Agression due to feeding?

I think you did a good thing by adding an extra feeding. How often is enough depends on a lot of things, like weather, fish stock, food amount and type. It just could be that in the warm months your goldies were a bit extra hungry. As long as they're efficiently packing it away within a couple minutes without waste, I'd say you're fine.

You probably aren't going to find a fish food that won't do the job, but certainly some are better quality than others. Tetrafin is a common brand that should be fine. I'd suggest switching to a pellet-style food once your fish are large enough, to help reduce mess.

Ugh! I always hated Tetra products with a passion. Any food product with a big portion of starch however is not a problem with the pond types as they rarely get buoyancy issues but I don't like feeding my goldfish with flakes. I prefer pellets or granules for them. Flakes tend to degrade its vitamins over time as vitamins are quite water-soluble. I feed my comet, shubunkin and watonais gel foods, plants, bloodworms, extra algae and pellets. The pellets I use are by Hikari Lionhead but I just spoil my fish with high quality foods than those cheap products where they will benefit nothing from at all.

Try giving them small meals at least 3 times a day if you feel this type of schedule is not going to compromise your other personal activities. It doesn't take long for them to finish their meals anyway. Note that when I feed 4-5 times a day, they are small portions, not a handful, cupful or more at all.

Hikari Lionhead is available in pet stores. Dainichi and Mazuri also work well and I believe a 98 grams of Mazuri 5M70 cost about $7 in your area but Goldfish Utopia sells it online at that price. All you need is convert the Mazuri powder into gelatin using 50:50 ratio. It should last you for quite awhile. Why not make your own homemade gel foods? I do this for my goldies.

As for bloodworms, a 1/4 teaspoon seems just right but I often grab a cube for everyone else since my goldies are mostly 4 inches and larger in size.

Agreed! Feeding small amounts a few times per day is always the better, healthier option. Remember that goldfish have no stomach, only a modified intestine. So if they are fed more often, they have more opportunity to absorb all the nutrients before they poop it all out. Goldfish (like all carp relatives) are grazers and naturally hunt for food constantly.

I second the homemade gel recommendation. However, it's a good idea to alternate anything homemade with a commercial pellet food like Hikari, OmegaOne, Dainichi, etc. The processed foods do add necessary vitamins and without them, your goldfish could end up with a nutritional imbalance. Feed a little fresh, a little gel, a little pelleted, and you will end up with very happy, healthy goldfish.

They're opportunistic for nibbling on plants, though some are less appetizing than others. It certainly would make up some part of their intake. They may eat some of the loose algae. There are other fish that are much better at "cleaning" algae, but Goldies enjoy some if it's easy to get at.

A regular diet of given food will reduce their need to supplement with other plants in the pond, but they will tend to graze constantly no matter what you do.

Water temps. play a factor in how many times you feed.

All fish relish a variety of foods. A high quality pellet as the staple with various treats is good. Healthy goldfish will always be on the hunt for food.

PallasAthena,
I have six in my pond, and usually feed them once, sometimes twice a day. We rotate sinking pellets, pond sticks, and sometimes a few frozen blood worms. Occasionally they go a day without me feeding them, and they do fine. They are growing like weeds, even on a limited food (from me) diet. That being said, when I had two in the house in the hospital tank, one would keep the other away from any food I tossed in, to the point I had to feed the agressive one in one corner and sneak bits to the other out of sight so it would get a chance for a meal. Now that they are back in the pond, they get along fine, but it was pretty ugly at feeding time in the QT(which had no other source of food, of course ). That makes me think maybe there just isn't enough 'other' food in your pond to keep them content with one feeding a day.

Bear in mind, too, mine will act like they haven't been fed in weeks ten minutes after they've eaten as much as they can hold. Kinda like when your kid eats 47 cookies and looks about to puke, but will still eat another one if you give it to them...

Jen