Experimentation is key when feeding goldfish; start small amounts of food at first and observe how quickly it’s eaten up by your goldfish.
Pond goldfish feed on a variety of foods such as aquatic plants, aquatic insects, tadpoles, and larvae; their feeding requirements depend on water temperature.
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Winter
Goldfish are bottom feeders and will naturally seek food hidden beneath the substrate or in submerged debris. Therefore, no additional food sources should be needed unless their natural supply of prey or plant matter becomes limited.
As temperatures decrease, reduce feeding frequency to two or three times weekly. Water temperatures could fall below 60 degrees and take more time for fish to digest foods in these environments.
Utilizing a pool thermometer is essential to keeping your pond’s water temperatures at an optimum level throughout the year. As temperatures cool off, fish stop coming to the surface and should be fed wheat germ-based food which is easily digested by coldwater fish. Potted tropical plants should also be brought indoors as their roots might die during the winter; alternatively water lilies have long roots which will continue providing oxygen into your pond over the course of winter months.
Spring
As soon as pond temperatures warm in spring, goldfish should be fed twice or three times each day with high-protein food that is easily digested compared to what they consumed during colder weather months.
Bear in mind that outdoor koi and goldfish thrive best when exposed to their natural habitat, feeding on things like tadpoles, frog eggs, zooplankton, invertebrates and decaying animal matter. Bottom feeders use their maxillary barbels to dig out aquatic plants such as aquatic moss or snail shells from the substrate as well as debris such as detritus from their waterways.
Care should be taken not to overfeed pond goldfish as this could result in many health issues for them, including fin rot and dropsy. Overfeeding could contaminate the water with ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates which will impact oxygen levels significantly – only feed them what they can consume within two minutes!
Summer
As summer arrives, your goldfish become much more active and consume food more rapidly than they did during winter. They may consume live or freeze-dried fish foods as well as plant matter like pond plants, tadpoles, larvae as well as bloodworms and brine shrimp.
Goldfish have very rudimentary stomachs and should only receive enough food at each feeding session to meet their energy requirements. Too much food will simply pollute their surroundings.
At least initially, try to adhere to a regular feeding schedule so your goldfish become used to finding food at the same time every day and your pond bacteria can adjust accordingly. Many experienced goldfish keepers advise against asking friends or neighbours to feed your goldfish as this could result in overfeeding which pollutes the water with leftover food that remains uneaten.
Fall
Goldfish differ from tropical counterparts by going into an energy conserving mode in autumn to conserve their energy stores and conserve energy consumption. Although they can survive without food intake in cooler water temperatures, some sustenance must still be provided until spring comes around again.
Once temperatures fall consistently below 55 degrees, goldfish require only small meals each week – either store-bought pellet food or live or freeze-dried foods are fine options for feeding them.
Feeding fish too frequently can pollute a pond with uneaten food particles that accumulate on its floor or rise to the surface, contaminating it further and polluting its ecosystem. To make sure all their meals get eaten quickly before spoiling, putting food into a floating ring or container makes removal easy for the fish and will prevent spoilage of uneaten portions before spoilage sets in.
Goldfish in natural ponds have access to various sources for their nutritional needs, such as edible pond plants, aquatic insects, tadpoles and larvae, clams snails and decaying animal matter found on the bottom. If they appear hungry after you stop feeding them, chances are they’ll soon satiate that hunger by grazing on algae growing on walls within their own ponds.