MaddieLynn

I've been doing alot of research about goldfish and I found a really great site about them. I was looking for a site with detailed information and not just the basics like "Make sure you use a good filter". The one I found has TONS of technical info on goldies. One thing I noticed is that it said that the primary cause of swim bladder issues in goldies is feeding processed food, especially bad quality, and that feeding gel food would be much healthier for the fish. Here's a page of gel food recipes that it gave:

http://thegab.org/Articles/GelFoodRecipes.html

If I use gel food, can I eliminate flakes completely? Which recipe is best?

sirdarksol

There are questions about if it's the processed food or if it's the fact that it's floating food. You see, goldfish are bottom feeders, and their bodies aren't necessarily adapted to deal with the air that gets sucked in when a fish eats at the surface.

That being said, I loathe the cheap foods, and I usually use a high-quality food (like Omega One, which makes sinking goldfish pellets, meant to bypass the whole "eating at the surface thing") or make my own.
If you choose to make your own food, the important thing is to vary it constantly (it's also good to do this with purchased food). Find a method of binding that works for you (I use gelatin when I'm making my own food) and use various healthy ingredients for each batch. All of my home-made fish food has spirulina in it. Other than that, I use fish, shrimp, spinach, zucchini, lettuce, and whatever else I have around that seems healthy.

gremlin

I actually prefer the floating pond pellets - they stay on the surface long enough for the fish to eat so the pellets don't sit on the bottom and mold. The good thing is that they sit just below the surface of the water so the fish can suck in the pellet without sucking in a bunch of air. I don't like flakes at all because they dissolve too fast and make the water dirty. Of course, I don't have the fancy goldfish, just the commons/comets/shubunkins. The fancy goldfish (with the egg shaped bodies) are more prone to swim bladder issues.

oceanrose

I have 11 goldies, 4 commons, and 7 fancies in 2 separate big tanks. Out of these only one, my calico Ryukin "Matisse" has a problem with SBD, but she has a BIG problem with it. Any flake food will set her off. So do Omega 1 pellets, and any pellets that float. I finally found HBH goldfish disks that say they're floating, but really sink FAST and they work for her. So now all the goldies get that, 4 days a week, frozen food 2 days a week, and the last day is algae wafers.

I use frozen food I buy at Petsmart, but I've also looked at making it, just no time right now. Varying the ingredients is key, also getting enough dark leafy green veggies since goldies really need a lot of plant matter in their diet.