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Hello Again, AP forums!

I have 3 Fantail goldfish, about three-four inches long each, and I'm wondering if I'm feeding them enough. Currently they are being fed daily, however, I am alternating sinking pellets with either a few good sized peices of romaine or a slice of zucchini on non-pellet days. When I give them pellets, I am giving them what they can gobble up in a few minutes, as suggested. However, with the veggies, I am just clipping it to the side and leaving it for about an hour, since they don't seem to eat very much of it. Should I be feeding them more/less? Should I be leaving the veggies in longer than just an hour or so? Less? They don't often find the veggies for 5-10 min and then it seems the lose interest and come back several times, sometimes eating it and sometimes just playing with it. I just want to make sure they're getting what they need, but not in excess. Advice?

Thanks
Melissa

Are you parboiling the vegetables first? This will soften the food for the goldfish so that they can eat it easier.I would not worry about giving them more because they are probably getting enough each time that you feed pellets. You could also put in some fast growing aquatic plants for the fish to nibble on at all times that they want to.

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Any fish that will fit in another fishesmouth... will

I've tried planting before, they tear the plants up (as I was advised, but I'm stubborn so I did it any way).They dig around in the gravel a lot, and definitely seem to prefer the tank minimal. I thought about some java moss or java fern, but haven't moved on it yet.

I will try boiling the veggies-- a minute or two in the microwave with a little water, do you think?

If they're getting enough with just the pellets, should I be giving them veggies on the "between" days? Or should I start rotating the veggies and pellets so that they get one every other day?

I do not believe that there is any one man made food that is complete for any animal. So it would be a good thing to continue feeding vegetables to them. Have you tried bunch plants that you just let float at the surface? If they have enough light they may grow fast enough to keep growing and live aquatic plants will help to filter the water to a small degree. You could also plant a larger plant in a container and put enough large stones (or a cover) over the gravel so that the fish cannot uproot the plant.This way if you need to pull the plant out it will not break the roots.

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Any fish that will fit in another fishesmouth... will

Could you give me the name of a bunch plant you recommend so that I can find it?

Two that come to mind are anachris and cambomba.

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Any fish that will fit in another fishesmouth... will

I put the zucchini slices in the microwave in shallow water for a minute before feeding today and they do seem much more interested in it! Thanks for the tip, Oscar. It's especially surprising to see my Black Moor fish so excited over it-- he usually ignores the veggies I put in the tank. Mostly it's my Ryukins waiting on the veggies.

As for the plants, will they get big? I know goldies like a lot of open space in the tank, and since mine are pretty big, I definitely don't want to crowd them (another reason I was considering Java moss--but of course, they won't eat that).

I found some java fern! Yay. I looked into the other two plants you mentioned and my local aquarium store had Anachris, which they said grows pretty big, quickly (an inch a day! yowsers). So I got the Java fern and a nice piece of drift wood for it, which is currently soaking. I will tie some of the fern to the wood and get it in the tank in the next few days hopefully!

Also... I picked up some frozen brine shrimp to rotate in with the veggies and pellets. I think I'm going to switch it every-other day feedings with the different foods. I just know I'm over-doing it. Even though the veggies are easy to clean out when they don't eat it all.

The live plants may grow fast but if the fish eat them then they will not overcrowd the tank with plant mass. Plus you can trim them if they do get too large. To start a new plant from a stem plant , just pinch off the top of a stem (at least 3 or more inches long and take the lower leaves off. Then just put the bare stem in the gravel or some people like to just let it float around in the tank.

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Any fish that will fit in another fishesmouth... will

Awesome! Thanks