Goldfish Feeding Question

Papillon!

Hi everyone. I'd always have one or two goldfish growing up as a child but stopped during my teenage years. Now i've started again and I'm more conscious of how i care for them so I'm look for some advice regarding feeding. I have two Black Moors, two Orange fantails and an Eggfish. Im just wondering how much and how often I should be feeding them? I heard over-feeding is sometimes worse than underfeeding. Im feeding them Nutrafin Max Goldfish Flakes. Are they getting everything they need from this food?
-thanks

sambuka41

What type of tank do you have? Is there a filter in it? This can help with the feeding cause its not just sitting on the bottom of tank. Im no expert but I was recommended to put the flakes in once a day and give it a few minutes anything left scoop out, you'll get an idea how much to feed.

Papillon!

only a 21 litre at the moment as they are still very very small but upgrading to a much bigger one as soon as i have the money and find a suitable tank. Yes it has a filter and i'm doing the 15-20% water change once a week as theres 5 fish in a small tank. thanks a million. ill try scooping out the excess after 2mins!

Dioza

21L is way too small for that many fish. They are very messy animals, i'm not sure what the recomended size is for them as i keep tropical fish but i think its somewhere in the area of 25L per gold fish. Filter is a necessity also. Heres a quote from a facebook page set up by a woman on a fish forum i'm a member of.

"BAN THE BOWL IRELAND A goldfish or any other fish cannot be kept in a bowl. There is not enough room for the fish to swim and grow properly and with no filtration the ammonia and nitrate sticks around posioning the fish, burning its gills slowly killing it.
14 January"

BUT, I'm not giving out, i started off as you did and ventured into tropical fish where i made even more mistakes because i was ill advised by a very poor pet shop.

You should register on http://www.irishfishforum.com and introduce yourself. This is my second post today advertising that site, people will think I'm on a recruitment drive :P

Or if not you can just post questions here and i'll do my best to help. About your original question about how much to feed. Once a day, as much as they can eat in 2 minutes, if you have to scoop it out its too much. Just give them a small pinch at a time maybe 2-3 times for 2 minutes untill you get used to how much they can eat.

Ok that post went on alot longer than i expected, good luck with you fishes

Papillon!

yes ok i know this, im looking for a new tank as i previously stated.

Papillon!

what would be a good filter to get for this tank that would still work for the new tank?
also when changing water i've been doing a 15-20% water change once a week. is this ok? Im adding Tetra SafeStart each time I do the water change. Do I need to be adding other stuff?