Pet Forum / Aquaria / Goldfish / June 2005

All they seem to do is forage. They're forever pecking at the
walls of the pool in the stringy algae, at the struts of the
"Safapond" structure** suspended in the water, and on the
underside of the lily pads.  I'm not sure what it is they're
eating; I can't see it.

But I like to feed them too, as it's a good way to get them to
come up and perform at the surface.  Whenever I put flakes into
the pond the fish immediately eat every scrap.  The instructions
I've read on the packet and in my pond book stress not to
overfeed fish, as the uneaten food will sink and decay.  That's
certainly not a problem I've had; there is never any uneaten
food.  There are six fairly small fish, say about 5cm long now,
though they were probably only about half that a month or so
ago, and they will just hoover up any amount of food I put in,
and then go on to scavenge whatever it is they find in the rest
of the pond.

Is it possible to overfeed fish without them leaving any of
their food?  Are the fish missing something from their flakes
which they can only find elsewhere in the pond?  The food I'm
using is flakes from Hikari
(http://www.hikariusa.com/goldfish.htm).  The ingredients list
looks tasty enough; the thing I was quite surprised to see was
MSG.  I've only recently added the fish to the pond, and this is
the first type of food I have tried.

Neil