Is Hikari Goldfish food any good ?
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:
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!
07/09/2009 at 10:58 am
Nice fish you got there. How long does it take for them to grow to 4 inches? when you feed them pea, can it be any kind of pea like can pea?
07/09/2009 at 11:45 am
@Ben,
Goldfish needs a lot of space to grow very very big, some experts recommend 10 gallons per goldfish and also the genetics of their fathers makes a big difference, if the parents where little, the goldfish will not grow as big as you expect.
You can feed them peas that you can buy at the super market, but make sure you buy the frozen ones, you should not use can peas since can peas contain a lot of salt.
07/10/2009 at 2:28 pm
I have 2 fantail goldfish from which i bought from the store, they’re about a inch, so i don’t know about the genetics of the father. But from what i read it can grow to 6 to 8 inches. They’re currently living in a 10 gallon tank. I’m thinking it okay for now since they’re small. I also have a 6 inches(not counting tail) comet goldfish living in a 55 gallon tank, so when they big bigger i’m gotta put them in there. So i was wondering how long it took you to get them to 4 inches?
07/10/2009 at 2:38 pm
@Ben,
The smaller the tank, the more dangerous it is for goldfish. I think you can move the 2 fan tails to your 55 gallon tank so they can fully develop.
If you use good food (hikari, tetra and others) you should expect them to get 4 inches in size in about 8 months.
Good luck Ben!
07/10/2009 at 4:41 pm
Thank. Yea they’re both very healthy. I’m feeding them Hikari Wheat-germ 3 mini pellets a day, 1 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon, and 1 at night. I’m thinking about getting the Hikari goldfish Gold since it had color enhancement, but the store person tell me that my white goldfish(yea it white) will change to orange because it bring out it naturally color faster, made me think second since I like it white.
I do know it dangerous for them to be in a 10 gallon tank but putting them small fantail goldfish maybe more dangerous for them because of the big 6 inches comet goldfish might eat them, from what I read Goldfish eat anything that can go in it mouth. I think it okay since i change 30% water every week with Amquel Plus as water conditioner. Amquel Plus removes Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Chlorine and Chloramines. Once they get bigger maybe 4 inches or more I’ll transfer them over.
How big is your fish now? and what size is your tank? how many fishes do you have? and how may times you feed your fish a day?
07/13/2009 at 9:46 am
@Ben
If you keep track of the water parameters of your 10 gallon tank, you should be ok.
Hikari Goldfish gold has a color enhacement, I used it for a long time and my white goldfish didn’t turned orange. In my opinion you should give that food a try. Buy the smallest bag. The more variety of food you use the better for your goldfish.
Don’t forget to feed them peas, and some live food, I recommend tubifex worms (freeze dried) and bloodworms.
My fish are from 6 to 9 inch long, I have 2 tanks, 80 gallon one and a 72 Gallon one. I have 8 in the 80 gallon tank and 7 in the 72 gallon tank.
I feed my fish 2 times a day, and 1 day during the week I only feed them once.
02/06/2011 at 4:31 am
Hello! Your articel about feeding Hikari is interesting and useful.Thank you:)))Can Hikari prevent the disease? What do you suppose?
02/06/2011 at 4:36 am
Sorry!Can Hikari prevent the disease of swim bladder?
02/06/2011 at 10:08 am
@Vladimir
No, Hikari Food will not prevent the swim bladder disease, I recommend you to feed vegetables to your goldfish frecuently, in my case I buy them frozen peas and feed them on a daily basis. Some peolpe recommends to soak the pellets, flakes etc, but that didn’t worked for me.
02/07/2011 at 2:36 am
Thank you. Unfortunately, Hikari-brand is absent in my area.Do you use frozen peas? Frozen peas does not work for my fish, so I boil peas and ground before feeding.Have you treated your SBD-fish medicines? If so, share your experiences,please.
04/17/2011 at 8:57 am
excellent information adout gold fish food