Fancy and common goldfish require a diet consisting of both frozen foods and flakes rich in proteins to support their digestive systems.
Feed a mixture of specialized goldfish flake and granule food as the mainstay diet, supplemented with frozen brine shrimp, daphnia and vegetables such as kale, romaine lettuce and shelled peas as needed. Any freeze dried food should first be soaked.
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Frozen Pellets
Goldfish is an aquatic fish species that relies heavily on vegetables to prevent any nutritional deficiencies. As they’re also omnivores, however, meat-based food such as frozen pellet food may help satisfy protein requirements as well. Frozen pellet foods offer an easy solution to adding variety into your goldfish’s diet without the hassle of home cultivation or risk of disease transference.
Pellets typically float on the water surface, making it easy for goldfish to feed themselves small portions at any given time. Plus, their long shelf life helps avoid needing to constantly scoop leftovers up from the tank bottom!
Hikari’s frozen food for fancy goldfish was specifically created to enhance coloration in blood parrot cichlids, offering plenty of plant-based ingredients as well as proteins from daphnia and krill sources, in addition to supportive probiotics for optimal digestive health.
Frozen Brine Shrimp
Brine shrimp nauplii are an increasingly popular food choice due to their abundance of high-quality proteins, nutritious fatty acids and gut-loaded vitamins that mimic what fish would find in nature. Furthermore, brine shrimp also help enhance feeding behaviors and enrich aquarium colorations.
Once thawed, frozen brine shrimp can be easily fed directly into your aquarium’s substrate or directly into the water. Frozen brine shrimp tend to be cheaper than live and freeze-dried foods.
Before adding frozen brine shrimp to an aquarium, make sure they have time to acclimate by floating them for one minute in its water. It is best to provide smaller portions multiple times daily rather than in one large feeding. Chitin provides roughage that helps the aquarium fish digest their meals more easily.
Frozen Daphnia
Daphnia are crustaceans that feed on an assortment of microorganisms and organic matter found in aquatic environments, particularly Euglena (the source of pea soup green water in aquariums), but also consume unicellular algaes, vegetable matter, yeast eggs yolks and dried milk products. Daphnia are readily accepted by many aquarium fish species such as small fry, guppies and bettas.
Daphnia are easy to cultivate at home and provide an excellent source of food for goldfish, tetras, livebearers and inverts in aquariums. Unlike brine shrimp, daphnia don’t pollute the water when fed to aquarium inhabitants during winter months – frozen daphnia are widely available at pet stores as a supplement or after medicating an aquarium.
Frozen White Worms
White worms (Enchytraeus albidus), commonly referred to as water fleas, are an increasingly popular frozen food among fish species. Not only are they easily digested by goldfish but regular use can help avoid the buildup of excess waste in tanks.
UNH researchers have been conducting experiments on ways to increase production and nutritional content of ornamental aquarium culture worms, which have proven highly promising as low-cost alternative feed for species that are difficult to raise with current methods.
Bloodworms can be purchased in most pet stores and larger aquatic retailers, or raised on your own if you have the space available. Raising them yourself is relatively straightforward; your goldfish will enjoy hunting them down!
Frozen Live Food
Frozen live foods such as brine shrimp, daphnia, and blackworms offer an ideal alternative to flake food and can be found at most larger pet stores and aquatic retailers. Flash frozen to preserve nutrients while eliminating potential pathogens.
Many aquarists use frozen foods as supplements for their fishes’ diets, providing less dense protein snacks such as pellets or flakes. Furthermore, frozen foods offer new ingredients and vitamins which may improve color and vitality in your aquatic species.
Some frozen live foods have even been designed specifically to meet the nutritional requirements of certain fish types, ensuring they contain all necessary vitamins and minerals. It’s wise to feed your fish both fresh and frozen food in moderation as feeding exclusively frozen can result in deficiencies of vitamins.
