Ranchu And Lion Head Gold Fish

Nuttawet · Apr 24, 2023

What type of gold fish eat food on top and what type of gold fish eat food in bottom tank?
Ranchu eat food from top or from bottom tank?
Lion head gold fish eat food from top or from bottom tank?

Colin_T · Apr 25, 2023

All goldfish naturally pick at the substrate looking for food. But they will also look for food on the surface.

You have to be careful feeding fantail (short body) goldfish with dry food and food at the surface because they swallow air while eating and it can cause them to float upside down. This is easily prevented by feeding more frozen and live foods and letting them eat lots of plant matter.

Nuttawet · Apr 26, 2023

That didn't answer any of my questions, lol but thanks for the try anyway.......

Essjay · Apr 26, 2023

He did answer your questions.

Colin_T said:
All goldfish naturally pick at the substrate looking for food. But they will also look for food on the surface.

In other words -
What type of gold fish eat food on top all of them and what type of gold fish eat food in bottom tank all of them?
Ranchu eat food from top or from bottom tank both?
Lion head gold fish eat food from top or from bottom tank both?

Nuttawet · Apr 26, 2023

But they some how eat from bottom for ranchu than top?
And lion head gold fish some how eat food from top than bottom?

Essjay · Apr 26, 2023

Both types of goldfish eat food wherever they find it. If the food is floating they will eat it from the top. If the food sinks, they will eat it from the bottom.

There is no type of goldfish which eats only from the top, and no type of goldfish which eats only from the bottom. All types of goldfish eat food everywhere.

WhistlingBadger · Apr 26, 2023

Goldfish only eat food from one area of the aquarium: The area where the food is. :lol:

Nuttawet · Apr 26, 2023

I read from ninekaow.com in thai website and it said that lion head gold fish eat food from top.
And some food that makes in to pellet that sink wrote it's suitable for ranchu.........
I'm so serious about this is just i don't want my fish to die.
I have 4 normal size normal gold fish and 6 baby , tiny lion head gold fish. Will my 6 baby , tiny lion head gold fish eat food sink or food from surface?

CaptainBarnicles · Apr 26, 2023

Goldfish of all varieties will feed at any level in the tank. I'm not sure how many different ways we can keep saying the same thing. Both Lion Head and Ranchu goldfish will eat from the surface and from the bottom. They don't have a preference and will quite happily go to wherever the food is. But like Colin_T mentioned, don't feed too much at the surface because goldfish tend to gulp lots of air in, which upsets their buoyancy. I used to pinch the flake in my fingers and submerge it under the water infront of the filter flow, the flake would disperse around the tank and the goldfish would happily snuffle off in search of their meal

Nuttawet · Apr 26, 2023

As well as 6 baby , tiny lion head gold fish also eats from top and bottom? And the tank i have also big for them.

WhistlingBadger · Apr 26, 2023

@Nuttawet I'm not sure I completely understand what your concern is. I wonder if something is being lost in translation.

If you are concerned, simply watch your fish and see what they're doing. It is easy to see if they are feeding or not. Perhaps the solution is just to give them flakes on the surface. If they want to eat at the top, they can. If they want to eat off the bottom, they can wait for the flakes to sink. If you're worried that the tiny fish won't find food in their large tank, put the flakes close to them, or move them to a smaller tank. But I have never seen goldfish, even small ones, struggle to find the food.

Boundava · Apr 26, 2023

WhistlingBadger said:
@Nuttawet I'm not sure I completely understand what your concern is. I wonder if something is being lost in translation.

If you are concerned, simply watch your fish and see what they're doing. It is easy to see if they are feeding or not. Perhaps the solution is just to give them flakes on the surface. If they want to eat at the top, they can. If they want to eat off the bottom, they can wait for the flakes to sink. If you're worried that the tiny fish won't find food in their large tank, put the flakes close to them, or move them to a smaller tank. But I have never seen goldfish, even small ones, struggle to find the food.

The only goldfish that might possibly only eat from the surface would be celestials and those would be adult celestials whose eyes are actually just looking straight up at you. But all the other goldfish would eat at any level of the tank. This will include any babies that you may have and as mentioned above if they are having issues finding food because they are being outcompeted by the other goldfish in the tank I would move them into a smaller tank so that they can be by themselves and then you would feed them a couple times a day until they get big enough so they can compete with the other goldfish in the tank.

On that note what size tank do you currently have, and how many goldfish do you have in that tank? The general rule of thumb for fancy goldfish is 20 gallons per fish. You also want a filter that will do 10 times the turnover for the tank size. Or filters in this case. Goldfish have very simple digestive systems where food going in doesn't have a lot of time to be digested which is why it's recommended to feed them a couple times a day. This results in a lot of poop and often water quality fluctuations, hence the high filtration rate. It's also important to feed them high quality foods so that whatever time the food gets in the digestive system the fish can take advantage of whatever nutrients they're able to digest before they poop it out.