Just like humans, a goldfish thrives on a varied diet, that is apparently closer to what they must be consuming in the wild. They are extremely flexible when it comes to their palate and will eat just about anything which is slippery, fuzzy, crunchy, and, slimy.
Did You Know?
Goldfish have teeth that are called pharyngeal teeth. These are placed at the back of their throats. They lose and re-grow their teeth throughout their lifespan.
Goldfish belongs to the family cyprinidae. It is one of the oldest fish to be tamed and also famous as an aquarium fish. It is a small member of the carp family and is native to East Asia region. It was first kept as a pet in China over a thousand years ago, and since then many species have been bred.
They have various color combinations of red, orange, yellow, black, and, brown. Just like the other aquarium fish, goldfish is also released in standing bodies of water to kill mosquitoes. We all know fish love to eat flakes and bread, but besides that what do goldfish eat? Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?
Wild Goldfish Diet
► Goldfish particularly consume naturally occurring carp food in the wild like insects, tadpoles. Apart from this, they also eat frogs, spawn, and tadpoles.
► Since they are bred from wild carps, they are omnivores and eat aquatic plants, algae, smaller fish, and, other smaller water creatures. Some even release goldfish in still waters like ponds to get rid of mosquitoes, goldfish also thrives on mosquito larvae.
► They also eat small crustaceans, zooplankton, and detritus. They are heavy eaters and hence consume about anything that they encounter.
Captive Goldfish Diet
► In captivity, goldfish eat goldfish food like flakes or pellets. But before feeding your fish flakes or pellets you need to take into account if your fish is big enough to swallow the pellets. Flakes lose their nutritional value when exposed to air, but pellets don’t.
► You can’t incorporate the same things which they eat in the wild, but you can feed them peas but remove the shells, brine shrimp, boiled vegetables, and blood worms.
► Feeding your fish live food can be dangerous to their health, instead stick to freeze-dried food.
► Overfeeding your goldfish can be detrimental for their health, since they don’t have stomachs. They may eat a lot leading to blocked intestines and bladder problems.
► They love to eat plants. So you can add anacharis for your fish to nibble on whenever they want. Live foods are a delicacy to them – water fleas, tubifex worms, and, even chopped worms can be fed.
► Though they can’t eat any vegetables in their wild environment, they like to eat lettuce, cooked zucchini, and, beet tops.
► Fruits such as fine chopped bananas, oranges, grapes, watermelon slices are a treat for them.
If you want your goldfish to stay healthy and live for long do not overfeed them. Remove the leftover food from the aquarium regularly. Feed only that much, that can be eaten in five minutes, don’t feed them more than two times a day.