feeding goldfish

[talal101]

i feed my goldfish 4 times a day:
1} at 8a.m-goldfish flakes
2} at 3-4 p.m-freeze dried blood worms
3} at 8 p.m-goldfish pellets/laguna all season koi and goldfish food
4} at 11-12 p.m shrimp pellets
i have 7 different kinds of food:
-brine shrimp pellets
-frozen brine shrimp with spurilina
-freeze dried blood worms
-frozen blood worms
-goldfish flakes
-goldfish pellets
-laguna goldfish and koi all season food {no meat}
i feed them frozen food once a week at the third feeding instead of the other foods.
i have 2 questions:
is this a good diet?
should i be feeding them different foods at the 4 feedings or should i feed them the same food all day at four feedings?
what advantages does not feeding them for one day of the week have?
thanks guys and any suggestions would be appreciated greatly.

 

[addy1]

you are so nice to your fish, mine still have not eaten since I put them in, but they are still hiding................

Sounds like a wonderful diet for them, covering different types of food.

 

[talal101]

thank you addy that is really nice of you to say lol, i really do try to keep my fish happy and healthy and i always go to the petstore or any store im at and i look around for some goldfish food that i don't have that may be good for them and makes me happy that someone recongnizes that i really do care for them really well because it means im a good owner

 

[fishin4cars]

Tatal, thats a good mix except for one food, WATCH THE SHRIMP PELLETS! I use them for my cichlids and catfish in my aquariums, Problem with them they go straight to the bottom and spoil quickly. I've had issues with that food in the past. It's not that it's a bad food, it that it sinks and sometimes the fish don't get to it all. Make sure if you do feed it that you can see where it drops and that it all gets eaten, if not, don't use that one, All the rest are great foods. Biggest thing is feed lightly. Light feedings multiple times a day is far better than one or two large feedings. That being said now, You'll read in other posts that some people don't feed them at all and they grow and breed. That should give you some idea how small of a feeding you should be feeding, (This goes for everyone, NEVER feed more food than the fish can completely consume in five minutes)
As for not feeding them one day a week, this allows for the intestinal tract to clean itself. If you have to go away for three, four, five days, Don't get someone to come feed them, they are better left unfed than have someone that doesn't know overfeed. (Trust me on this one!) Most wholesales don't feed for days before shipping to keep waste down in the shipping bags.
Sounds like you really are getting the fish bug, lol Biggest thing I can tell you is don't love them too much with food. #1 cause of death in fish keeping is in one way or another related to over feeding. Second I would say on ponds is predators. Or at least that has been mine......#1!!!

 

[talal101]

thank you fishin, but they are actually floating variety pellets made for bettas so they do not sink, none of the foods i feed sink except for the frozen kinds but they usually get all eaten up before they even touch the bottom and the ones that do get to the bottom are only a couple small peices, and i understand what you mean i also prefer to leave them be for a while instead of asking anyone else to feed them for me, and i have had the animal bug bite a long long time ago i have had fish for many years and many tropicals but i really love goldfish and i hate that they have such a bad rep being called crappy and fish bowl fish. and thanks i agree that one big feeding is not good, and starangley enough my fish tend to finish all the food in under a minute no matter how much i feed so i keep it to a little pinch.

 

[j.w]

My goldies love watermelon rinds w/ some watermelon left on them. I've heard they like other fruits as well

 

[fishin4cars]

thank you fishin, but they are actually floating variety pellets made for bettas so they do not sink, none of the foods i feed sink except for the frozen kinds but they usually get all eaten up before they even touch the bottom and the ones that do get to the bottom are only a couple small peices, and i understand what you mean i also prefer to leave them be for a while instead of asking anyone else to feed them for me, and i have had the animal bug bite a long long time ago i have had fish for many years and many tropicals but i really love goldfish and i hate that they have such a bad rep being called crappy and fish bowl fish. and thanks i agree that one big feeding is not good, and starangley enough my fish tend to finish all the food in under a minute no matter how much i feed so i keep it to a little pinch.

Sounds like you got it all under control! yea, I was the same way, started with livebearers, then came south american cichlids, then african cichlids, then the reef tanks, then back to africans, and now mostly koi and goldfish. still have a Large Green terror cichlid, two large 10 year old red hook silver dollars, a few fairly rare synodontis catfish, a Red tail Shark and a Huge fire eel that only comes out after dark, he's the hardest to keep fed as he digs into the gravel with only the tip of his nose out and feeds only after dark with the catfish, so I have to feed sinking pellets, chunks of shrimp, grass shrimp and once in a while some feeder fish and frozen blood worms. I've had the eel for almost 20 years now and have yet to be able to get a single picture of him. You would think a 30" plus fish in a 75 gallon aquarium would be easy to see, NOT! I forget he's in there sometimes until he gets really hungry and comes all the way out looking for food. No way to miss him then!

 

[talal101]

HAhah sometimes I'm not sure if I do lol and u can say that again I switched from gold to tropical to koi back to tropical to chichlid to frogs to many other fish, I have alot of pets throughout my life lol

 

[CometKeith]

Hi talal, What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings? Your fish are getting a lot of food for so early in the year and may be producing more waste than your pond can handle right now. Has your pond cycled already? I have't fed mine at all yet and they are doing fine. They were beggin for food on Sunday, but I knew it was going down from 80 degrees F to 35 degrees F in a few days.

 

[talal101]

Hi talal, What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings? Your fish are getting a lot of food for so early in the year and may be producing more waste than your pond can handle right now. Has your pond cycled already? I have't fed mine at all yet and they are doing fine. They were beggin for food on Sunday, but I knew it was going down from 80 degrees F to 35 degrees F in a few days.

i actually don't have my goldfish in the pond yet, i can't put them in for another month or so. i have them in a storage tank in the garage with a heater and they have been in there for a few months now so that is why i am able to feed them so often and so soon and also i don't do testing for ph and stuff because i have just gotten into ponding and for my whole aquarium career i would always just leave the water for a couple weeks and introduce fish slowly and i had no idea about ph and ammonia and all that stuff until a couple years ago so i just got really really lucky i think. when i do start my pond and everything i will start testing eveything like i should be.

 

[CometKeith]

ok, that makes total sense now. Ponds actually have a lot of natural food already so feeding fish a lot is not so terribly important. I have a few lights on the pond until midnight and the fish are always looking for stray bugs that make their way into the pond. Even my frog gets into the act. I noticed our bee/wasp population went down last year and I think the frog is responsible!

 

[talal101]

yeah lol sorry for the confusion

 

[addy1]

I just saw two of our 5 fish, skinny little orange one chasing a fat looking white one.........spawning? They are only 3-4 inches or so, still have never fed them, don't see them long enough to toss food in lol

 

[koiguy1969]

tatal..if you want to give them a good brine shrimp food try these...a pound is pretty dang big too...1/2 pund = 1 large freezer bag, full !!!
ebay link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/HBH-FREEZE-DRIE...790?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35b0ad3bfe

real good for hand feeding as well!

 

[j.w]

Addy, I think they are spawning or maybe just practicing for the real thing. They only have to be a year old or so to spawn I have read :bowdown: