Hello, my first post. I have an extremley sensative Ryukin who will come down with swim bladder when fed pre-soaked pellets, or flake. I feed it peas and it does great. My only concern is a lack of diverse diet for nutrition on just peas alone. Any ideas or is this diet sufficient? Thanks

I was told that peas don't have enough nutrition in them...I want to see what others suggest

Feeding peas exclusively is not going to give your fish all the nutrients it needs to thrive. Have you tried switching brands of commercially made fish food? -I would suggest getting one that is high in wheatgerm and low in protein, wheatgerm is easy to digest, I personally use Hikari wheatgerm pellets, I also find that the cooler weather slows down your fish's metabolism making their digestive system sluggish, meaning hard-to digest foods are slow to pass and can stagnate in the fish's gut exacerbating the SBD problems. Also try orange wedges, goldies love it and the fibre from the orange goes straight through them. Aslo try a variety of veges, zucchini, broccoli etc. You could make a gel food (see some recipes in this forum) and add vitamin drops to supplement.

Thanks for the info!! I will give the wheat germ food a try, as well as other veges etc in addition.

I'm curious what your tank temperature is. I know a lot of people have success feeding the wheatgerm foods at low temperatures and that is really standard for fall/spring pond fish food as Tosakin mentioned, but I've found that most of my fish don't tolerate wheat and corn very well. When I feed them commerical pellets that contain either of those, I see floating poop, with air bubbles trapped in it, while I don't see any of that when I'm feeding something without them. A few of the fish don't show any difference.

Heat-treating the grains tends to make them more digestible, and some people will add acidophilus supplements (available in the human health food supplements sections) to their foods to aid in digestion as well. While you're trying different foods, see if you can tell if there's a difference in how well the fish is digesting them, and that may help you figure out what to give him. You definitely want to get a mixed diet though, as far as I know your fish requires some seafood based protein in the diet to get the full range of necessary amino acids, so you will want to make sure you feed some krill or shrimp or things made from fishmeal.

My tank temp runs right around 70-72. Good to know on the other information, Thanks

At 70 you shoudn't be having trouble with needing to switch to the wheat germ for temperature, but you can give it a try. I think the higher quality brands are more likely to properly treat the wheat to make it as digestible as possible. It's not my favorite, and it won't be very good for growth, but on a mature fish you won't need as much protein, so it kind of depends what he tolerates best and how old he is.

I have fish - hte majority of them females - that cannot tolerate any diet of pellets or flakes. They get floaty and unstable if they eat so much as a single pellet.

To address this, they are on a gel food diet exclusively. You can add all the foods you have into the gel food. Drop those nutricious pellets into the boiling water you use to blanch the veggies. Add in plenty of greens - peas, spinach, etc. - and make a gel.

I use up all the sample foods I am given, the crumbled flakes in the bottom of the bag, the pellets that are too small for the other big fish to eat, etc, in my gel food.

The fish will get everything he go before (same pellets and flakes and such), plus the benefits of the greens, all in an easy to digest gel food.

Aside from the health benefits (which are many!) of gel food, may I add that Goldies. Are. Crazy. About. Gel. Food. !!!!!!!!!!! Mine go completely insane over it (guess they think I'm a pretty good cook - which is not what my husband says! ) My blue oranda screams at me underwater when it's gone - What are ya thinkin' woman?! That's not enough!! We want MORE!

Thanks, I will have to figure that gel food out.