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Can Goldfish Die From Over Feeding Them?

By Jamie Boyle

Over feeding goldfish not only can kill your goldfish and cause them to die but it totally messes up your water quality at the same time. What happens when you feed your goldfish too much it causes health issues to happen much like in humans today. Obesity in humans causes major health issues that leads to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, chest pains and other symptoms caused by being overweight. Well with goldfish what happens is that they develop fatty liver and can cause swim bladder disease issues to arise. Your goldfish health will be directly affected by the feeding habits you do. You should try and feed them a wide variety of different fish foods with different nutrient contents.

You have a higher chance of killing your goldfish by poor water quality caused by over feeding them then actually feeding goldfish till they die. Both are possible but poor water quality is the number one reason that goldfish die or goldfish diseases and parasite outbreaks happen. Oranda GoldfishWhen feeding your fish people should always try feeding them enough food that they can consume in 2 minutes. After 2 minutes if there are any uneaten food discard it so water won’t foul. If left there water quality will deteriorate and may cause your goldfish to die from ammonia spikes.

Over feeding goldfish not only can kill your fish but creates a lot more maintenance for you to do as well. Feed them right with the proper food and quantities and your fish will live a long healthy life with a little goldfish care.

You don’t really want to be the cause of your goldfish dying now do you?

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy

23 replies on “Can Goldfish Die From Over Feeding Them?”

Unfortunately, my friends little boytipped an entire content of food in our gold fish bowl last night. The poor thing this morning is bloated out and floating but still alive. I have changed the water and got the pump going again. Can I do anything?? She looks like if we pop her she would be ok. If it wasn’t quite so awful it would be funny. Can you advise me at all please? Many many thanks

Yeah, stuff like this does occasionally happen. 🙂

Well the first thing you did was good was your performed a water change. That was good as the water chemistry I imagine was beginning to change.

So how long was the fish food left in the water for until you noticed?

As far as your goldfish is concerned well, stop feeding him for one thing 🙂 Your goldfish probably ate enough to last a while 🙂

Is your goldfish still floating or is he beginning to swim around? Also what type of goldfish do you have a fantail goldfish, fat bodied?

Get back to me as your goldfish may have swim bladder disease right now which feeding your goldfish crushed peas later on may help.

Hope your goldfish starts feeling better soon.

P.S Try and keep the fish food below tank level and away from your friends little boy 🙂

It is funny, as I’ve heard this happen to many people before, just poor little gldfish has a tummy ache….

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy

Hi!!
i have been getting golfish for a while and i have been realizing for the past year or so my fish will be fine for about a month or two but sooner or later one fish will get white spots on it like a little cloud. then it will start to spread on every fish. i went to pets co and asked them why does this always happen to my fish and the gave me a look like i was stupid and gave me this blue bottle medicine called MelaFix
and on the back they had this picture that said it healed eye cloud, pop eye, body slime, and muth fungus! but it doesnt work in my opinion i give it 2 tbsp whitch is the amount you should give in a 20 gallon. but the all died one by one. i only have one left out oof 7. HELP wat should i do.

our goldfish got fed too much (accidental dump) and are alive but upside down and bloated looking too. i think we have fat bodied as they looked pretty fat to begin with. i really really dont want them to die. what is that about peas? any help is appreciated, ill bookmark page. thank you!

Hi There, I bought a new tank (14 Litre). We already had 1 fish and my daughter went to the pet shop and bought some others. Now all
the fish have died in a matter of days. My daughter is very distraught and I’m wondering what went wrong. Could it of been the fish shop and would it be better to go somewhere like pets at home? An advice would be gratefully received as my daughter is heartbroken. Thanks

Hi Dani,

I’m sorry to hear that your daughter lost her fish. I know they can really grow on them taking care of them everyday.

As to why your fish died it is kind of hard for me to determine that with little information or symptoms and signs your fish may have had.

Based on the information you told me saying you bought a new 14 litre aquarium I am led to believe it could have been water quality. Water quality is basically what I call the silent killer in fish. Sometimes it doesn’t show sickness in fish but it can show lazy fish swimming abnormally or not willing to eat. I suspect that it was ammonia that killed your fish. With a new tank set up the nitrogen cycle was not properly set up to break down the waste load from fish. The nitrogen cycle can take up to 4 weeks to set up but with help of like Cycle ( beneficial bacteria ) this can speed up this process. What happened more likely the ammonia level increased in your tank which then at high levels kills fish. If the nitrite levels are high and toxic it can destroy gill tissue making your fish unable to process oxygen. I think this is what happened.

I do have a few questions for you:

1. How long have you had the tank set up?
2. Did you add beneficial bacteria when you set it up?
3. Did you add chlorine remover to the water when you filled it?
4 Is there an air pump and filter on your aquarium?
5. Do you test your water on a regular basis when you set up your fish tank?

I think water quality ( ammonia ) was the problem.

Get back to me and I’ll be able to help you out further with the above questions answered.

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy
New Forum All About Goldfish, Koi, Ponds- Share Pictures, Ask Questions, Talk To Others – Join Now!

Hi, your blog is really helpful for a newbie like me..i have 5 fantail goldfish in my 5 gal tank and i know it will be a tight fit for them when they get old,but they are still small. But what i was really concerned about is they are being so hyper active, and whenever i came near the tank they will always be more extra hyper active..is it a normal behaviour for a goldfish? is it because of the food that they are eating?

Also i have 2 small angelfish with them but the goldfish bullied 1 of them to death, it’s a good thing my boyfriend told me to get the angelfish out of my tank, or else… It was really sad but the petshop owner told me that its okay for them to be in the same tank, is it?

thanks in advance for reading my comments..hope you’ll post more tips in how to take care of them cause i really love my goldfish to bits. Thanks

Hi Jamila,

I’m glad you enjoy my golfish blog! Yeah your right that is a small tank for 5 fantail goldfish.

Goldfish are always active really when they are healthy. I know what you mean. When I walk by a couple of my tanks with kois in it they will follow me the whole length of the 130 gallon tank. They know that you are the ones that feed them. I will put my hand outside the aquarium glass with fingers closed together like I had food in them which I don’t and they will follow me all the way to the end. They jump over each other the whole length like a koi feeding frenzy. It’s pretty neat. But yes this is normal.

As far as the Angelfish in the tank with goldfish it is not recommended. This is a much debated issue but if you look all across the internet by professionals in the hobby, they suggest just like me not to mix tropical fish with coldwater fish. Tropical fish can carry different things, diseases then say coldwater. You should really keep them seperate as one perfers warmer water and other coldwater. Goldfish don’t need a heater and with Angelfish if water drops it could cause fish to get sick or ill. Example of this is with plecos and I know I’ve done it myself too but if a quick chill comes it can kill them quickly. A sudden drop is fatal almost like they catch a cold.

My suggestion is keep them seperate. I will be posting more and more but I have limited time with all the projects I have on the go as my busy season is drawing near and I am preparing. I will try and get more posted as I can. In the meantime I have started a forum where people can go and talk amongst themselves. It is new but I am promoting it and it’s slowly growing.

You can visit it here at http://www.PetGoldfishForum.com

I’ll leave you with one goldfish tip. Get a bigger tank 🙂 You need to get a bigger tank with 5 fish as you will have a problem with water quality soon as levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate will increase. This can be deadly for your fish. PH could become acidic as well.I’ll post more soon.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting GoldfishCareInformation.com!

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy

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Hi I think I may be overfeeding my goldfish but I am not entirely sure. I have four of them and instead of swimming around, they just lie on the bottom of the tank! Please help me!

Hi Jamie, I am a newbie too. My son wanted a goldfish but it’s me taking care. I was trying to set up the goldfish bowl which I was told I had to wait before I purchased a fish. The water got really cloudy on its own so I did a complete water change washed the fake plants but left gravel as was. Took water back to shop to test but she said she couldn’t test it now and I had done the wrong thing. (PS am adding safe chlorine from day 1). Couple of weeks later she allowed me to purchase goldfish. I wanted a mate couple of weeks after that and took in water it turned purple. She said no way. Then she brought up the nitrate, nitrite, bacteria etc said it could turn to blue any time but three more weeks later still purple. My goldfish is still alive but I am worried. Went in other shop and described above he said I must buy Sera Nitrite and teaspoon every day same time makes water all cloudy then clean. so she has that to put up with too. Didn’t realise I was putting myself up to be a chemist. Anything you can suggest to promote decent water. I have got attached now and would hate her to die. Many thanks Carol UK

Hi,
I recently bought (about 2 weeks ago) a tank with 2 Goldfish and 8 other small fish, I can't remember their names right now.
Anyhow, one goldfish died today, he seemed fine after I fed them at the usual time that I do.
All of a sudden, he started to swim funny like sideways and then dropped to the bottom, within minutes he was dead.
I don't understand what happened to him (Flounder I called him) I just want to know what I did wrong.
The tank has a filter, we added the tap water conditioner (to treat the chlorine) to it, I dont overfeed them either, just enough for them to eat within minutes.
What went wrong? Does this mean all the fish will die?

Please assist me in finding out what's wrong.

Thanks
Margaret

kirby here
my black and gold gold fish (fat bodied) is sitting at the bottom of of my 30 gallon tank and he has red stomach(looks like blood) and now after a week he has white bubbles atached sort of to him its worrying me and i dont want him to die(i have also 2 frogs 2 sucker fish recently introduced into the tank)(ph lvl is about 7.2)(nitrates tested 0.1)(2 other goldfish(fantail))(amonnia tesed 0.6)(flushed a fish recently today(october/23/09)

Hi yaa,

I got 8 Gold fish in my tank. Active participation while feeding them is from four of them. Rest 4 Gold fish stay at the bottom of the tank. This has happened for last 2 days. I'm not sure how to make it sure that they have their food on time. 🙂 Can you please suggest whether I need to change my fish food & try something else? Even Sometimes I get scared if I overfeed my other 4 gold fish. Please Suggest!

Many Thanks
Sid

my goldfish died today on july 19 2010 it had blood between his head although i dnt know how it died but im tryn to find out. it was a very sad moment.

Aug 16,2010.
My prize goldfish are dying. I had them for 10years, I have a backyard pond and keep the water in clean, I have two large filters and a water fall and plants to oxygenate the water. I called petco and they said the water is too warm, I been putting ice into the pond, but it is not helping. Yesterday, I completly changed the water. Put new water into the pond, which was very cold. If this does not work, what more can I do?
Fustrated in Mound Minnesota.

Hey, i have 8 comet/common goldfish.
This morning before i went to school, i fed my goldfish the last of the flakes, because there was only a little bit left so i dumped it all in. When i got home i saw that the fish were sitting on the gravel, they weren't swimming happily like the other times. I noticed the water was dirty, so I'm guessing i overfed them. What can i do now to help them live? will they survive? or die. :[

Hey, i have 8 comet/common goldfish.
This morning before i went to school, i fed my goldfish the last of the flakes, because there was only a little bit left so i dumped it all in. When i got home i saw that the fish were sitting on the gravel, they weren't swimming happily like the other times. I noticed the water was dirty, so I'm guessing i overfed them. What can i do now to help them live? will they survive? or die. :[

Jamie,

Wondering if you have a response to Kirby's post from October 15, 2009 6:58 PM about the red stomach (looking like blood) and sitting on the bottom of the tank? My fantail goldfish had that and was laying on its side then just died. I was on vacation and had someone taking care of it and am not sure what happened.

I have a baby koi fish, I don't know if you can help me but some advice would be good. I've had my koi for about a month now, and he's very hyper and is always swimming against the glass. He also jumps once in a while but not hard enough to jump out of his water. Is this normal behavior? could something be wrong? It just makes me a little nervous to see him that way.

I need your help. My goldfish is already 5months since i brought it. this pass few days he doesnt eat and i dont know why. I'm so worried I dont want him to die. And as I observe he become so weak and doesnt play/swim actively like his old hobby. please help me..

Rest in Peace Finn.
I really did love my goldfish. I just wish I knew how to look after you better otherwise you would not be gone…
Finn Sultan 24th June 2011

Hi I am writing because we brought my son a goldfish yesterday we fed the fish this morning and while I was at work my son and hubby decided to feed the fish again almost a whole lid full when the container clearly states a penny size. So most of it is floating at the bottom now. Just hoping this doesn’t kill the fish please help

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