10 Best Goldfish Foods You Need to Try

Goldfish have been bred for hundreds of years to have special features like elegant double tails and egg-shaped bodies. This compact body can cause constipation or digestive problems. Goldfish owners spend a lot of energy and time finding the best food for their water piggies. Here are the top 10 foods we love to feed our goldfish after decades of keeping and raising them.

Note: Some people believe goldfish shouldn’t be fed floating food. They could swallow air from the water surface and develop intestinal problems. Our years of experience have shown that floating foods are safe for fish. In fact, floating fish food is sometimes preferred because it remains at the surface for fish to find and doesn’t get stuck in the substrate or behind aquarium decorations.

1. Saki-Hikari Fancy Goldfish

If you’re looking a professional-grade, goldfish-specific prepared food to feed every day, then Saki-Hikari Fancy Goldfish is the brand we recommend. This 3mm sinking pellet contains beneficial probiotics, seaweed, wheat germ, as well as seaweed. It will improve digestion and support intestinal health. Astaxanthin and Spirulina are color-enhancing ingredients that help increase the red color of your goldfish without muddying the white. These pellets also contain Vitamin E and Vitamin C to help strengthen your fish’s immunity against disease. People love the Saki Hikari line of specialized foods to feed goldfish.

2. Vegetables

Double-tailed goldenfish, on the other hand, have sleek, torpedo-shaped bodies. However, single-tailed ones have balloon-shaped bodies which can lead to blockage and bloating. Many owners add vegetables to their fish’s meals as a preventative measure. We prefer canned green beans, zucchini slices and canned carrot slices. Leafy vegetables such as lettuce and spinach are also good options. If the vegetable is not soft enough for the goldfish to nibble on, you may need to blanch it first by briefly boiling it in water until it reaches the desired tenderness. Also, unshelled peas are often recommended as a cure-all for constipation issues, but be aware that they are a bit messy when placed underwater and can be labor-intensive to feed on a frequent basis.

3. Frozen Fish Food

While it is important to feed goldfish plenty of plant matter to maintain their digestive system’s efficiency, they are omnivores that also need a healthy dose of protein. Frozen foods can be a high-quality, safe food that doesn’t quickly dissolve in water. This allows your goldfish to explore the tank and find any leftovers. They are available at many local pet and fish shops. You can buy them in individual foil-sealed packs or frozen slabs, which you can then break into smaller pieces. Daphnia (krill), spirulina brine shrimp and daphnia are our favorite frozen foods to feed goldfish. Much like fiber, the exoskeletons on these crustaceans are not typically digested and thus help to flush out the fish’s bowels and keep things moving smoothly.

4. Hikari Cichlid Excel

To avoid bloat, freshwater herbivores as well as African cichlids need a plant-rich diet. Therefore, we like feeding these specially formulated cichlid pellets that contain a complete nutritional balance of fish proteins, wheat germ and alfalfa for easy digestion, and spirulina and krill for color enhancement. As with many Hikari brand foods, these pellets are also fortified with key minerals and supplements, like vitamin A, D3, and E. Hikari Cichlid Excel comes in both floating pellets and sinking pellets for your convenience.

5. Repashy Super Gold Gel Food

Are you looking for a food that’s not a pellet and is goldfish-specific? Repashy worked closely with experts in goldfish nutrition to create a premium gel food that uses the most effective ingredients. Goldfish love gel food because it is soft and moist, easy to digest, and gentle on their sensitive swim bladders. Repashy Super Gold is a wonderful mix of krill and algae. It also contains egg, plant proteins, fruits and flowers. This mix is rich in essential vitamins, minerals, calcium, and beta-carotene to enhance color. In addition to Super Gold, goldfish owners like to feed Repashy Soilent Green, an algae- and plant-heavy gel mix with an astounding 8% fiber content. Read this article for easy instructions on how to make Repashy instant gel food in less than 10 minutes.

6. Xtreme Pellets

Xtreme Aquatic Foods has one of the best, all-in-one formulas for omnivore fish, and we regularly feed their pellets to our goldfish, community fish, and cichlids in our retail store and personal aquariums. The special recipe includes krill, shrimps, squid, and even spirulina alga. To make a well-rounded, complete diet, they also include important nutrients, vitamins, and minerals for healthy growth and natural color enhancement. Xtreme fish foods are all made in the USA, and depending on the size of your goldfish, you can choose between their 1.5mm Floating Pellets, 1.5mm Slow-Sinking Pellets, and 3mm Big Fella Pellets.

7. Hikari Gold

Wondering how goldfish and Koi are related? These distant cousins were both originally developed from carp in East Asia. Hikari gold koi foods can be added to your fish’s daily diet. This floating pellet, which is high-quality, was designed for cold-water fish. It contains simple ingredients that can be absorbed quickly by the body, even at lower temperatures. This food is specially designed to give your fish the best body condition, optimal colors and avoid unhealthy fat accumulation. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly, daily diet that will bring out the best growth in your goldfish, give these pellets a shot.

8. Xtreme Spirulina Flake

Spirulina is a type of blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria) that is widely used as a food source for humans, poultry, livestock, and fish. It is rich in vitamins, minerals, protein, iron, beta-carotene, proteins, and fatty oils. Xtreme makes a spirulina flake meal that fish love by adding it to fish, shrimp, or other beneficial supplements. When raising goldfish fry, the flakes can be easily crumbled to a smaller size that the babies can eat. Hikari Algae Wafers are a great choice if you want to feed your fish with sinking food. They contain a good balance of protein and vegetables like alfalfa and seaweed.

9. Hikari Red Parrot+

The majority of foods on this list focus on providing good fiber, roughage, and other nutrients. But what if you want your goldfish display the most stunning colors? Hikari developed a floating pellet for boosting the coloration of blood parrot cichlids, and we’ve found it also works well for goldfish. This recipe has a variety of natural color-enhancing components, such as chili peppers, phaffia wheat, marigold flowers, canthaxanthin and lutein. Plus, it includes beneficial probiotics for promoting healthy growth and aiding in digestion. For the ultimate boost in color, add Hikari Red Parrot+ to your fish’s weekly food rotation.

10. Algae, plants and other leftovers

As you probably know, goldfish are more than happy to eat most aquarium plants if given the chance. You might be able to feed your goldfish from an aquarium that is too full of plants or algae. Got aquarium decorations covered in hair algae? You can temporarily move your aquarium decorations into your goldfish fish tank to give them a thorough cleaning. Prune your overgrown stem plants, scoop out your excess floating plants, and toss the trimmings into your goldfish aquarium.

If your tank’s water surface is completely covered in duckweed, consider transferring a goldfish into the afflicted aquarium until all traces of duckweed are gone. (Just be aware that your water piggies may snack on smaller fish if given the chance.)

Thankfully, there are some live plants that are tough enough to withstand goldfish, so if you’re looking to set up a planted goldfish tank, see the following article to learn about the top 5 easy plants we recommend.