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”