I think when people suggest feeding a "varied" diet, it means mixing in some live foods, freeze-dried, and/or frozen foods once in a while. Variety can be helpful to encourage vigorous feeding. Any brand-name flake foods will have the essential vitamins, minerals, etc. for healthy fish, but fish fed a variety seem to have better color, better growth, and more frequent breeding! No magic to the schedule, just mix them in when you can. I use flakes and then "vary" the food every couple of days or so with a brine shrimp feeding, tubifex, or bloodworms. You don't actually want to overfeed the "alternate" foods, that can cause digestive issues sometimes.

 

thank you

 

Back in the day (he said as he paused rocking in his chair ;-)) nearly all fish foods were of somewhat low quality and using different brands helped ensure a more balanced diet. There were few, if any, frozen foods available. I believe we have many, much higher quality fish foods today. I personally prefer the fish foods that are made from fresh food grade fish rather than fish meal. There is a lengthy thread on this subject.
Having 'said' that, there is still room for variety. I feed my fish frozen brine shrimp (thawed of course) following weekly water changes and it's like a feeding frenzy.
You also should continue feeding vegetables (I feed veggie flakes made from kelp) to ensure the kids are getting their veggies.
And yes, I think it's a good idea to feed goldfish foods designed for goldfish.

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ive read latley that some freeze dried bloodworms are passing on parasites. ida thought being dried would kill parasites but articles on internet say otherwise. any thoughts?

 

The fancy goldfish are the kind that have double tails and kinda bulb-shaped bodies. Non-fancy goldfish (sometimes called commons, comets, or shubunkins) will have a sleek body and not a double tail. The goldfish in my signature is a fancy goldfish. Non-fancy goldfish will look more like a koi.

I'm thinking you have a black moor and a red and white ryukin.

This is the recipe I use, but there are others (some of which are more difficult to make) here: GAB Gel Food Recipes

6 jars of baby food, garden vegetables 4 ounce size
can of salmon [small can tuna sized]
cup of boiling water
4 packets unflavored gelatin
1 multi vitamin (without iron)
1 acidophilus (optional)

Boil the water, add the gelatin stir till dissolved.
Chop the salmon into tiny bits
Add the baby food and the salmon.
Dissolve the multi vitamin and acidophilus (optional) in a tablespoon of water, add.
Refrigerate till set then cut into cubes.
You can add a half cup or so of finely chopped veggies to this mix as well.

I made this recipe about 2 months ago, and I'm not all the way through the batch with my two piggy goldfish. It should last me another 2-3 months.

 

The fancy goldfish are the kind that have double tails and kinda bulb-shaped bodies. Non-fancy goldfish (sometimes called commons, comets, or shubunkins) will have a sleek body and not a double tail. The goldfish in my signature is a fancy goldfish. Non-fancy goldfish will look more like a koi.

I'm thinking you have a black moor and a red and white ryukin.

This is the recipe I use, but there are others (some of which are more difficult to make) here: GAB Gel Food Recipes



I made this recipe about 2 months ago, and I'm not all the way through the batch with my two piggy goldfish. It should last me another 2-3 months.

thank you so much and two goldfish thank you!!!! can i assume this is a complete diet? at the risk of sounding dumb, what is acidophilus?

 

It's got the greens and the fish protein. The multivitamin is optional, too. I use it because my fish have a calcium deficiency. Acidophilus is a gut-bacteria supplement. I don't use it because I don't know how well these things actually work.

When feeding gel food it's easiest to hand-feed. Basically you train your fish to eat from your hands. It's a great way to make sure everyone gets their fare share.

 

thanks for sharing, good evening.