2 years ago I started o take the goldfish hobby to another level, I decided I should give them the BEST food that I can afford, after searching over the Internet I decided to buy some Hikari Food on Ebay. I changed from Nutrafin to Hikari food, Nutrafin food was not doing the “job” for my goldfish, the colors where not that bright, and the water quality was even worse.
First I bought this Hikari foods:
Hikari Goldfish Gold
Hikari Goldfish Wheat-Germ
With this foods I was able to see a improvement in my Goldfish Coloration, specially the ones with bright orange colors. Also my goldfish started to produce less waste, this meant better water quality. Most of my Goldfish are more than 4″ long, feeding them the Hikari Goldfish Gold was a difficult job, because this type of food only comes in “baby size” pellet, so its just way to small for Goldfish of 2″ of bigger.
The Hikari Weat-Germ food, was their favorite. I soaked the food for like 20 minutes, to prevent the common Goldfish swimm bladder disease.
Then I decided to try out their freezed dried food. So I bought this Hikari Foods:
- Hikari Blood Worms
- Hikari Tubifex Worms
- Hikari Krill
- Hikari Brine Shrimp
- Hikari Daphnia
At this point I had all the food you see in the photo above, I red them all the food you see in the photo.
Giving Hikari Krill, Hikari Daphnia and Hikari Brine Shrimp, was a BIG mistake.After feeding them this type of foods, the water quality became a problem, since it was very difficult to feed them this type of foods, specially the Krill and the Daphnia. On the other side, the Hikari Tubifex was the best food to give them, since they come in little tubes, I just cutted them in 4 parts, and soaked them for like 20 minutes, and before feeding them I gently pushed each square againt the glass walls with a spoon to push out the air of the Tubifex Worms. The Goldfish love this type of food, so right now I only give them this food. Hikari Blood Worms are also easier to feed them, but they can barely see them, so I don’t recommend buying this food if you don’t have time to clean the un-eaten food in the tank.
Next since I had like 8 orandas, I decided to try the Hikari Oranda Gold this is a floating type food, so before feeding them this kind of food I soaked it for like 10 minutes. After 3 months I decided to stop feeding them this type of food since all the orandas, ranchu, fantail and black moors (yes you can give this type of food to all types of goldfish) started to present symphtons of the swim bladder disease.
My 12″ Calico Oranda was the most affected by this type of food, I took a video so you can check out how bad he was:
I gave him peas and Hikari Tubifex Worms and he was ok after 36 hours. So I stopped giving them this type of food (Hikari Oranda).
I decided to give a try to the Hikari Lionhead (sinking pellet) and the Saki Hikari Fancy Goldfish food.
Well I’m glad I decided to give this food a try, all my Goldfish developed pretty well, and the swim bladder disease is only present if I give them for 3 to 5 day straight the Saki Hikari Fancy Goldfish. The Hikari Lionhead helped them to develop great size and head growth (to the Oranda and the lionheads) and the Saki Hikari gave them beautiful bright colors (even the black, brown or chrome Goldfish benefit from Saki-Hikari), and to complement their diet I feed them Hikari Tubifex Worms.
I combine this food with peas so they don’t get constipated. Giving them peas is very important for their health, I feed them 2 times a day, and I feed them 4 to 5 times a week peas.
To finish up this article I’ll give you some examples how my fish changed or “evolved” after giving them Hikari Lionhead, Saki-Hikari Fancy Goldfish, Hikari Tubifex Worms:
Before Hikari:
After Hikari:
Before Hikari:
After Hikari:
Before Hikari:
After Hikari:
Before Hikari:
After Hikari:
Hikari food is one of the best foods on the market, you just need to find the best combination for your type of goldfish.
Comments are welcome!
