goldfish not so smart

[goodfish42]

I have two very small goldfish in a 12-gallon tank (I know, I know, 10 gallons a piece, maybe when they're bigger). The fish, Jean Valjean and Marius, get along fine in general, and are both very alert and healthy. In fact, they get all excited when I come near the tank and wiggle up and down ever so happily in hopes of getting fed, which is really cute.

The problem is, only one of them (Marius) really has the eating thing down. I sprinkle the flake food in and M goes and eats it but JV just sort of looks confused and nibbles at the surface of the water a bit and then goes back to wiggling excitedly up and down in front of the glass. I've had these fish for almost two months, and M is now about twice as big as JV.

So, my question is, is there some kind of fish food I could get that's a little more foolproof? I've tried the flake food, the sinking granules, and now I have the goldfish chips, but my poor little fish can't seem to figure any of them out.

Any advice?

 

[DepotFish]

What varieties are they? Are they the same variety? Sometimes comets will outcompete fancy goldfish and they need to be seperated or fed seperately or one will not survive. I highly suggest not using flakes for single tail varieties as they gulp so much air with the flakes. With fancy varieties you need a food that will soak up water quickly so often people will feed a few flakes on one end first and drop the pellets when the goldies are not looking so they soak up more. I prefer to just let the pellets sit for a minute in a cup of water then pour them in. Perhaps you should drop a little on each end of the tank and hope both get food. Another thing you can do is feed orange slices and romaine leaves and other veggies on a clip. The fast fish can't eat a whole orange in one bite so the other fish will get some.

 

[WaterPond]

I think that you need a food that is not as see throught as flakes. Maybe floating koi and goldfish food. I feed my fish Laguna premium koi and goldfish sticks. Everyone gets a bite from those.

 

[goodfish42]

The fish are both common goldfish. The bigger one was a little bigger when I got them, but not as much bigger as he is now.

It's not really a matter of Marius being faster... Marius isn't all that terribly fast. Jean Valjean isn't even going for the food -- he just doesn't get it at all. He gets really excited when I come up to the tank to put the food in, but he doesn't quite make the connection to actually going for the food when it drops into the tank. I almost get the impression he expects me to hand the food to him through the glass.

The veggies sound like a good idea. I'll look into the goldfish sticks too.

Incidentally, just to see if it would work, I tried holding the food between my fingers just under the water to get Jean Valjean's attention, and that worked a little better. Marius is afraid of me so he doesn't approach if I'm holding the food, but with a little coaxing Jean Valjean will eat a little out of my hand.

Clearly, this fish was never meant to live in the wild. I don't think he's really what evolution had in mind.

 

[jsoong]

Ha Ha ... that's so funny.

I have kinda the same problem ... my moor is quite blind & can't find the food even if it is right in front of his nose. He is being badly out-competed by his tankmates & is barely growing.

I have resorted to feeding him seperately. First I feed the other fish (always in the same spot so they know where their feeding zone is). While the others are eating, I will lure my moor to the opposite end of the tank and feed him there. This eliminated the competition for a few minutes so he can find a few morsels.

You can try something like that with your fish. I would also suggest using pellets rather than flakes ... goldies don't do well with flakes anyhow. You can start by hand feeding JV. If you always do it at the same spot, he'll know that's where food is and go there for his feedings.

Veggies are good too. As veggies don't foul the water as quickly as the pellets, you can leave it in the tank longer. You can leave a large piece of veggie in you tank overnight to give even the slowest fish a chance at a share. Remove in the morning (if there is any left - my fish never leave anything uneaten for more than a couple hours!)