Hi Sneha,

Does your goldfish rub his whole body against the glass or just the tip of his head? If your goldfish is rubbing his body against the aquarium, your goldfish might be showing an early indication of a parasite infection. Are there visible signs of illness?

If your goldfish is just wiggling his nose against the aquarium walls whenever you pass by, there’s nothing to worry about! My goldfish will often do this when I pass by the tank, because they know feeding time is soon. Sometimes they’ll even give me a vigorous show, wiggling their noses up and down the glass where I’m standing, their tail fin flapping wildly in the water. This is just their way of showing me how excited they are to receive food.

I often notice the young goldfish doing this more often than the adults, though my females are especially more hyper before feeding time. The males usually just swim to my corner of the tank and occasionally nudge their noses against the glass while my females will relentlessly move up and down my corner of the tank. I suppose how vigorously your goldfish take part in the “feeding dance” depends on the personality of your fish. These are just my observations.

Once my goldfish are fed, they usually don’t spend any more time on my corner of the tank. They’re too busy looking for food. But I’ve noticed that even if I pass by the tank an hour or two hours later, my goldfish still won’t bother dancing against the aquarium walls because they know feeding time is over at that time of day. Goldfish are very attuned to their feeding schedule.

Because your goldfish is new, he’s likely still unsure about when feeding time is, and if you feed your goldfish at different hours of the day (not necessarily at the same times), this might confuse your goldfish. So it might seem as though he’s doing the “feeding dance” every time you pass by the tank. That’s why I recommend feeding at only certain times during the day, rather than feeding irregularly. If I’m feeding dry food, I also like to show my goldfish the actual can of food before feeding – so they can anticipate the food and know what to expect when I flip open the tank cover.

Hi Anup,

I’m so sorry for your loss! It’s always difficult to lose a pet.

It’s really hard to determine the problem without more information though. Have you tested the aquarium water recently? If so, what were test results? Often, poor water quality is the culprit.

What size aquarium do you have (how many gallons or liters)? Sometimes, overcrowding is the problem. One adult goldfish needs 20 gallons at the very minimum – read my goldfish tank guide for more information on this.

Do you notice any other signs that might hint as to why your goldfish is sick? Any discolored patches on the body? Lumps? Ragged or torn fins? Swollen body? My article on goldfish disease symptoms may help you catch signs of sickness.

Let me know if the problem gets worse. I hope your goldfish feels better!

Hi Kai,

It might be better to just leave your fish at home and have a friend or family member watch over them while you’re away. Goldfish need a lot of space (20-gallons at the minimum for one or two fancy goldfish), so that would be a lot of water to maintain at the hospital. If you’re just going away for a week, your goldfish should be fine without food until you come back. Any longer and you might want to have an automatic feeder in place or someone near home that can feed your goldfish every once in a while, with routine water changes. The journey to and from the hospital might be very stressful for your fish as well.

Yep, watermelon should be fine! Just make sure you remove the seeds and don’t feed them too much. You should only feed as much as they can eat in a couple minutes. And of course slice up the watermelon into easy-to-eat chunks. Don’t feed your goldfish fruit too often though. I’d recommend about once every couple of weeks or so.

Hi Alannah! I’m happy you found the information useful. 🙂 Goldfish will eat krill, but you may need to cut it up for them, since some pieces of krill can be a bit too large for younger goldfish.

I like to vary my goldfish’s diet and offer a different food for each feeding. Goldfish are omnivores, so make sure you feed them both meat and veggies! Peas are fun to feed, but don’t forget the meat as well. Most dry food offers a stable diet with both meat and veggies, though you may want to throw in some blood worms or shrimp every now and then as a little snack. 😉

Some goldfish hobbyists even feed their fish chopped up orange slices, but be careful – you don’t want to feed too much. And always make sure you peel the orange first. Fruit should really be fed about once or twice a month as a special treat.