It’s happened to all of us. Even the best goldfish keepers have undergone the time when, after a long day’s work or study, upon entering the living room for a relaxing evening, you glance over at the fish tank and find that poor “Flipper,” “Tiger,” “Athos,” or [insert the name of your fish here] is covered in strange spots, struggling to swim, or stuck at the surface of the water, seemingly unable to get down.
What do you do? Sure, you could make a frantic phone call to the local pet shop where you bought the fish, and listen to some half-wit crackle his gum as he tells you that your 2-week warranty on the fish is up, and that’s all they’ve trained him to say so far…but that really doesn’t help get the spots off your goldfish now, does it?
The specialty fish shops are all closed for the evening – you’ve always been too intimidated by them to call anyway – so you jump on the internet, typing “goldfish” into the first search engine your shaking fingers can call up…and feel your jaw hit the desk, as 924,000 sites list in front of you, all claiming to be written by experts.
How do you find the help you can trust for your poor fish before his final “glub”?…
Well, most of the information you will come across is of value or at least well-intentioned. And anything you learn is important to the livelihood of your goldfish!
But when the time is of the essence, you don’t want to be searching from site-to-site. So with that said…
Looking after Goldfish doesn’t have to be an overwhelming and complicated process, but by the same token, you can’t take your goldfish health and well being for granted.
Steps to Goldfish Success:
- Have patience – Study about your proposed fish requirements and needs then set-up the tank well before a fish is introduced.
- Set-up your tank.
- Allow the tank sufficient time to cycle (to learn about tank ‘cycling’ click here).
- Adequate filtration systems for the tank size, be it mechanical, biological… or both (learn more about best canister filter for goldfish).
- Temperature between 64 and 74ºF.
- Use only substrate, accessories, plants (live) and decorations that are meant for aquariums
- Lots of aeration or water movement (non-moving tanks cause problems)
- PH level of at least 7.2
- Partial water changes weekly (10-15% for tanks, 20-25% for ponds, usually done as part of the siphoning process)
- Constantly monitor your fish behavior and swimming patterns so you can act early on any problems or changes.
- Salt at the first indication of problems