their pellets I make sure they gobble up all the food within a couple of minutes. This way I figure I'm not overfeeding them and polluting the tank.

[Ms.Jenny 555]

If you are wanting to start a more precise diet, you can actually weigh your fish and weigh out the amount of food to feed each day. Depending on the food (pellets, gel food, blood worms, etc) you should aim to feed around 1% of your fish's total body weight each day. Dense foods like pellets should be fed in smaller quantities than gel foods which have more water content.

I personally feed my fish 4 times each day during the week. They get a 50/50 Repashy Super Green/Soilent Green mix in the morning and evening, and I bought a Fishmate automatic feeder that gives them two pre-measured servings of ProGold while I am at work, once around 12:00 and another time around 3:00. During the weekend, I feed them the Repashy mix in the morning and evening, and they split a cube of bloodworms in the afternoon. Every now and then I'll give them an orange slice or some shrimp pellets, or some spinach/peas/green beans/etc, but not very often.

I have noticed with this diet that during each feeding, each fish gets enough food to fill their mouth up once (very full, lol) and chew. So, I would feel pretty good advising to feed around 2 - 4 times a day, and giving enough food for each fish to get a good mouthful or so during each feed.

My fish have almost tripled in size in the past six months on this diet, (one went from 26 grams, to 77 grams) so it seems to be working well. hope this helps!

[LoriF 12]

Thanks everyone for all of the great advise. I guess I'll have to set a routine so as to make sure that they eat enough without over doing it. They do try to sucker me into feeding them all of the time. I put a small stalk of broccoli in the tank before I went to work today and they tore that up. I think that is a good solution for when I'm gone all day (a couple of days a week). It doesn't mess up the water and they have to work at it a little bit so it gives them something to do. I put lettuce in there before and no one touched it.

[cmclien 655]

I feed 2x/day, 2 mouthfuls each fish, plus some green beans or pea halves etc.

My initial thought would be if they are looking for food on the bottom then you are probably not over feeding.

At least thats true with my fish, if they are busy looking around for a couple hours then I know they are hungry again. When they are not hungry they rest in the water and do not swim around as much.

Fasting definitely doesn't hurt them but it isn't necessary. I wouldn't put a large cube of repashy in the tank. My fish reacts badly to large amounts of repashy (becomes, if not floaty, lethargic and stays near the top of the tank). He has a diet of 50% or less of repashy, always with peas, beans or spinach the feeding afterward.

This is exactly what happens to mine. Lethargic is definitely the word that comes to mind. I had to cut way back on it.

Edited March 11, 2013 by CindiL