What to Feed Baby Fish??

[Eltee]

I have a lined pond in the backyard with 5 goldfish about 6-7 inches long. We just discovered baby fish tonight, little silver colored ones.

I use Aquascape Premium Fish Food Pellets for Small to Medium but even the smallest pellets seem too large for the babies to eat. Do I need to do or buy anything to feed the new guys or will find food (algae, plant material, etc.) on their own?

I am also a little worried them getting sucked into the filtration system if they get too close to skimmer.

Thanks for any info.

 

[Jhn]

Yes they will eat algae and other microscopic plankton and bugs. Dont worry about them getting sucked into the pump, some will get sucked in for Sure, many will survive it. If they don’t There are probably thousands of little fish in the pond, you don’t want all of them making it anyhow., as they will overpopulate your pond in short order.

 

[Von Trap]

I fed baby fish the goldfish flake food. Just rub it between your finger and thumb till it gets to powder-ish size. Place it near any weed/cover that they hide in.

 

[addy1]

will find food (algae, plant material, etc.) on their own?

I have not fed my fish for years now, except off and on, maybe twice in a summer. There is a lot of food in the pond for them. The fry will do fine,

 

[Norma D.]

have various varieties "goldfish" in 4,000 gallon pond. As a novice, I carefully nurtured babies a few years back in a bog filter area....then saw large numbers of fry in lower pond...doing just fine on own, and dumped my "nursery" into lower pond... goldfish babies definitely don't need any help... over populate rapidly...

 

[Eltee]

My "babies" are doing fine and some of them are developing color! Some are still tiny and grey / black but others are bigger and turning brown / orange. I guess they are eating the algae but the two that are turning color are following the adults and trying to eat food pellets.

THANK YOU ALL for the advice and reassurance that the little ones could take care of themselves.

 

[KeeperOfThePond]

I have not fed my fish for years now, except off and on, maybe twice in a summer. There is a lot of food in the pond for them. The fry will do fine,

I agree. I haven't fed my goldfish in my established pond for love 2 years. The only water change my pond gets is to replace water that is removed when I use my pond vacuum to suck out some of the muck off the rocks around the edge in the spring or in the late fall when I try to suck some of the fallen leaves off the botton. At most it might be 1/6 of the total volume. I quit feeding my goldfish because they were reproducing like crazy and the food and fish waste was fouling the water. Added more plants (hardy water lilies) and two more aerators. Water is crystal clear. I still get some baby goldfish ad lots and it's of tadpoles ( frogs and toads) as well as adult frogs.

 

[Melinda]

I have a lined pond in the backyard with 5 goldfish about 6-7 inches long. We just discovered baby fish tonight, little silver colored ones.

I use Aquascape Premium Fish Food Pellets for Small to Medium but even the smallest pellets seem too large for the babies to eat. Do I need to do or buy anything to feed the new guys or will find food (algae, plant material, etc.) on their own?

I am also a little worried them getting sucked into the filtration system if they get too close to skimmer.

Thanks for any info.

I just let them grow up, they eat the nibbles left by the others, they’ll be fine, if they are silver already they’ve been there a while, they start, black.

 

[Relic]

Worrying about feeding baby fish is like worrying about feeding teenagers...they WILL find stuff to eat on their own...

 

[brokensword]

@Relic ; oh so wise, grasshopper!

 

[addy1]

I never feed mine and they do just fine, get a nice supply of fry every year.