Caring for goldfish is not the same as other fish even with the same size!
Goldfish produce a large amount of waste both in their faeces and through their gills. Build-up of this waste to toxic levels can occur in a relatively short period of time!, and can easily cause a goldfish's death.
But if a goldfish is given a proper care, it could live for more than 25 years.
If your goldfish gasp, you might have an oxygen problem.
• Provide large surface area. The water surface area determines how much oxygen diffuses and dissolves into the water. Goldfish are better in tanks that are long, rather than tall. Longer tanks provide a larger surface area for optimal gas exchange.
• Do not overstock. More fish means less oxygen per fish.
• Weekly maintenance (tank cleaning, filter cleaning & partial water changes) can reduce a large amount of waste (faeces, dying plant, debris and uneaten food), therefore reduce the number of oxygen consuming bacteria.
Although, Goldfish can adapt to a wide range of water parameters such as pH and hardness, you should keep it stable so they do not have to adjust too often.
• pH
Goldfish can tolerate a wide pH range (6.5 - 8.25), but pH over 7.4 is more suitable for them. Many municipal water supplies buffer their water up to around 7.5, and goldfish will live happily in this pH range.
Test your aquarium pH every week and check the pH of your tap water before water changes to avoid pH drops. Stability of pH is highly depend on Carbonate Hardness (KH) level.
• Carbonate Hardness (KH) Carbonate hardness (KH) is a pH buffer, it can prevent pH drastic reduction (pH shock) that can kill fish instantly & helps stabilize pH in the aquarium.
Aquariums with low KH (under 80 ppm) are subject to rapid pH shifts!, if not monitored carefully. You should add KH to provide stable pH, if your tap water tends to be soft (acidic).
• Aquarium Cycle
For a new tank, set up the tank prior to the purchase of fish. Getting it ready may take two or more weeks. It is necessary to build up enough good bacteria to break down the fish' wastes. You can add Beneficial Bacteria directly into the water or spread directly on to your filter pad or media to immediately establish biological activity to stabilize aquarium environments.
In a plain-tank (without any aquarium plants), you will need plenty of surface area for bacteria habitat within your aquarium (s.a : sand, gravels, sponge filter) and within your filters (s.a bio filter substrate, bio rings & bio balls).
Good Bio Substrate contains Heterotrophic Bacteria that will rapidly create a natural biological balance which makes cycling in a new aquarium faster and safer.
• Ammonia Remover & Water Conditioner
Regularly test your aquarium water for ammonia and nitrite (both should be zero). Even a slight trace of ammonia & nitrite means there's something wrong with your aquarium cycle. Use ammonia remover as a preventive action for ammonia / nitrite poisoning, then fix your aquarium cycle!
Tap water usually contain chlorine/ chloramine(chlorine+ammonia) for purification purpose. Treat your tap water with a high quality water conditioner to neutralize chlorine, chloramines, ammonia, heavy metals and other elements present in tap water that can be harmful to fish.
Clean the tank & Perform partial water changes (30-40%) at least once every two weeks due to the large amount of waste goldfish produce. However, it will depend on the size of your tank, the number of fish, the effectiveness of the filter, the type of your tank (planted tank or plain tank). In a planted tank, aquarium plants will help absorb some of the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Therefore, you don't need to clean as often.
• Add aquarium salt to replenish electrolytes (that have used up by the goldfish), improve gill function, and reduce stress. Electrolytes such as potassium, sodium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium are essential for the uptake of O2, and the release of CO2. The lack of electrolytes can cause serious health problems for fish.
Aquarium Salt can also be used to reduce the toxicity of nitrite (methemoglobinemia) to freshwater fish by temporarily blocking the toxic effects of nitrite until water quality can be improved.
• Clean the filter by rinsing filter media (filter cartridge/ filter mat) in some tank water twice a month.
• Vacuum the gravel every time you do a partial water change to reduce waste (fish faeces, uneaten food, dying plant, etc) build up.
• Internal or External Filter?A largeExternal filter is better, as goldfish are very messy creatures. It's important to choose filter that is easy to be cleaned since you will need to clean the filter media regularly.
• Filter size? Choose filter that is one size larger than your tank (for example : a 80 gallon one for a 60 gallon tank, twice is better) to counteract any flow loss due to resistance in filter media, especially if you also use the filter for circulation purpose. But, a really powerful filter would be bad if it created currents that were too strong and upset your goldfish.
• Bio Filter Media (s.a : Bio Filter Substrates, Bio Balls, Bio Rings or Sponge) gives place for beneficial bacteria to colonize. The bacteria is important to convert toxins produced by organic waste into more friendly forms.
Goldfish tank needs a bigger filters's biological surface area due to the heavy bio-load. Wet Dry filter has a greater surface area than canister or power filter, that makes it the best biological filter you can find and usually offer (or can be modified for) 3 stage filtration (mechanical, biological & chemical filtration).
Or you can add a Fluidized bed filter. It is a 100% biological filtration using fine grained sand as a filter media and very useful for heavy bio-loads aquariums which need great surface area for bacterial bed.
• If you don't want to use any substrates (bare-bottomed tank), sponge filters are cheap, very useful and strongly recommended to replace the substrates function. Besides providing good mechanical filtration (sponges are often used as the mechanical prefilter in the powered filters), sponge filters are excellent at biological filtration - it have plenty of surface area for bacteria to colonize.
Keep in mind that having a filter doesn't mean you can avoid cleaning the tank!
Water circulation for fancy goldfish tank is highly depend on the type of goldfish that you kept.
It's important to calculate the capacity (gph pump) of your circulation devices (such as Powerheads, Water pumps, Circulation pumps or Wavemakers) to get a proper circulation. It is simple, just multiply your tank volume with the turnover rate to get the gph pump. Turnover rates are the estimated hourly water-turnover needed for your specific tanks, it vary and mostly depend on the organisms that you keep.
• Fancy tail goldfish (such as Veiltail goldfish, Broad tailed goldfish, Butterfly goldfish, etc) are not good swimmers, their tails are delicate and can be easily damaged requiring them be kept in relatively still water without a strong current. Turnover rate 2 times per hour is enough for them, so if you have 50 gallons tank, you'll need a gph pump at 100 GPH (50 x 2).
• Other Double-tailed fancy goldfish (such as Moor, Ranchu, Lionhead, Ryukin, etc) are better swimmers, turnover rate 4 to 6 times per hour (depend on the type of goldfish that you kept) is suitable for them. You should check if the currents are too strong and upset your goldfish.
• Single tail goldfish (such as Common goldfish, Comets or Shubunkin) are very good swimmers, turnover rate 6 to 10 times per hour (depend on the size of goldfish that you kept) is suitable for them. See if the currents are too strong for them.
Purchase a largest possible tankfor your goldfish is necessary for quality of life. A tank with a larger surface area (wider is better than taller) can increase amount of oxygen diffuses and dissolves into the water.
• Do NOT use fishbowl for your goldfish! Goldfish have large oxygen needs and high waste output, such bowls are no longer considered appropriate housing for goldfish! Some countries even ban the sale of traditional fishbowls under animal welfare legislation due to the risk of stunting, deoxygenation and ammonia/nitrite poisoning in such a small environment.
• Do NOT overstock your tank!
For quality of life, Fancy goldfish need 10 US gallons (38 liter) per adult goldfish with size 8 to 12 inch (20 to 31 cm).
For Single tail goldfish (s.a common and comet goldfish), each adult goldfish should have about 20 US gallons (76 liter) of water.
However, it will also depend on the effectiveness of the filter, the frequency of tank maintenance and the type of your tank (planted tank or plain-tank).
Goldfish can adjust to a wide range of temperatures, but rapid changes in temperature (for example in an office building in winter when the heat is turned off at night) can kill them, especially if the tank is small. Although it is classified as a coldwater fish, it can live in unheated aquaria at a temperature comfortable for humans.
• The optimum temperature for goldfish is between 20-22°C (68-72°F), they don't like temperatures over 24°C (75°F). Temperatures under about 10°C (50°F) are dangerous to fancy varieties, though commons and comets can survive slightly lower temperatures. Be aware that goldfish will not eat below 10-13°C (50-55°F). Extremely high temperatures over 30°C (86°F) can also harm goldfish.
• Use BOTH a chiller & a heater to keep the temperature stable, if your budget allowed it. Use a thermometer to measure temperature and make sure the temperature of the change water is about the same as the temperature of the tank water.
• Like all fish, goldfish do not like to be petted. In fact, touching a goldfish can endanger its health, because it can cause the protective slime coat to be damaged or removed, exposing the fish’s skin to infection from bacteria or water-born parasites. If you need to dip your hands into the aquarium water, you should wash your hands properly with soap.
• Goldfish have learned behaviors, both as groups and as individuals and respond to people by surfacing at feeding time. Over time, goldfish learn to associate their owners and other humans with food, often "begging" for food whenever their owners approach. And they can be trained or acclimated to taking pellets or flakes from human fingers, but first wash your hands with soap!
Goldfish are omnivorous, they eat both meat and plants such as small fish, crustaceans, worms, insects, algae and various plant matter.
Goldfish are opportunistic feeders, they do not stop eating on their own accord and goldfish behaviour ("begging" for food) tempted owners to give them more food.
Goldfish differ from most tropical fish - they have NO stomach. Food moves down through the esophagus, muscles in the esophagus squeeze excess water out of the food, then the food simply passes along its long intestinal tract and what is not absorbed falls out. So they will produce more feces and wastes when an excessive amount of food is offered.
Overfeeding can be fatal, especially for selectively bred goldfish (fancy goldfish). Most of fancy goldfish have many twists in their intestinal tract, thus overfeeding (and If this food cannot process through the intestines fast enough) can easily cause food impaction then lead to swim bladder problems. Note:
If a fish is swimming sideways, floating up, unable to rise to the surface or clearly having trouble swimming, chances are it is due to swim bladder disorder.
It's not easy to determine the right amount of food for your goldfish, it highly depends on types, body shapes and growing stages of your goldfish. Usual overfeeding sign (decaying excess food) won't be present, since goldfish will eat it all - no leftovers.
It's wise to feed several times (2-3 times) daily in small portions, then observe the waste they produce, their liveliness, their swimming and their growth. If they don't produce too much waste, lively, no sign of swim bladder disorder and grow pretty quick, you might already given them the good quality and right amount of food.
Poop diagnosis can also be used! A good poop is generally short, chunky and reflects the colour of the food they have recently eaten. Masses of thick long poop (solid looking poo strings) is the sign of overfeeding.
Goldfish Poop Diagnosis
The analysis of feces has
been and still is one of the primary and traditional methods of
diagnosis of health and disease in humans and pets.
"Normal" feces in fish rapidly fall apart in water, food dyes change the
color of fish feces. Fish have short intestines set up to deal with
small but steady quantities of food. Their intestines and digestive
enzymes dont break down complex foods well, especially "land based"
carbohydrates like grains and long string fats.
Jo Ann's Diagnosis of Fish poop: (quoted from www.marquette.edu/~buxtoni/puregold/disease/technique/technique.html)
Medium to short chunky poop or poop the color of the food = Good poop
Long Thin poop = not eating well, usually stress related
Thick long poop = a little constipated or overfeeding and the food is
moving thru the fish too quickly and doesn't have time to be digested
Zig Zag/ clear long poop = re-absorbed eggs
Thin White poop = usually this is a sign of internal infection (unless white foods are being fed)
Clear poop with bubbles = not eating well if at all
Dark poop, sausage like, long mucousy casing, floating suspended by
bubbles = gas trapped in dried foods, foods are being fermented by gas
causing bacteria, fish are eating bubbles
No poop seen, but water is tinged brown = diarrhea possibly with blood, this is an ominous sign
Remember that overfeeding can NOT make your goldfish grow faster, it just makes your goldfish plump and sick!
Goldfish food ingredients should have higher content of quality vegetables, cereal, yeast, algae, peas and lower animal protein & fat.
Most commercial goldfish food is designed for small young goldfish which do need a little higher than normal amounts of protein. But once your goldfish reach 3" (7.5 cm) in length, switch to a lower protein & combine with a higher vegetables food.
Goldfish can eat BOTH floating & sinking food.
Sinking pellets are believed can prevent Swim bladder problem, the most common goldfish problem. Some hobbyists believe that floating pellets can make goldfish swallow too much air (when sucking the food from the top of the water they will suck in air, which will inflate the swim bladder) and eventually keep goldfish floating up to the top of the tank and then eventually flipping over.
This is NOT true due to several facts:
There is NO connection between the digestive system and the swim bladder in Goldfish.
Note: In young goldfish, the swim bladder is connected to the esophagus by a pneumatic duct (open swim bladder). As the goldfish matures, this duct closes off, separating the swim bladder from the esophagus (closed swim bladder).
Most of the air bubbles that is sucked while goldfish sucking floating pellets will automatically be expelled through its gills, very few air will go to the digestive system and may cause air bubbles in feces.
Therefore, Floating pellets DO NOT cause Swim bladder problem.
Actually, Swim bladder problem is a multifactorial illness and hobbyists have debated for years over the cause of swim bladder disease. It can be caused by internal bacterial and viral infections, or hereditary problems.
Swim bladder problem which affect the ability to maintain normal position in the water is attributed to the selective breeding process of fancy goldfish to achieve particular body forms, thus resulted to the alteration of the appearance of the swim bladder and the placement of the bladder in the body cavity.
However, feeding dried foods (BOTH floating & sinking pellets, flakes and other dried food) which tend to take on water like a sponge and expand in the fish can cause food impaction then lead to swim bladder problems. It is the swelling/expansion of food in the gut that causes impaction and it is the impaction, NOT AIR, that causes swim bladder problems! How? Food impaction could press the digestive organs against the swim bladder, not allowing it to work properly.
You may have to presoak the dry food if your type of goldfish are sensitive to it (see if your goldfish show any sign of swim bladder disorder - swimming sideways, floating up, unable to rise to the surface or clearly having trouble swimming).
Therefore, it's important NOT to overfeed your goldfish! and also beneficial to include easily digestible plant foods such as duckweed, algae, cooked peas that has been crushed and wheat germ to aid digestion & can help relieve swim bladder problems due to food impaction.
• Although, goldfish are relatively "friendly" towards each other and rarely does a goldfish harm another goldfish, nor do the males harm the females during breeding, you should carefully choose the combination of goldfish in your tank.
The reasoning behind this has mostly to do with the faster of the fish being able to eat all of the food before the slower, fancier varieties can get their needed share, but nipping can also be a factor, and something that fancier and slower goldfish are unable to avoid:
- Single tail goldfish such as common goldfish, comets and shubunkins can not be kept with fancy goldfish.
- For fancy goldfish, combine only breeds with similar body type and swim characteristics, for example:
Combination between Ranchu, Lionhead and Ryukin ; all of them have good vision & faster swimmers.
Combinaton between Telescope eye (Moor, Demekin) and Bubble eye /Celestial eye ; all of them have poor/ limited vision.
Combination between Butterfly tail and Broad tail (Tosakin) ; they are very slow swimmers.
Combination between Pearlscales, Bubble /Celestial Eye and Butterfly tail ; pearlscale is not a good swimmer and more aggressive goldfishes love to bit the scales.
• Other tank mates.
Of course, it is easier to succeed with a goldfish-only tank. There are some considerations to selectively choose other types of freshwater fish that may be successfully housed with goldfish such as the subtropical and coldwater species, fin nipping, aggression, and other compatibility issues just as you would have in combining different types of tropical fish. Just research the fish on the web first for further information before you purchase it.
From my experience, I succeed in combining Ranchus, Lionheads and some types of freshwater fish (rainbows, puntius denisonii and small tetras - bloodfin, red-nosed, x-ray tetras).
But remember that you can not always predict what a fish might do, although it is listed as peaceful community fish. As soon as you see any sign of harassment to your goldfish, remove the certain fish!
• Keep minimum decorations, goldfish need plenty room to swim and they can get stuck between or under decorations. Avoid sharp decorations that they could get hurt on.
• Aquarium substrate /gravel are excellent media for Beneficial Bacteria colonization. Don't worry if your goldfish repeatedly swallow gravel then spit it out again, it's normal for goldfish. They are looking for algae or other edibles stuck to the gravel by scraping off the algae in its mouth, and then spit out the gravel.
Bare-bottomed tank is easier to clean. Sponge filters are cheap, safe, very useful and strongly recommended to replace the substrates function. Besides providing good mechanical filtration (sponges are often used as the mechanical prefilter in the powered filters), sponge filters are excellent at biological filtration - they have plenty of surface area for bacteria to colonize.
Actually taking good care of goldfish (see all previous slides) are also about disease preventions. Goldfish diseases are something that are almost 100% preventable, but most of the time we run into problems because we have failed in some way.
These are additional things you need to know:
• Be very careful when choosing fish from pet stores, you should pay attention to the following symptoms:
Don't buy fish from a tank with alot of dead fish in it. Most likely they have a disease.
Don't buy fish with signs of injuries to fins and body. e.g. bleeding, ulcers, skin or fin tear.
Don't buy fish with unusual swimming behaviour e.g. tailspin, rapid or jerky movement.
Don't buy fish with signs of white mucus or white spots to fins and body.
• After you carefully chosen & brought the fish home, put the new fish in a quarantine tank for 3 - 4 weeks. Pay attention to the fish for at least a few minutes a day, look for any of the following signs:
Glancing or Rubbing against hard objects in the tank (decorations, rocks or sides of the tank), the fish is trying to rub something off of it's skin.
Gasping at the water's surface, usually caused by a lack of dissolved oxygen.
Loss of Appetite.
A normally active fish is still, a normally still fish is very active.
The fish floating up, sinks, whirls, or swims sideways.
Clamped fins.
There are visible spots, lesions, lumps, or white patches on the fish's body or fins.
Red streaks near scales.
The fish's tail or fins appear frayed at the edges or are breaking off.
Swollen gills and the gill tissue is bright red or even a grayish color.
Swelling on fish belly, it suddenly looks fat.
If any of above bad signs occured, you should treat your fish with the right medication, do NOT poison your fish with too many medicines!
Just check out our Fish Diseases & Fish Medications article or Goldfish diseases article, they contain further details about specific diagnosis for proper medications.
• If any of above bad signs happened in your main tank, isolate sick specimens only if the disease is not spreading yet. You should treat the main tank if most of your fishes are infected.
• And finally, it's wise to keep your medicine cabinet stocked.
All about GOLDFISH 
to provide stable pH, if your tap water tends to be soft (acidic).
