How much food do you feed your goldfish is a very good question. There are a couple of different things we need to look at when determining how much food to feed them.
First of all when feeding your goldfish or koi for aquarium or ponds the general rule of thumb is they should be able to eat all the fish food within 2 minutes. If they eat all that before 2 minutes you can give them some more. You will see once you begin feeding them they will start losing interest in the food. When this happens it’s a good sign that there nice and full, if there is any left over uneaten fish food discard it right away or will foul your water if left in your aquarium or pond.
Feeding goldfish in the aquarium, you can feed them once everyday. Goldfish need exercise and in aquariums they really don’t have the luxury of say the space they would have in a pond. Goldfish can develop a fatty liver which can cause health problems with goldfish pretty much the same as humans. With this some people suggest feeding your goldfish every 2ND day in aquariums. It’s up to you just once a day or ever 2ND day, just make sure you don’t over do it as goldfish can sometimes eat and not really know when to stop.
Feeding goldfish in ponds is a little different. To be honest with you depending on the size of pond you have and how many fish you have in it you don’t really need to feed your fish. There is enough live food, bugs, insects and algae in the water that they will live just fine. But like most people we want to feed our goldfish in our ponds and see the grow. In the summer when the water is warmer you can actually feed them 2 or 3 times a day to get maximum growth or once a day is good as well. Remember in ponds goldfish or koi always have a supply of food whenever they need it in the water.
I am going make another post as I am going to talk later more about feeding your goldfish in ponds at different seasons like spring, summer and fall and what you should do.
Sincerely,
Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy
“Helping Goldfish Owners With Advice, Fish Care and Fish Medication Treatments for Goldfish Diseases, Illnesses and Parasites”
5 replies on “How Much Fish Food Should I Feed My Goldfish?”
Hi Jamie, First of all…what a HUGE help you are. My 3 year old won the pingpong- ball- goldfish-from-the-fair. We now have a 15 gallon tank with the works for “Curly” the fish. I keep reading to feed him once a day as much food as he can eat in 2 minutes then scoop the remainder out, but when I put the goldfish flakes in the all start sinking to the bottom after about 20 seconds and Curly doesn’t go down there to get them. One, I don’t know if I’m feeding him enough or too little, and Two, I don’t know if he’ll eat it off of the bottom or if it’ll “foul the water”. I am feeding flakes. Are we talking like 5 flakes? 15 flakes? I have NO idea how much. Right now I’ve been giving him about 5 flakes about 4 times a day. He eats them all very quickly. My son (Jamie) and I are getting kinda attached the the little guy and don’t want to harm him. THANKS!
Jamie, I have a goldfish in a 25 gal. half wiskey barrell plastic pond and I feed him a mixture of pellets and flakes. Everyone says to feed him once a day all he’ll eat in 5 mins, but it takes him sometimes up to 5 mins to suck on a pellet or some flakes. He’ll come up and grab a pellet or a flake then he’ll drive down mid way and suck on it, then when he’s done he’ll surface back up and ask for another one so in 5 mins, he only gets 1 or 2 pellets. Exactly how many pellets or flakes should I give him at the rate he eats. Usually after 20 mins he stops coming up and doesn’t “beg” any more but then he’s only had about 5 pellets or 5 flakes maybe less. Is this normal behavior and is this too much or too little? He has grown about an inch and half in2 months
How your feeding your goldfish is just fine. If you want you can feed your goldfish a couple times a day in the summer months.
Just be sure that you start keeping track of the water temperature in your small garden pond. You should start feeding your goldfish a wheat germ based food. I know where I live fall is coming fast….
How big is your goldfish?
I am so not an expert, but I do have an idea on how to help! I was told to shut off the filter while feeding. The flakes will not sink as fast, and your fish may be able to eat them before they sink to the bottom. Good luck!!
Elizabeth,
Shutting off your filter when feeding your fish is a great idea! Feed your fish and not the filter. By doing this will create less maintenance in cleaning your aquarium filter.
The only thing people need to make sure they do is remember to turn the filter back on. I could see people forgetting.
Good suggestion!
Sincerely,
Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy