05 Food
Goldfish food
Feed them properly. Goldfish will eat almost anything, which is exactly why what and how much you feed matters more than for most pets.
The principle behind every guide here
Small amounts, one to three times a day, no more than the fish finish in a couple of minutes. Build the diet on a quality pellet or gel food, add vegetables and the occasional frozen treat, and cut back when the water is cold.
How often is covered in the care section: How often should you feed goldfish?
Goldfish nutrition
The rest of this section is about forms of food. This one is about what is in them. Protein, fat, carbohydrate, fibre and vitamins behave differently in an animal with no stomach, and many of the feeding rules on the site come out of that. Read it first · 17 minContents
16 guides, written to be read in full.
Choosing a food 5
- How to read a fish food label Many food pages on this site point back to choosing a good food. The label is the main evidence you get in a shop, and the useful parts of it are not the parts on the front of the tub. 12 min
- Goldfish pellets: choosing and using them well Pellets are the easiest way to give a goldfish a balanced diet, but not all are equal. What to look for on the tub, and how to feed them without fouling the water. 12 min
- Goldfish flakes: are they good enough? Flakes are cheap, familiar and easy to feed, but they float, fragment and go stale fast. Here is when they are fine and when to move on. 12 min
- Gel food for goldfish Gel food is a powder you mix with hot water and let set into a soft block that sinks and holds moisture. Many keepers of fancy goldfish like it, once you know the routine. 13 min
- Sinking vs floating food for goldfish Where a pellet sits in the water changes how a goldfish eats it. For round-bodied fancies that matters more than most people expect. 11 min
The rest of the diet 4
- Vegetables for goldfish: what to feed and how Goldfish are enthusiastic grazers, and a few vegetables a week add variety and fibre to a dry-food diet. The right ones, prepared the right way, are nearly free. 11 min
- Frozen food for goldfish Frozen daphnia, brine shrimp, mysis and bloodworms bring variety and enthusiasm to a goldfish diet. A supplement rather than a staple, and handled properly. 12 min
- Live food for goldfish: benefits and risks Live food turns feeding into hunting and gives goldfish something to do. Sourced carefully it is one of the best enrichments there is; sourced carelessly it brings in trouble. 11 min
- Goldfish treats: safe extras and what to skip A treat is anything outside the routine. Some are good for a goldfish, most are harmless in small amounts, and a few common ones should never go in the tank. 12 min
How much, and when 3
- Overfeeding goldfish: a common mistake Many goldfish are fed too much, by kind people responding to a fish that begs. The consequences are slow and easy to miss, and the fix costs nothing. 11 min
- Fasting, rest days and when not to feed Several pages on this site tell you to fast the fish for a few days. This is the page explaining why keepers do it, how long is safe, and the several cases where withholding food is the wrong instruction entirely. 13 min
- Feeding goldfish through the seasons Digestion slows as the water cools and goldfish eat less of their own accord. The seasonal rule worth following is to read the thermometer rather than the fish, and many keepers stop feeding pond fish altogether at about 8 to 10 °C. 13 min
Special cases 3
- Feeding fry and young goldfish Goldfish fry need food smaller than a flake, about five small feeds a day, in water changed daily. Getting the timing right at the start matters, and the first mistake is feeding too early. 12 min
- Feeding a sick goldfish The health pages tell you to stop feeding, feed lightly, or treat with medicated food, and none of them says what to actually put in the water. The fork that decides everything is whether the fish is still eating. 12 min
- Homemade goldfish food Homemade food is fresh and enjoyable to make, and it is much harder to balance than it looks. The fix is not a better recipe — it is including a portion of formulated food in the mix, which brings in some of the part you cannot make at home. 12 min
Related care guides
Feeding and its consequences
Products, researched
Buying guide
Commercial recommendations are kept separate from feeding advice, and they are researched rather than tested by hand. See our affiliate disclosure.