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Goldfish care. The general advice and tips given in this article is to assist hobbyists who keep, or want to keep goldfish. I hope this helps in giving you some insight on keeping your goldfish both healthy and happy. Aquarium Equipment Before you even think of buying your goldfish, you need to buy these items for your goldfish care. Note: depending where you live, you may not need some of these items. An aquarium and stand, aquarium hood, fluorescent strip light, thermometer, aquarium filter, with airline tubing, and air stone, gravel, siphon, buckets (used for water changes), freshwater test kits (for checking ammonia, nitrite and nitrate), seeding kit ( for ammonia bacteria etc), ornaments, and plants. Caring For Goldfish. One aspect of care is knowing what to give them for food, being omnivorous you will find they will eat almost anything. For beginners I would suggest relying on the pre-packaged goldfish foods from your pet store, which can be floating flake or pellet form, though only for common goldfish and comets. Feeding them twice a day is sufficient, but give them only enough food that they can eat in 2 to 3 minutes, you don't want uneaten food causing problems to your water quality. . Goldfish Care - Fancies. Fancy goldfish care is different compared to common type goldfish in feeding and aquarium requirements. They need temperatures ranging from 65 to 75 F, so need heating within the tank, also, the temperature should never fall lower than 50F. Fancies should never be let to feed on the surface, as this could cause buoyancy problems and death.feed fancy's sinking pellets or granules. Fancies may well grow up to 6 inches in length, so as a rule keep one fish per 10 gallons of water. Goldfish Care - Mixing Comets With Fancies. To understand the problems that relate to trying to keep commons or comet goldfish in the same aquarium as fancies, you need to understand the requirements of each type of goldfish, one of those was the feeding of each, but it's a much wider problem than just the feeding. Comets and common goldfish are cold water fish, they in general require no heating in the tank, they are quicker in movement to the fancies, stronger, and are less likely to succumb to buoyancy problems, most of all they are likely to attack fancy's and injure or kill them. Fancies on the other hand will not survive in cold water, they need heating and can not withstand wide temperature fluctuations. Their movement is slow, and would not be able to compete for food with the common types, so for your goldfish care and health, keep commons, comets and fancies apart. Vary The Diet. It is important for your goldfish care and health, that food specially made for goldfish and fancies is what you give to them, but you can give them on occasion peas(with the outer skin removed), bloodworms, and also blanched green leafy vegetables, in the case of fancies it's a good idea to soak these well first, so that they sink, and remove anything that floats on the surface. Diseases And Sickness. Good health is always a priority in goldfish care, with good house keeping practices your fish should not experience to many problems with disease. The major cause for sickness and disease in aquariums is poor house keeping, things like over crowding, toxics in the aquarium, dirty water, poor filtration, rough handling and stress, along with rapid temperature changes, these ultimately lead to viruses and bacteria, fungi and protozoa. Introducing new fish into your aquarium can also bring disease, so quarantining the new fish for several days will let you see that its ok. if you do experience any problems your local pet store or vet can advise you on what you need to do. Ammonia And Chlorine. Chlorine is added to most tap water, and is harmful to your fish, as part of your goldfish care a 20% water change each week is recommended, use an air stone in the tap water for 24 hours to dispel the chlorine, and then ensure the water is the same temperature as the aquarium water. Ensure the Ammonia and nitrite readings are zero, and the nitrate readings should be 10ppm ideally, or even less.
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Before deciding on your goldfish, make sure to check Mike Tazzey's excellent free articles at Goldfish Care and Discus at Fish In Aquarium
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