Proper feeding amount?

[ryukins]

I have been feeding my fancies twice a day as much as they can eat in 2-3 mins for 2 months and they do not seem to have grown much. Also my fish do not look as fat as some of the other fancy goldfish I have seen. I am wondering if I am feeding too little? One thing that is surprising though is that they are not eating any of my plants from what I have seen so far.

I usually feed about a dime sized amount of sinking hikari lionhead mini pellets. I also feed freeze dried bloodworms, occasional flakes, and hikari floating baby pellets.My 3 fish are all about 2 inches long excluding the fin. Should I be feeding them more?

My water params today:
0 ammonia
0 nitirite
~2 nitrate (somewhere between the first yellow and the second one in the API kit)
7.8 ph

It usually goes up to 5 nitrates after 3-4 days and then I do a 50% water change to bring it back down.

 

[Megatron]

You're feeding them enough, goldfish create a lot of waste, so you don't want to feed anymore maybe a bit less. In my experience, goldfish will grow with their tank. If the tank is rather small they tend to stay the same size.

 

[jlk]

If they havent grown at all in 2mths, your not feeding them enough. Up their lionhead pellet meals to atleast 4x a day in addition to other foods- they require a large amount of protien to grow well. Please go to this site 'The Goldfish Keepers' and check out the sticky on feeding in the section "All Questions From Newbies'. I would post the link but for some reason the links from this site never work.

 

[ryukins]

Thanks for the link, there is a lot of useful information there specific for Goldfish that is harder to find here. Interesting, they suggest to weigh the fish and feed 2-5% of the body weight.

 

[jlk]

Lots of great info on this site- there isnt quite the amount of members as AA & the response time for questions is a bit slower but the majority of the members are all serious goldie fanatics & breeders so they can offer LOTS of great advice & info on goldies. Goldies need alot more food than people realize...