Goldfish can safely eat tropical fish food if that’s what you choose to give them. But even though they can eat the food safely without dying, there are fish food which are made just for goldfish. This is the type of food that you should ideally give a goldfish.
So we now know that goldfish can safely eat tropical fish food, which is a good piece of information to know. But what about the different types of fish food that goldfish can eat?
Different Types Of Fish Food For Goldfish
A goldfish is a pretty versatile fish. It can eat many different types of food, and still maintain a long healthy life.
But just like humans and other types of fish, goldfish should have a specific diet.
Even though they can survive on almost anything, it is best to give your goldfish a fish food that is rich in carbohydrates and lower in protein.
So what kind of fish food can goldfish eat?
The main types of fish food that you should give your pet goldfish are dry foods, live foods, or frozen foods.
- Dry Goldfish Food: We’ve all seen the little cans of fish food in our local pet stores or at the bigger supermarket chains. This is what is best to feed your pet goldfish. These cans at the local pet stores and supermarkets are dry fish food. Dry fish food usually comes in two forms: dry flakes and dry pellets. The flakes will spend more time floating at the top of the water while the pellets will sink rather quickly.
- Live Goldfish Food (animal-based): It is not recommended to feed your pet goldfish live fish food all of the time, but once in a while is okay. A good option for live goldfish food is brine shrimp. Another option is to use live earthworms. You want to be careful about the size of the worm that you throw into your fish tank. You also have to make sure that you clean the worms really well before giving them to your fish.
- Live Goldfish Food (plant-based): If you don’t want to feed your pet goldfish shrimp or worms, you can always feed them some aquatic plants. Goldfish are really fond of nibbling on these aquatic plants. Duckweed is a good example of one of these plants. You can cultivate your own plants at your home, or you can get them from your local pet store.
- Frozen Goldfish Food: Frozen goldfish food is a much safer choice for your pet goldfish then giving it live food. There are many different options in this category that you can give to your pet. All are safe for the goldfish to eat. Some examples of frozen fish food are brine shrimps, krill, plankton, and squids.
A crucial thing to remember about feeding your pet goldfish live fish food is that you need to be very cautious.
Live fish food can be infectious and potentially hurt your pet fish.
If you are going to go the route of feeding your fish live food, it is a good idea to start out by just feeding them tiny amounts.
It is important to carefully watch your fish the first few times you feed them to make sure that they are actually eating the live food, and that the live food doesn’t have any adverse effects on your goldfish.
If you may notice something, then switch the diet back to a dry or frozen type of fish food.
Alright, the next question that arises is…
Can Goldfish Eat Tropical Fish Food of A Betta Fish?
Goldfish is the most popular type of fish that fish lovers keep as pets.
But ranking number two on the type of fish that most people own is the betta fish.
If you own a goldfish, chances are you probably have a betta fish as well.
Of course, your two swimming pets won’t be in the same tank together.
Bettas are a pretty mean species of fish and would likely kill your pet goldfish.
So if you have both, a pet goldfish and a pet betta fish, what happens if one of your pet runs out of food?
Can you feed goldfish the typical tropical fish food that your betta fish eats and vice-versa?
Although you shouldn’t feed them each other’s food, you definitely can do it sometimes.
Betta Fish Food
Betta fish and goldfish are a lot alike, but they do have some differences.
Bettas are carnivores, they can survive on plant-based fish food, but it is best to feed them an animal-based diet instead.
Protein is the main component in a betta fish’s food, and their fish food should be at least 70% protein.
- Live Food: The best kind of fish food that you should give to your betta fish, is live food. Live food can sometimes be hard to find, so a lot of betta owners will go with the frozen food option for their pet fish. Bettas are more of a surface eater, so their food floats more on the surface than other types of fish food.
- Freeze-dried food: This is another option that will work perfectly for your betta fish. The Freeze-dried fish food will not only float on the top of the water, which of course is what a beta fish prefers, but the freeze-dried food has the protein In it that the betta fish needs. The freeze-dried food is probably the best option for your pet beta fish, and that option will be a lot easier for you if you are going to store fish food at home.
Goldfish Food
So we’ve learned what goldfish should eat.
But what if you run out of fish food or if you want to give your pet fish a special treat instead of its regular food?
You have a lot of options to feed your pet goldfish if you run out of fish food. And you can find them in your own kitchen.
Instead of giving your pet fish aquatic plants to nibble on, you can give your pet fish vegetables that you have at home.
These items shouldn’t be used to feed your fish every day though.
A good vegetable to feed your fish is peas, but if you are going to feed them peas, it is important to remove the shells from the peas first.
Remember, even though goldfish can eat just about any type of fish food, they are omnivores with a tendency to do better with plant-based options.
So their diet should consist of mostly veggies.
