Goldfish need food that is a combination of carbohydrates and vitamins to help them grow and fight disease. They particularly need vitamin A to make their colors look bright. They do need protein but just about 12% so that they can build muscle. In natural habitat, Goldfish mainly feed on plants. They eat a fiber diet that includes algae, grasses and aquatic plants in natural environment. Thankfully you do not have to sweat much to provide them with equivalent nutritional needs because you can get it off shelf! These processed food available at pet stores include:

Flake food

This is one of commonly available goldfish foods, especially made for them and it consists of brine shrimp. It is easily eaten by Goldfish and helps in avoiding a particularly fatal sickness called Air Bladder Disease.

Pellet food

This is also flake food with brine shrimp but it’s packaged as a pellet. The only problem with pellets is that it sometimes swells in goldfish’s stomach and makes it lose its balance. This is what is Air Bladder disease.

Frozen food

This includes live food that is frozen. You have an array to choose from as in frozen brine shrimp, daphnia, tubifex worms or mosquito larvae. This will come frozen in slabs from which you have to break off bit-by-bit and hand-feed your goldfish. You can also opt for Freeze-dried foods, which includes Krill, Pacific plankton, brine shrimp and bloodworms.

Homemade food

Goldfish sure are smart not in sense as dogs are, but they are smart. They will swim up to meet you probably because they think you are going to feed them. They might not be able to differentiate between one person and other but they do know that people they live with are caregivers. Know that they depend on you and hence love you.

Why is a new goldfish not moving in its bowl, when he is very much alive? Well first of all, he probably hates being in a bowl. Goldfish do not like bowls even though humans think bowls are cute. Put him in a tank with a compatible companion goldfish. Meanwhile watch fish. Is he coming up to top of tank when you feed him? If he is then, he’s probably just getting used to new bowl. If it looks like he has difficulty swimming and that he keeps sinking to bottom he might have a swim bladder disorder caused by too much dry food and bad water.

Why is a goldfish swimming to top every once in a while? Goldfish keep swimming to surface of tank because that’s where they get their oxygen. Always make sure that there is enough empty space at top. Do not fill up tank to brim, as leaving space will give them required oxygen. If your fish are normally active, swimming and chasing each other a round, don’t worry if they swim to top every once in a while.

Why do goldfish always seem starving?