Goldfish care and aquarium setup
Caring for goldfish is a fun and easy to enter hobby. GOldfish have a life span of 5 to 10 years, though I’ve seen goldfish as old as 25 years old!
Of course if you expect to keep your fish that long be prepared to do a tip-top job of caring for them.
Before you even start picking out your fish, you’ll need to prepare the tank and get all neccessary supplies.
I always recommend at least a 10 gallon tank. First you’ll need to add the gravel, be sure to rinse of the residue from the gravel before putting it in the tank. Now is a good time to rinse and place your decorations or plants.
Next we will add the water. Remember that tap parter is POISONOUS to fish so you will NEED to use a water conditioner; something that removes the chlorine.
Once the water has been conditioned go ahead and start the filter and let it run for at LEAST 1 day before adding fish. No heater is needed since goldfish live in room temperature water. However you want to keep the water temperature consistant and should be stored next to a window, heater, or vent.
Try not to add more than 1 fish/week when you’re tank is young, because fish exrete ammonia especially when stressed by moving to a new enviroment. I also recommend you change 25% of the water on a weekly basis an remember to add water conditioner each time to keep your fish healthy.
For food, pelets or flakes are fine but keep in mind how big your fish is and make sure it can eat a whole pelet if you go that route.
Remember goldfish can get very large and require a good amount of space, so be sure not to overcrowd your aquarium.
