Not easy to keep goldfish as they’re not so tough but rather weak.
Purchased goldfish from aquarium shop but didn’t last a week.
Sometimes people say such things and they even tell other people new to aquarium not to go with goldfish if it’s the first time you keep aquarium fish…
Is it really that difficult or “not easy” to look after goldfish?
Table of contents
Is goldfish a cheap fish?
When you visit aquarium shop, you will most likely see comet goldfish which is sold with easily affordable price. However, it doesn’t mean they’re not beautiful.
In fact, they are beautiful fish with vibrant colour and variation of colour patterns. As long as you provide them a great care, they will look magnificent especially when grown up.
The above video of comet goldfish is purchased from a local home centre and this fish in fact won a first place at one of the competitive shows in Japan.
Very beautiful!
Cheap fish die fast so can’t be helped?
Short answer for this question is “NO”.
Early death of goldfish can be caused by them being over-stocked in certain space at the shop and not providing sufficient and proper care. It could also be by you, the hobbyist owner, not providing the right environment for them.
It doesn’t matter whether the goldfish you purchased is $2 cheap one or rare and expensive $200 one, they will live over 10 years as long as they receive the right care.
Here is the fact for comet goldfish that lived over 40 years.
Now that you see goldfish can live very long time, they can spend time with you almost for half century.
Hence, goldfish that doesn’t last long meaning the fish is not getting right care, their needs and/or right environment and definitely not affected by the value they’re sold.
If you’re struggling to keep goldfish for long time, reconsider how you’re looking after your goldfish. Often, people having issue keeping goldfish are not providing the right environment but don’t realize that they’re giving their fish a difficult life.
Here are some points that you need to consider.
Which fish tank to choose?
As you can easily imagine there are many different sizes, materials, shapes and design for aquarium to choose from.
What sort of aquarium you will be preparing for your goldfish will depend on your space, budget, how good you can look after and number of goldfish you will be keeping so there is no fixed answer.
However, the key point that you should be focusing on when you decide which aquarium you will purchase is the number of goldfish, in relation to your aquarium size, is not over stocked and the size of goldfish is not over grown on your aquarium.
Type of fish tank
Size
Straight forward answer is bigger the better.
Better means that the water will be more stable than that of smaller fish tank. And when the water is more stable, it means that it requires less maintenance when compared with smaller ones.
As a result, you can have more goldfish and you have less worry for their health in relation to water quality as well as less time you need to spend for cleaning fish tank and filters.
Here at below are the examples of aquarium sizes in relation with the number of fish you can roughly have.
If you have absolutely no clue on what size or how many goldfish you will be able to house, have a look at this example as a reference and consider other factors as well so you can eliminate what you can’t have and what’s left is the choice you can take.
Materials
The material being used to manufacture aquarium are as follows.
- Glass
- Acrylic
Merit
Comparably hard to make a scratch mark
Demerit
Easy to break
Very heavy
Merit
Very light
Tolerant to the impact
Demerit
Fairly easy to make a scratch mark
Become less transparent by age
Fish bowl
It is soothing when you see goldfish swimming in a glass bowl. It should be no problem when you have goldfish in such space for short period of time as an ornamental purpose whereas the amount of water the glass bowl can hold is only little hence it is very difficult to maintain the water quality steady.
In addition, you won’t be installing the filter in such case so that will make even harder.
For a limited space like that case, 1 or 2 small size goldfish will be the right number to keep and transfer the goldfish to larger aquarium when they’re grown up.
Not enough oxygen?
Are you wondering why many hobbyists are installing filters and using air pump?
Sometime I hear that some people do not want to spend extra coin to install filter or air pump for your aquarium. It’s simply because they like to save some money.
It is not a must item AS LONG AS you can provide the healthy environment for your goldfish without those items but almost all the time it won’t happen.
Why?
Because you will have to spend more time, more effort to take care which can be difficult as you have to continue doing it over and over again.
Not only limited to goldfish but fish will absorb oxygen that is dissolved in the water to breath. So they won’t die just because you don’t have filter or air pump running.
However, they use that oxygen.
So the level of oxygen in the water obviously decreases. If you don’t balance out this level sufficiently enough, they will die by suffocation.
So, how do you prevent that?
You need filter and/or air pump to break the water surface tension so that the water can absorb more oxygen from air.
If you install filter, it will not only filter your aquarium but it can also introduce more oxygen. Especially when you like to have numbers of goldfish in your aquarium, you need to provide more oxygen.
Check your goldfish behaviour if you like to make sure they’re happy with the environment you provide.
Are they swimming strong and happily?
Or are they gasping?
Providing enough oxygen to your pet goldfish is very important.
Minimize stress
When you choose which fish you like to purchase, they will be packed in the small space for transportation to your home.
You can easily imagine that it will give the fish a stress, can’t you?
Depending on the distance they’re shipped or you have to travel, the season (temperature), how the parcel is being handled by sender and courier will also affect how much the stress fish will be impacted.
Then, fish will be introduced to your aquariu, new environment with different water parameters.
That’s another stress for the fish.
Your new pet fish will get enough stress on transit so it is important to prepare your aquarium ready to dwell new fish. Some experienced hobbyists even prepare the quarantine fish tank for new fish before introducing into the main tank. This will prevent introducing the parasite or disease into the main aquarium.
However, sometimes people even prepare fish tank on a same day they purchased the fish they like to keep. It is not impossible but obviously not recommended.
Please spend some time to check Things you should do before buying betta page.
This page talks about betta fish whereas the step you need to take is almost the same so worth reading if you like to know what you should be doing before purchasing fish.
Conclusion
There are many different varieties when we talk about goldfish and many of them are tough fish even when you compare with other fish. You can keep goldfish in the inside fish tank and outside pond throughout year as they can tolerate wide range of temperature.
People who are new to aquarium hobby should at least consider once keeping goldfish especially when you don’t like to deal with temperature issues.
Goldfish is easy to look after and very tough, that’s for sure.
If you’re having trouble keeping goldfish, check the number of goldfish, size of goldfish, aquarium size (water amount), filter, the amount of food you feed, frequency of feeding frequency of maintenance and your maintenance procedure.
Also, although goldfish can tolerate wide range of temperature, check the temperature as it will affect to their metabolism and remember, all kind of fish do not appreciate rapid temperature change.
It doesn’t matter what type of goldfish you purchase, they will live very long time. And when you look after them properly, they will grow up beautifully.