Finding Additional Foods

[lllyrain 0]

After the loss of my entire Goldie tank due to cross contamination between my tropical tank and my Goldies, I am finally ready after 4 years to keep Goldies again. I have always fed my babies Saki-Hikari color Enhancing pellets and fed them peas on the weekends. I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to recommend an additional food source I can use along with these, to vary their diet, as well as perhaps a schedule you use to feed yours. I’d really like to try another brand of commercial fish food (gel, pellets…etc) My tank is all cycled and I’m ready to go select my new babies this weekend. It may take me a little while to get back into the swing of things. Thanks in advance - lllryain

[DawnMichele 6,045]

Welcome to Kokos and glad to hear you will be keeping Goldfish again.

[DieselPlower 2,123]

Go to amazon. Search for goldfish food or goldfish pellets. Check the ingredients and decide from there. Some food brands I have used recently are Hikari, omega one, and new life spectrum.

[Distaff 99]

Rachael O'leary has a you tube video on the criteria for selecting foods.  She doesn't endorse anything specific (and her focus tends to be tropical nano's), but explains what to look for, based on what the fish eats in the wild.  She avoids terrestrial plant/animal proteins such as soy, wheat or beef.  IIRC, she mentions corn too.  She prefers specific listings like krill, over "fish meal," which (again, IIRC) she says can be just about any kind of fishy junk. 

 

Different advice from another expert, Marc Weiss, who uses wheat gluten in his home mix, he likes it as a binder. 

 

The more I get into the subject, the more confusing it gets, but I am pretty firm on what I don't like.  I will admit I kept two fish for several years on cheap T**** flakes, and even though I was an ignorant, careless IDIOT about that, they are still with me, and doing fine. 

Edited November 22, 2016 by Distaff

[FishyMandy 6,272]

I feed my Indoor Guys NLS Thera A+ and my Outdoor guys a mix of Hikari Gold and Hikari Goldfish Staple (Only reason for the difference is I prefer floating food in the pond so I can see how much they are eating more easily and I can check them over for any problems while they are eating)

 

I think over the two I prefer NLS but I've only just recently started using the Hikari Staple so I can't really comment much on that.

 

 

I also feed my fish Seaweed, Bloodworms, NLS Algae Gel and NLS Nutri Gel (More so Algae Gel than Nutri) 

[mysterygirl 2,031]

I love the control of the ingredients when making my own gel food, see how to here.

 

It isn't hard at all, perhaps takes an hour? Like making a good dinner. But it lasts for months. 

 

Southern Delight is another recent favorite of mine, to add to the solid recommendations in this thread. 

[mjfromga 1,784]

I kinda... Hate pellets? My fish all do best on mixed Repashy gel foods. The new NLS looks to have faltered a bit ingredient wise and Saki Hikari has too much wheat. I tried the new Hikari staple since I had a sample pack. Dude said it reduces waste. Not that I noticed! I even feed the wee pondies gel food. If I want to look at them, the pond is small and it's easy to just take them out.

[shakaho 6,312]

As omnivores, goldfish can eat just about anything.  They will live happily for a lifetime on nothing but high-quality pellets.  Or you can give them a variety of foods, and they will thrive on that too. 

 

No more than one grain product in the first four ingredients in the food makes a reasonably good criterion for a "quality" pellet.  Corn products have less nutritional value than other grains.  Lots of research shows fish meal as the most digestible protein source for fish.  It really doesn't matter what kind of fish make up the meal.   Algae in the food contributes ingredients the fish might eat in nature.  

 

You can feed your fish vegetables -- preferably leafy greens -- to satisfy their desire to eat continually without overfeeding them.  You can add worms and insects for added protein for growing youngsters.  

[muffluvin 138]

As omnivores, goldfish can eat just about anything.  They will live happily for a lifetime on nothing but high-quality pellets.  Or you can give them a variety of foods, and they will thrive on that too. 

 

No more than one grain product in the first four ingredients in the food makes a reasonably good criterion for a "quality" pellet.  Corn products have less nutritional value than other grains.  Lots of research shows fish meal as the most digestible protein source for fish.  It really doesn't matter what kind of fish make up the meal.   Algae in the food contributes ingredients the fish might eat in nature.  

 

You can feed your fish vegetables -- preferably leafy greens -- to satisfy their desire to eat continually without overfeeding them.  You can add worms and insects for added protein for growing youngsters.  

 

Sorry for hijacking the topic. But do you still feed BlackWater Max Growth to your fish? I am currently feeding the fish in my tank with it and I like what I am seeing in terms of growth.

[shakaho 6,312]

Yes, I feed that and my fish get very large.  I love the price compared to other goldfish pellets.

[lllyrain 0]

Thank you. I'll have to search her out on You Tube. I did just purchase some Reshpays Solivent Green as I've read some wonderful things about it.

[number20121 2,663]

I personally love Omega One small sinking Goldfish pellets.

Simply based on the ingredient list, where only one of the four first ingredients is a grain:

Ingredients
Whole Salmon, Whole Herring, Whole Shrimp, Wheat Flour, Wheat Gluten, Fresh Kelp
Lecithin, Astaxanthin, L-Ascorbyl-2-Phosphate (Source Of Vitamin C), Natural And Artificial Colors, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Folic Acid, Biotin, Inositol, Tocopherol (Preservative), Ethoxyquin (Preservative).

 

It's not very expensive and almost every pet store carries it.

I have been feeding this for way over seven years and it is one of the foods that only my most food sensitive fish would show floating issues after eating.

This, combined with high protein seaweed, some frozen worms and shrimp, and steamed vegetables is the diet they are currently on.

[lllyrain 0]

I'll have to check it out. Thanks so much