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Even if a bowl was a suitable home for any type of fish (which it’s not!), goldfish would be the last on the list.You should plan for fancy goldfish to grow to roughly the size of a softball at maturity, and the single tailed varieties get even larger. In this guide, we won’t judge you, patronise you or criticise any mistakes you may have made. We will simply offer clear, straightforward advice on how to recover from a poorstart to goldfish keeping and help you to look after your first goldfish properly. As your goldfish grows – if it even gets past the first week – the water quality will continue to deteriorate and it will lead to many completely preventable goldfish diseases. Why you should avoid goldfish bowls Measure a sample of tank water for ammonia and nitrite – do this before each water change. At first you will only see ammonia readings and nitrite will be zero. Before adding fresh water, ensure that its temperature matches the temperature of the water in the bowl. Also, treat the new water with a product called Seachem Prime before adding it to the bowl.
If you have a goldfish in a bowl or small tank then you need to take the following steps as soon as possible. Step 1: Nitrite is also a harmful chemical, but it’s LESS harmful than ammonia. Once somegood bacteria develop in your tank, they will start to convert ammonia to nitrite. Congratulations – you’ve successfully saved your fish from a goldfish bowl andstarted a healthy goldfish care routine! Goldfish bowls cannot easily accommodate a filter system, and without one, the water rapidly becomes polluted. Ammonia burns the fish’s gills, eventually causing suffocation and death.
If you’re worried about space then try measuring out the size of your tank in a variety of locations around your home. Most homes do have space for a 20 gallon tank some where, even if it involves moving some furniture around a bit. Continue to change 20% of the tank water every day. And 50%, or as much as necessary, when ammonia and nitrite spike above 0.5ppm. The bubbles from an air pump cause adisturbance on the surface of the water, which increases the amount of oxygen in the water. Why is this step optional? The flow from the filtershould cause enough surface agitation to getplenty of oxygen into your water without theneed for an air pump. However, if you’re planning to keep your water at a high temperature then you should definitely get an air pump, asa higher temperature will reduce the amountof oxygen in your tank water. Step 2b (optional): Add a heater. There are over 200 species of goldfish, all of which are artificial, captive-bred creations that you won’t find living in the wild. These popular pet fish are directly descended from wild Prussian carp.
Ideally, you would cycle a new tank before adding any fish. However, as we’re assuming that your fish was already in an uncycledbowl or small tank, it made sense to go ahead and add them to the larger tank anddo what’s known as a “fish-in cycle” rather than a“fishless cycle”. Your tank will go through thecycling process with the fish already inside. Cycling your tank But remember that you should never clean your filter in tap water. It will kill the good bacteria living inside the filter and effectively un-cycle your tank! Goldfish need lots of dissolved oxygen in the water to thrive. Goldfish bowls have a very small surface area, making efficient gaseous exchange impossible, so the water will always be short of that crucial oxygen the fish need. Unstable Water Parameters Test your water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate at least once per week – ideally twice per week for the first few weeks after cycling – to make sure all your water parametersstay within acceptable limits.But, as we just said, nitrite is still bad for your fish. So how do we then get rid of thenitrite? We convert it to nitrate. Dust, household chemicals, and general debris can fall into a bowl without a lid, potentially poisoning your goldfish. Like their carp relatives, goldfish can jump, especially when startled. So, there’s always a danger that you’ll come home from work to find your beloved fishy friend stranded on the living room carpet because he’s leaped right out of his bowl!
Generally, it’s much harder to keep the water quality stable in a small tank. Temperature fluctuations are also far more extreme in small water volumes, as there is no buffer to modulate the changes. You may beable to gently pour the goldfish in, rather than causing unnecessary stress to the fish throughthe use of a net.Scooping the goldfish up in a jug of water(from its own bowl) and then floating that jug in the main tank for twenty minutes or sowill cause the water temperature in the jug to slowly change to that of the main tank. This will allow the goldfish to slowly adapt to thenew tank temperature and minimise stress. What is cycling? For a balanced diet, feed your fish a combination of flakes, pellets, bloodworms, brineshrimp and peas with the shells removed. Testing Many newbies to fishkeeping assume that a goldfish bowl or small tank is easier to maintain than a large one, but that’s not the case. Frequent partial water changes can help, but the more the fish grows, the more waste it produces, until you find yourself changing the water in the bowl every day! Unfortunately, too many water changes deplete the colonies of denitrifying bacteria that process the fish waste, causing even more problems. Oxygen Depletion If you measure more than 0.5ppm of either ammonia or nitrite (ppm = partsper million, this is the same as Mg/l, which stands for milligrams per litre) then change 50% of the tank water until the ammonia spike is under control.
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