one goldfish hogs others food

Question
i have two goldfish in a 10 gallon tank, and i have had problems feeding them.  one of the goldfish always seems to take the food (tetra flakes) we throw in before the other can get some.  when i feed them i spread the flakes out (not too many since the goldfish are still small - literally, 5-7 flakes), but it takes a minute or two before they even attempt to get the food.  by then one goldfish snaps it all up.  we've only had them for a week now, so this problem may solve itself, but maybe it won't.  is there are way to feed them individually?  how would you tackle this problem?

Answer
Hi Daniel;

That's a hard one for sure. You could put a divider between them when they eat. Or, get one of those breeder nets or boxes and put the greedy one in there for a few minutes until the other has a chance to eat first. Feeding vegies every other day instead of flakes is helpful too. Give them each a piece to nibble on. Romaine lettuce, cooked green beans, cucumber slices, and peeled cooked peas are very good choices. Goldfish can have digestive problems that affects their swim bladder if they get dried food all the time. Goldfish are mostly vegetarian and the flakes and pelleted foods just have too much protein.

Continue to be really careful about how much food goes in. You're doing great with that. The tank is still in the break-in period so you will need to watch ammonia and nitrite levels so they don't harm the fish. Here is my own web page with information about that in case you need to know more;

http://www.xanga.com/expert_fish_help

I hope things work out okay...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins