I'm fairly new to goldfish keeping... but when I read the thread on gel-food, I decided I'd give it a try. I've been feeding tetrafin flakes and they seem to love those, but I want to vary their diet a bit. I used a cup of mixed peas and carrots (with water to liquify), half a can of tuna, 1 cup of hot water and three packets of gelatin mix. They wouldnt TOUCH it, Hoover, my oranda caught a peice as it sand and violently spit it out, same thing happend with Mangia a little while later. So I was like okay, fine... not a big deal, not alot of money spent, so move on.

Next I tried a thawed pea from what I bought to make the gelfood because I read on here that they love them... nooope! I've never seen anything spit out food so fast in my life, and not only that but after they spit them out they freak. So now all I've got for my trouble is little bits a piece of the the gel food floating around my freshly cleaned tank (I just did a 100% water change! ), stick to my silk decor...

Is this normal, has anyone else ever experienced this?

I can't say that I've experienced that exactly. I have found out the hard way that my big guys do NOT like carrots. I swear if they could of grew arms and threw them out of the tank they would have, they wouldn't even swim near where they had settled lol.

Pea's however are a hit in this house, even though I don't like them. Did you remove the outer shell of the pea's? Apparently the outer shell is difficult for goldfish to digest. All I did was boil mine, waited for them to cool and them smooshed them out of their shells. Then I mashed them up and dropped them in, they are usually gone before they can hit the bottom of my tank.

Good Luck, I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful.


Kat

I did mush them out of their shells, but I didnt exactly mash them, they were still in two pretty solid peices... I wonder if that was the problem. Oh well... I'll try that I guess.... I'm finna (lol!) have to change the H2O anyway after the gel-food disaster.

Gengi doesnt like peas ether so you are NOT alone. he doesnt like apple ether...

I've never had a fish didn't like peas. I would try again and cut them real tiny without the shell. The first time with a new food they may spit- it may be instinct "this is different=not food"..I had that with frozen shrimp but now they love them too. Give it another go

Update: Looks like you were right Trinket.... the lionhead I just got was eating them so I was feeding them to him and my oranda caught one and seemed to like it, even if my fantail isn't going for them yet, two out of three aint so bad. WHOO! Makes me curious enough that I might thaw some of the gel-food from last out and try that again... I have to do a major water change anyway and if I do it now I can suck up the particles before they settle. I'll post again with how gel-food take II goes over.

Good to hear that! Let us know how it goes...