BottomDweller
- #1
HI everyone
I have been keeping goldfish for many years and have been breeding goldfish for a few years. I'd like to share my experiences with them and give a short guide on them for beginners keeping goldfish. This will be mainly focused on single tail goldfish (commons, comets and shubunkins).
Tank size
Goldfish grow huge. Supposedly they can reach 2 feet long though I have never seen one this size. Obviously such large fish need a large tank. 150 gallons should be the bare minimum for single tail goldfish but I kept some in a 200 gallon pond and I felt it was too small for them (they now live in a 1600 gallon pond). 200 gallons would be better.
For fancies 40 gallons minimum. Many people recommend 29 gallons minimum for one but they are social and that doesn't give you enough room for 2.
Goldfish are very social fish, mine are rarely apart. I recommend 50 gallons per single tail goldfish when stocking your pond/huge tank.
I recommend 20 gallons per fancy goldfish.
Equipment
With large fish comes a large amount of poop! Your filtration needs to be able to handle this. A flow rate of 8-10x the volume of the tank per hour is good. More is better.
Goldfish are cold water fish and don't need a heater. Heaters can sometimes be used when gradually warming up fish for breeding and when keeping fry at a steady temperature but even then they are not essential.
Goldfish aren't fussed about lighting. If you want to grow live plants then you will need a light, other than that there is not much point. A cheap light can be used so you can see your fish better. Make sure they have at least 11 hours of sleep where the light is off.
Tank decorations and substrate
They are clever fish and benefit from some decorations and things to play with.
Live plants can be used but goldfish will tear up delicate plants. Tough plants like java fern usually work well with goldfish. In my pond there are lilies with the goldfish. Planting plants in pots can help protect them from curious goldfish.
They love to eat duckweed and salvinia. If you start off with a good amount of this then it will grow fast enough to keep up with hungry goldfish. Alternatively you can grow them in a separate tank/tub or in a breeder net then once the goldfish have eaten all of theirs you can top it up.
Fake plants are also good. Make sure that any fake plants used are silk and have nothing that could catch their fins.
As for substrate you have a couple of options. Bare bottom is easiest to clean which is important for goldfish tanks. Sand is another good option, they like to sift through it and play with it and it is easier to clean than gravel. Large pebbles (that are much bigger than the goldfish's mouth) can also work but they are more difficult to clean.
Stay away from small gravel. Greedy goldfish can try to eat it then get it stuck in their mouth or can choke to death on it. I very nearly experienced this with one of my goldfish when I was new to goldfish keeping.
Tank mates
Other goldfish.
Keep single tail goldfish with other single tails. You can keep different types of single tailed goldfish together.
Keep fancy goldfish with other fancy goldfish. Some types of fancy goldfish should not be mixed. Fantails and bubble eyes for example. The fantails are much less deformed, active fish while bubble eye goldfish struggle to swim fast and see well. The fantails would outcompete the bubble eyes for food and bully them in some cases.
Mixing single tail goldfish and fancy goldfish is not a good idea. The single tails are much faster, fitter fish. They will get to the food faster than the fancy goldfish which could lead to the fancies starving to death.The single tails could also easily bully the fancies.
Very few non goldfish tank mates can be kept with them for a few reasons. Firstly adult goldfish have large mouths and will quite happily wolf down your little WCMM and shrimp. Next fancy goldfish and comet goldfish have long tails and can be the victI'm of fin nipping. Goldfish require cold water so that also limits your choice.
Dojo loaches are one of the only fish I can recommend with goldfish. They get large enough not to be eaten, enjoy the same cool, well oxygenated water that goldfish do and are entirely peaceful. They need a 48" tank minimum but if you're keeping goldfish you should have that anyway.
Many types of similarly sized pond fish will make good tank mates in a pond.
Snails are often excellent tank mates for goldfish.
Smaller goldies may happily live with danios, WCMM, rosy and gold barbs but this may change as they get older and larger.
Water
Goldfish are extremely tough hardy fish that will survive in much less than ideal conditions.
They do best in the following
0 Ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0-20ppm nitrate
15-19c (though they can withstand 0-22c for short periods of time)
7-8Ph (but they aren't picky, they are fine in a wide range of Ph as long as it is stable)
Food
Goldfish are omnivores that do best with a diet that is 2 thirds herbivore/plant matter and 1 third carnivore/meaty however younger/growing fish need more protein.
Vegetables are great for goldfish. Peas seem to be their favourite but many others are happily accepted by them. Carrots are great for their colour. Boiling vegetables briefly before feeding is good. Some vegetables will need to be boiled so they are soft enough for the goldfish to eat. Fruit can also be fed to goldfish but should not be fed often as it contains sugar. Orange slices are good because they contain vitamin C which is meant to help protect them from disease. My goldfish particularly like grapes and blueberries but these need to be pealed before feeding.
Frozen foods seem to be my goldfish's favourite food, especially frozen bloodworms. Make sure to defrost frozen food before feeding. Freeze dried foods can be fed but they need to be soaked in tank water before feeding.
Good quality pellets can be the staple of a goldfish's diet. Sinking pellets are better than floating pellets, especially for fancy goldfish. When goldfish eat floating pellets they can swallow air which can lead to buoyancy problems.
I feed my goldfish frozen bloodworms, frozen brineshrimp, freeze dried tubifex, boiled egg, seaweed, boiled vegetables, fruit, algae wafers, flakes and pellets. Small goldfish are also fed daphnia but larger goldfish tend to ignore it as it is so small.
Feeding
How much you feed depends on temperature. When water is below 8c I stop feeding completely, if they are in a pond I stop feeding when water is below 15c. Between 8c and 15c they should be fed small amounts of easily digested food once a day or every other day. Above 15c and they can be fed twice a day.
Chain stores and unreliable websites often say goldfish need to be fed a pinch of food a day or as much as they can eat in a minute. Often this is to keep the tank clean or because of worries about overfeeding. In reality they need to be fed a lot more than this. They are huge fish with an appetite to match. An average 10-12" goldfish at 20c should be fed about 1/2 to 2/3 of a teaspoon of food a day split into 2 or 3 meals. Smaller fish and cooler water will mean they should be fed less. When trying to bring fish into breeding condition they should be fed a little more than usual and after spawning to help them (especially the female) recover.
Obviously don't feed so much that there is uneaten food or that they become bloated or overweight
Goldfish ponds
Ponds are excellent for goldfish for many reasons.
Make sure the pond is 24" or more deep so they can hibernate at the bottom safely. Ponds in colder areas will need to be deeper. If the top of the pond freezes make sure there is a gap in the ice for gas exchange.
Goldfish in ponds don't need to be fed as much as they will eat some bugs in the water and any unfortunate fly that happens to land on the surface of the water. In ponds floating food is preferred by some fishkeepers because it means you can actually see them and there tends to be less uneaten food.
I will edit this if I think of anything I missed
If there's anything else you would like to see in this guide or have any questions please comment below.
I have been keeping goldfish for many years and have been breeding goldfish for a few years. I'd like to share my experiences with them and give a short guide on them for beginners keeping goldfish. This will be mainly focused on single tail goldfish (commons, comets and shubunkins).
Tank size
Goldfish grow huge. Supposedly they can reach 2 feet long though I have never seen one this size. Obviously such large fish need a large tank. 150 gallons should be the bare minimum for single tail goldfish but I kept some in a 200 gallon pond and I felt it was too small for them (they now live in a 1600 gallon pond). 200 gallons would be better.
For fancies 40 gallons minimum. Many people recommend 29 gallons minimum for one but they are social and that doesn't give you enough room for 2.
Goldfish are very social fish, mine are rarely apart. I recommend 50 gallons per single tail goldfish when stocking your pond/huge tank.
I recommend 20 gallons per fancy goldfish.
Equipment
With large fish comes a large amount of poop! Your filtration needs to be able to handle this. A flow rate of 8-10x the volume of the tank per hour is good. More is better.
Goldfish are cold water fish and don't need a heater. Heaters can sometimes be used when gradually warming up fish for breeding and when keeping fry at a steady temperature but even then they are not essential.
Goldfish aren't fussed about lighting. If you want to grow live plants then you will need a light, other than that there is not much point. A cheap light can be used so you can see your fish better. Make sure they have at least 11 hours of sleep where the light is off.
Tank decorations and substrate
They are clever fish and benefit from some decorations and things to play with.
Live plants can be used but goldfish will tear up delicate plants. Tough plants like java fern usually work well with goldfish. In my pond there are lilies with the goldfish. Planting plants in pots can help protect them from curious goldfish.
They love to eat duckweed and salvinia. If you start off with a good amount of this then it will grow fast enough to keep up with hungry goldfish. Alternatively you can grow them in a separate tank/tub or in a breeder net then once the goldfish have eaten all of theirs you can top it up.
Fake plants are also good. Make sure that any fake plants used are silk and have nothing that could catch their fins.
As for substrate you have a couple of options. Bare bottom is easiest to clean which is important for goldfish tanks. Sand is another good option, they like to sift through it and play with it and it is easier to clean than gravel. Large pebbles (that are much bigger than the goldfish's mouth) can also work but they are more difficult to clean.
Stay away from small gravel. Greedy goldfish can try to eat it then get it stuck in their mouth or can choke to death on it. I very nearly experienced this with one of my goldfish when I was new to goldfish keeping.
Tank mates
Other goldfish.
Keep single tail goldfish with other single tails. You can keep different types of single tailed goldfish together.
Keep fancy goldfish with other fancy goldfish. Some types of fancy goldfish should not be mixed. Fantails and bubble eyes for example. The fantails are much less deformed, active fish while bubble eye goldfish struggle to swim fast and see well. The fantails would outcompete the bubble eyes for food and bully them in some cases.
Mixing single tail goldfish and fancy goldfish is not a good idea. The single tails are much faster, fitter fish. They will get to the food faster than the fancy goldfish which could lead to the fancies starving to death.The single tails could also easily bully the fancies.
Very few non goldfish tank mates can be kept with them for a few reasons. Firstly adult goldfish have large mouths and will quite happily wolf down your little WCMM and shrimp. Next fancy goldfish and comet goldfish have long tails and can be the victI'm of fin nipping. Goldfish require cold water so that also limits your choice.
Dojo loaches are one of the only fish I can recommend with goldfish. They get large enough not to be eaten, enjoy the same cool, well oxygenated water that goldfish do and are entirely peaceful. They need a 48" tank minimum but if you're keeping goldfish you should have that anyway.
Many types of similarly sized pond fish will make good tank mates in a pond.
Snails are often excellent tank mates for goldfish.
Smaller goldies may happily live with danios, WCMM, rosy and gold barbs but this may change as they get older and larger.
Water
Goldfish are extremely tough hardy fish that will survive in much less than ideal conditions.
They do best in the following
0 Ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0-20ppm nitrate
15-19c (though they can withstand 0-22c for short periods of time)
7-8Ph (but they aren't picky, they are fine in a wide range of Ph as long as it is stable)
Food
Goldfish are omnivores that do best with a diet that is 2 thirds herbivore/plant matter and 1 third carnivore/meaty however younger/growing fish need more protein.
Vegetables are great for goldfish. Peas seem to be their favourite but many others are happily accepted by them. Carrots are great for their colour. Boiling vegetables briefly before feeding is good. Some vegetables will need to be boiled so they are soft enough for the goldfish to eat. Fruit can also be fed to goldfish but should not be fed often as it contains sugar. Orange slices are good because they contain vitamin C which is meant to help protect them from disease. My goldfish particularly like grapes and blueberries but these need to be pealed before feeding.
Frozen foods seem to be my goldfish's favourite food, especially frozen bloodworms. Make sure to defrost frozen food before feeding. Freeze dried foods can be fed but they need to be soaked in tank water before feeding.
Good quality pellets can be the staple of a goldfish's diet. Sinking pellets are better than floating pellets, especially for fancy goldfish. When goldfish eat floating pellets they can swallow air which can lead to buoyancy problems.
I feed my goldfish frozen bloodworms, frozen brineshrimp, freeze dried tubifex, boiled egg, seaweed, boiled vegetables, fruit, algae wafers, flakes and pellets. Small goldfish are also fed daphnia but larger goldfish tend to ignore it as it is so small.
Feeding
How much you feed depends on temperature. When water is below 8c I stop feeding completely, if they are in a pond I stop feeding when water is below 15c. Between 8c and 15c they should be fed small amounts of easily digested food once a day or every other day. Above 15c and they can be fed twice a day.
Chain stores and unreliable websites often say goldfish need to be fed a pinch of food a day or as much as they can eat in a minute. Often this is to keep the tank clean or because of worries about overfeeding. In reality they need to be fed a lot more than this. They are huge fish with an appetite to match. An average 10-12" goldfish at 20c should be fed about 1/2 to 2/3 of a teaspoon of food a day split into 2 or 3 meals. Smaller fish and cooler water will mean they should be fed less. When trying to bring fish into breeding condition they should be fed a little more than usual and after spawning to help them (especially the female) recover.
Obviously don't feed so much that there is uneaten food or that they become bloated or overweight
Goldfish ponds
Ponds are excellent for goldfish for many reasons.
Make sure the pond is 24" or more deep so they can hibernate at the bottom safely. Ponds in colder areas will need to be deeper. If the top of the pond freezes make sure there is a gap in the ice for gas exchange.
Goldfish in ponds don't need to be fed as much as they will eat some bugs in the water and any unfortunate fly that happens to land on the surface of the water. In ponds floating food is preferred by some fishkeepers because it means you can actually see them and there tends to be less uneaten food.
I will edit this if I think of anything I missed
If there's anything else you would like to see in this guide or have any questions please comment below.