We’ve chosen 10 different brands of fish food specially formulated for goldfish to review for you so you can get an idea of what kind of food you would like to feed your pets. We’ll go over the pros and cons of each so you can see if there’s any brand you like better than the rest. We’ve also included short buyers guide where we discuss what makes hey goldfish food good or bad.
Join us while we take a close look at goldfish food and discuss ingredients, floating versus non-floating, what foods enhance color, and more to help you make an educated purchase.
A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites in 2023
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Best Overall
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Aqueon Goldfish Flaked Fish Food |
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Best Value
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Wardley Goldfish Small Floating Pellet Fish Food |
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Premium Choice
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Tetra Pond Koi Vibrance Goldfish Food |
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Omega One Medium Sinking Goldfish Pellets Fish Food |
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TetraFin Floating Variety Pellets Goldfish Food |
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The 10 Best Goldfish Foods
These are the ten brands of goldfish food we will review for you today.
1. Aqueon Flaked Goldfish Food – Best Overall
The Aqueon Goldfish Flaked Fish Food is our choice as the best overall goldfish food. This brand features all-natural ingredients, and those ingredients create its striking color. There are no artificial colors or preservatives, but there are added vitamins and minerals that provide a balanced diet for your goldfish. Our fish hurried to the top to eat this food, and it didn’t cloud the water.
The only thing we didn’t like about Aqueon Goldfish Flaked Fish Food was that the flakes were extremely small and almost dust.
2. Wardley Floating Pellet Goldfish Food – Best Value
Wardley Goldfish Small Floating Pellet Fish Food is our pick for the best goldfish food for the money. This brand features floating pellets that contain no artificial colors or preservatives. It won’t turn your water cloudy or leave particles floating around in the water. It has a high concentration of vitamin C to help keep your fish healthy, and it didn’t have a strong odor like some other brands.
There was nothing bad to say about Wardley Goldfish Small Floating Pellet Fish Food except that some of our fish seem to stay away from the larger pellets and allow them to settle to the bottom of the tank where they would sometimes get wasted.
3. Tetra Pond Koi Vibrance Goldfish Food – Premium Choice
Tetra Pond Koi Vibrance Goldfish Food Is our premium choice of goldfish food. This high-end food has ingredients that help naturally enhance the colors of your goldfish. It also contains protein from fish meal, and the flakes naturally soften in the water, which helps make them easier to eat and digest. This food does not cloud your water and our fish seem to really enjoy it.
The only downside to Tetra Pond Koi Vibrance Goldfish Food was that some of the pieces were too large for the smaller fish to eat, even after the water softened them a bit.
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4. Omega One Medium Sinking Goldfish Pellets Fish Food
Omega One Medium Sinking Goldfish Pellets Fish Food Is a brand formulated to help with sensitive goldfish digestion. It features a high amount of omega-3 and omega 6 fatty acids to help build the immune system in your fish much the same way these fatty acids do in humans. It also contains less starch than many other brands, and it brings out your fish’s is natural pigments. These pellets sink to the bottom for easy consumption.
Most of our fish seem to like Omega One Medium Sinking Goldfish Pellets Fish Food, and the only problem we had was that any food left on the bottom would dissolve and cloud the water. The cloud would then linger for a long time.
5. TetraFin Floating Variety Pellets Goldfish Food
TetraFin Floating Variety Pellets Goldfish Food Is a high-protein fish meal that encourages foraging by falling to the bottom, and the ProCare blend helped boost their immune system while enhancing their colors naturally. We didn’t have any problems with cloudy water.
The only negative thing we can say about TetraFin Floating Variety Pellets Goldfish Food was that it was clear some of our fish preferred other food.
6. Marineland Color-Enhancing Goldfish Flakes
Marineland Color-Enhancing Goldfish Flakes are based on a formula to enhance the natural color of your fish, especially in the red-orange part of the color spectrum. The round pellets are suited to aquariums, and the high protein diet will provide your fish with plenty of energy. They cook the flakes in a special low-heat process that preserves more of the nutrients, and they won’t breakdown and cloud your water.
They only downside we experienced while reviewing Marineland Color-Enhancing Goldfish Flakes was that the flakes tended to be too hard for some of our fish.
7. API Sinking Pellets Goldfish Food
API Sinking Pellets Goldfish Food Provide your goldfish with a complete and balanced diet. Ingredients like alfalfa, spirulina, and marigold help bring out the colors of your goldfish, while yeast and garlic help keep them healthy. The special blend helps reduce waste and bring down the ammonia level in the water.
Our fish did seem to like this brand, and they ate it regularly. Our main complaint about API Sinking Pellets Goldfish Food is that not all the pellets sink, and quite a few remain floating on the surface. We also feel that the Palace are a little too small for most goldfish.
8. Hikari Saki-Hikari Fancy Goldfish
Hikari Saki-Hikari Fancy Goldfish brand Provides balanced nutrition for your goldfish. It uses all high-quality ingredients and contains omega-3 and -6, as well as a full list of probiotics to keep your pet’s gut healthy. While we were reviewing this brand, most of our fish seemed to like it.
While we were reviewing Hikari Saki-Hikari Fancy Goldfish food, we found it to cloud the water quickly, and it has a terrible smell that lingers in the water long after use. These pellets were also very small, not much larger than sand.
9. Blue Ridge Goldfish Pellets
Blue Ridge Fish Food Pellets Her professional-grade floating food that contains a higher level of protein to help speed up growth and development Revere fish. They also contain Spirulina and Canthaxanthin that are known to help with color enhancements. Probiotic immune stimulants help keep your fish free of disease and promote longer life.
The primary downside to Blue Ridge Fish Food Pellets is that it tends to cloud the water. We found that it often has a musty smell, and many of our fish avoid this food.
10. Fluval Bug Bites Pellets
Fluval Bug Bites Pellets is a unique brand of fish food that features black soldier fly larvae as its main ingredient. Black soldier fly larvae are a nutritious ingredient for fish, and up to 40% of this product’s ingredients are black soldier fly larvae. It’s very high in protein food that contains plenty of Omega fatty acids as well. Another interesting thing about this food is that it’s processed in small batches to preserve quality and maintain consistency.
The downside to Fluval Bug Bites Pellets is that they don’t sink very easily, and most pellets will stay on the top. Floating pellets will require your goldfish to gulp air as they attempt to grab the pellet from the surface, which can lead to bloating and other health issues in your pet. Also, these pallets are quite large, and if you have smaller goldfish, they may not be able to eat this food.
Buyer’s Guide: Selecting the Best Goldfish Food
Let’s take a look at what’s important for your fish food to provide your goldfish to remain healthy and happy.
Floating vs Non-Floating Food
You can break fish food into two categories, floating and non-floating. In most cases, we’re going to want the non-floating type of fish food because floating fish food causes your goldfish to gulp air as it tries to grab flakes of food. Gulping air can cause bloating in your goldfish which can lead to other health problems as well. It’s best to let them pick the food up off the ground I need it that way.
The downside to non-floating food is that it tends to sit on the bottom, where it breaks up and makes your water cloudy.
Ingredients
As we would for any of our pets, we want our fish food to contain high-quality ingredients. First requires a good source of protein, which usually comes from peas or other types of fish, but it can come from several sources, and we have one brand in our list that uses fly larvae.
Probiotics in Omega fatty acids can also benefit your goldfish, and you should seek out foods that include these nutrients. Your goldfish will also benefit from some vitamins, primarily Vitamin C, and you should seek out food that supplies this nutrient as well.
Color Enhancement
Most people like to enhance the color of their goldfish, and you can usually improve color by modifying the ingredients in their food. Most color-enhancing foods use carotenoids to enhance the orange color of goldfish, and this chemical is in carrots, peas, and several other vegetables. If you want to enhance the color of your goldfish, we recommend looking for food that contains carotenoids.
Conclusion
When choosing your goldfish food, we recommend a brand that uses all-natural ingredients without any preservatives. You also want to look for a brand that does not cloud your water to reduce the amount of maintenance you need to perform each week. After that, the choice is more personal about whether to buy color-enhancing or floating food. We highly recommend our top choice. The Aqueon Goldfish Flaked Fish Food is an all-natural brand that won’t cloud your water. Our fish enjoyed it, and they lived a long time while eating it. We also highly recommend our premium choice. Tetra Pond Koi Vibrance Goldfish Food is an easy-to-digest food with color-enhancing ingredients.
We hope that you have enjoyed reading over our reviews and found them helpful. Hopefully, you have found a brand that you will consider using. If you continue shopping, we hope that our buyer’s guide will help you sort through the many brands available. If you have found it useful, please share this guide to the best goldfish food on Facebook and Twitter.
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Featured Image Credit: Rabbitmindphoto, Shutterstock
