Keeping Goldfish Tips

So you want to keep goldfish?

For starters, yay you! Goldfish are a lot of fun and probably my favorite type of fish I've kept. Their personalities are often adorable and they are relatively low maintenance if you start right.

But chances are, you're taking your goldfish home and doing all the wrong things. Don't worry. I've got your back. I'm about to share with you things I've learned after I made all the mistakes.

This is what you'll need before bringing one fancy goldfish home:

- Ammonia and nitrate test strips

- Filter and cartridges for your tank size

- At least a ten gallon, cycled tank

- a calm bubbler

- dechlorinator and conditioner, like aqua safe

- Goldfish pellets (not flakes!)

- A tank thermometer (don't get a glass one, they break way too easy)

Read that over. These are the things you'll need.

Now here are some other things you may want to have in handy:

- a silk plant

- a hand full of river rocks or other sizable rock (but nothing sharp!)

- aquarium heater

- aquarium sand

- aquarium salt

A ten gallon tank for one fish! But the guy at the store said my fish will do fine in a bowl while still a baby

Okay, hear me out. Maybe it's possible to keep a goldfish in a bowl for a couple hours, but goldfish are high waste producers, the ammonia in a goldfish bowl will build up and kill your fish. With a ten gallon tank you will have to do more water changes, but you can still successfully keep fish and have them grow in a ten gallon. That being said, don't keep more than two small ones in a ten gallon at max for a time, and even then you'll have to upgrade their tank as they grow and do about two or three water changes a week. You see, on top of being high waste producers, goldfish get BIG. Some can even grow to over a foot in length! Although fancy varieties tend to top out around 8 inches. 

If you want to keep a fish in a one gallon bowl, get a beta, not a goldfish (oh, and on that note, it's not a good idea to keep a beta in something less than a one gallon).

It is best at a minimum to keep about twenty gallons per single tailed variety and ten per double tailed variety, although more gallons is always best and equal less water changes.

Why No Gravel?

It may come as a surprise as it is so commonly used, but I find gravel to be a poor substrate for goldfish. Trust me, I started with gravel in my tanks and it was kind of a disaster. Goldfish are heavy waste producers and the gravel tends to trap the waste during water changes and tank cleaning, thus leaving more ammonia to build up in your tank. I think it best for a goldfish tank to have a bare bottom and perhaps, if you want some kind of substrate to use sand or (if you must have gravel) to use a very thin layer of gravel. I also think that your filter should be ten gallons over the amount of gallons the filter says on the package.