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 contains beneficial probiotics, seaweed, wheat germ, as well as seaweed. It will improve digestion and support intestinal health. Color-enhancing ingredients, such as astaxanthin and spirulina, help to boost your goldfish’s red coloration without muddying the white areas. 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
While single-tailed goldfish have streamlined, torpedo-shaped physiques, double-tailed goldfish have balloon-shaped builds that can be prone to blockage, bloating, and swim bladder disease. As a preventative measure, many owners supplement their fish’s meal plans with vegetables to increase the fiber content in their diets. We prefer canned green beans, zucchini slices and canned carrot slices. Leafy vegetables such as lettuce and spinach are also good options. If the vegetable isn’t soft enough for the goldfish, it may be necessary to blanch it first in boiling water. 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
Despite the emphasis on feeding goldfish lots of plant matter to keep their digestive system running efficiently, don’t forget that they are actually omnivores and also require a healthy amount of protein. Frozen foods are a very high-quality, clean food that does not quickly disintegrate in water, allowing your goldfish to forage throughout the day and find leftover pieces on the tank bottom. These frozen foods can be purchased at your local fish and pet shops. They come in foil-sealed or frozen slabs. We love krill, daphnia and spirulina salt shrimp as frozen foods for goldfish. These crustaceans’ exoskeletons, which are not digested in the normal way, help flush the fish’s stomachs and keep the food moving.
4. Hikari Cichlid Excel
Other fish like African cichlids and freshwater herbivores also need plant-rich diets to avoid bloat. 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
Looking for a goldfish-specific food that isn’t 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 soft, moist, easy for them to digest, and gentle for their delicate swim bladders. Repashy Super Gold, which contains krill, alga, black soldier fly larvae and squid, is an amazing combination of krill. The mixture also contains essential vitamins, calcium, beta carotene, and other color-enhancing ingredients. Goldfish owners love to feed Repashy Soilent Green to their goldfish. This is an alga- and plant-rich gel mix that has an amazing 8% fiber content. 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. The special recipe includes krill, shrimps, squid, and even spirulina alga. They also contain important nutrients, vitamins and minerals to ensure a healthy diet and natural color enhancement. All Xtreme fish food products are made in America. You can choose from 1.5mm Floating Pellets or 1.5mm Slow-Sinking Pellets depending on your goldfish.
7. Hikari Gold
Ever wonder how goldfish and koi are related? These distant cousins were created originally from carp in East Asia. Hikari gold koi foods can be added to your fish’s daily 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. These pellets can be a cost-effective way to feed your goldfish.
8. Xtreme Spirulina Flake
Spirulina is a type of blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria) that is widely used as a food source for humans, poultry, livestock, and fish. 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. The flakes can easily be broken down to make it easier for goldfish fry to consume. If you prefer a sinking food instead, Hikari Algae Wafers have an excellent balance of proteins and veggies like seaweed, alfalfa, and spirulina.
9. Hikari Red Parrot+
The majority of foods on this list focus on providing good fiber, roughage, and other nutrients. But what if you want your goldfish display the most stunning colors? Hikari developed a floating pellet for boosting the coloration of blood parrot cichlids, and we’ve found it also works well for goldfish. This recipe contains a ton of natural color-enhancing ingredients like chili pepper, phaffia yeast, krill, astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, lutein, and marigold flowers. Plus, it includes beneficial probiotics for promoting healthy growth and aiding in digestion. For the ultimate boost in color, add Hikari Red Parrot+ to your fish’s weekly food rotation.
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.