128 GOLDFISH VARIETIES AND 
PREPARED FISHFOODS 
Nearly all aquarium fishes naturally desire a variety of foods, and the 
nearer we can approximate Nature in this matter, the better will be our 
results. Whatever foods we employ we should always keep in mind the 
necessary balance of vegetable, animal and mineral content required. 
One of the poorest fishfoods obtainable is the white wafer usually sold 
in pet shops and drug stores. Of recent years many better foods have 
been placed on the market, most pet stores keeping at least one of them. 
They are granular in form, usually of a dark color and are composed of 
a mixture of dried insects, meat, fish roe, flour, codfish and other ingre- 
dients. Unless one needs a large quantity of fishfood it is better to pur- 
chase a prepared article of the sort described. 
An extremely good fishfood is puppy biscuit broken up and ground 
in a coffee mill to small sizes. This is cheaper than regular fishfood and 
is very satisfactory. It is used as a base by some manufacturers to add 
a few ingredients to and then place it on the market under their own 
label. 
A food used with considerable success is oatmeal prepared exactly 
as it comes to the breakfast table, containing the same amount of salt. 
This is especially recommended for feeding young fish when daphnia 
have become scarce. The shape of a fish is permanently influenced by its 
body development in the first few months, and different methods of 
feeding produce, to a certain extent, different shapes. The effect of 
oatmeal, fed plentifully, is to build the short, round body so generally 
desired. For fish under ten weeks old the oatmeal should be squeezed 
through cheesecloth to take out the kernels. Let the young fish have as 
much as they can eat all day, but let none remain over night. This does 
not apply to fish in their second year or over, although oatmeal in much 
smaller quantity is good for them also. Large fish may be allowed to 
eat uncooked rolled oats. 
An improvement on boiled oatmeal is secured by adding a moderate 
portion of powdered shrimp, dried fish roe or powdered shredded cod- 
fish. For preparation of these ingredients see page 129. 
A cereal known as Cream of Barley when cooked is a good fish- 
food and may be used in conjunction with oatmeal. 
Dried bread crumbs make good food for goldfishes, especially if 
Graham or whole wheat bread is used. 
In feeding any kind of dried granular food it is best to use small 
sizes. Water causes the grains to swell considerably. This sometimes 
