Keeping Goldfish can be a fun and rewarding hobby.
As with any new hobby, especially one that involves living creatures, always
consider the maintenance that will be involved. If you care for your aquarium
properly, you will be sure to have happy and healthy Goldfish for many years.
Goldfish have a life expectancy of five to ten years. If you do a good job
maintaining their fish tank, you should have fun, beautiful fish for a long
time. Make sure to feed them correctly and keep their water fresh and clear.
When starting any new aquarium, you should get everything in place before buying
the fish. If you are going to put gravel on the bottom, you may want to put only
a thin layer. This will make it easier to keep clean, as Goldfish tend to be
messy. Make sure that you rinse the gravel thoroughly before placing it in the
bottom of the tank. If you have some decorations, you should add them now. Make
sure that you rinse them well before putting them into the tank. Also be sure
that the goldfish have plenty of room to swim, as they as active fish. Give them
a place or two to hide, and that should do nicely.
Now that you have everything in place, you can add in the water. You will need
to use a dechlorinator, as the chlorine in tap water is poisonous to fish. Once
the fish tank is filled up, you can turn on the filter. Change it as often as
recommended to keep your fish healthy. Goldfish live at room temperature, so you
will not need a heater. They are quite comfortable in temperatures from 68 to 80
degrees. However, they should not be exposed to rapid temperature changes. You
might want to let the filter run in the new goldfish tank for a day or so to
filter out any chemicals or dyes that might have been left on the gravel and
decorations that you just added. Waiting to buy new fish can be one of the
hardest things about fish keeping!
You need to add fish gradually. Fish excrete ammonia. If you add too many fish
at once to a new fish tank, the water will not be seasoned enough to dissipate
it. As the water in your Goldfish tank ages, it builds up beneficial bacteria
that turn harmful chemicals excreted by the fish into harmless ones. However,
this will take some time. Start out with only one fish. The nitrogen cycle will
not begin until you add the fish, so running an empty tank for several days will
not help. Since your fish tank is brand new, you might want to consider making
partial water changes of about 25 per cent of the total water volume every few
days for the first week or so.
You can find Goldfish food at almost any pet shop.
Make sure to purchase some when you buy your first fish. Feed only a small
amount. Especially at first. Any uneaten food will sink to the bottom and rot.
Keep this to a minimum. Watch your fish the first few times that you feed them.
Feed only as much as they will eat in two to three minutes twice a day, or as
recommended on the Goldfish food label. Be especially careful not to overfeed
when the Goldfish tank is new. This will cause excess build up of toxic
chemicals and can kill your fish quickly.
As the water in your fish tank cycles through the nitrogen cycle, you may notice
that is becomes very cloudy. This is a normal process and should clear up in a
few days. Do not add any new fish until the water is crystal clear again. Clear
water will signify that the nitrogen cycle is working and that the toxic
chemicals are being converted to good ones.
Remember that Goldfish will grow large and they
need a big space. Don't overcrowd the tank if you want to keep healthy fish. If
you follow this little guideline, you will be sure to have a healthy goldfish
aquarium.
