10 Mistakes Novice Goldfish Keepers Make

 

1.       Buying a goldfish bowl: gold fishes needs a lot of space to swim and they can grow to be more than a foot long, so you cannot keep any goldfish in a bowl or even a 48 x18 aquarium. Ideally you must buy a large tank for your gold fish so that the quantity of water is good enough to dilute their waste and they are good number of bacteria to convert their waste into less harmful chemicals.

2.       Putting too many fish in one tank: if you are going for a gold fish tank then the concept of “more gold more shine” does not work. You must not crowd the goldfish tank as goldfishes need more space to breathe and swim.

3.    Over-feeding your goldfishes: if you feed your goldfishes too much it may cause constipation and lack of energy to swim. Goldfishes don’t have stomachs, so the food passes through their body every time you feed them. That is why it is pointless to feed them a lot at one time. Rather you must keep feeding them in less quantity at regular intervals.

4.       Keeping incompatible fish with your goldfish: every fish sharing the same aquarium space with the goldfish must be compatible with each other.

5.       Buying cheap fishes: goldfish keepers cannot afford to have a low budget while setting up their aquarium. A good quality goldfish does not come at a cheap price. If you are paying less for your goldfish, then there’s something wrong. It is much better to spend a bit more than buy a poor-quality fish that die early or have some disease. Mistake #11: Not quarantining new fish

6.       Putting new goldfishes in one tank:  at times, new goldfishes may carry diseases, which is not good for the wellbeing of the other fishes in the aquarium. So, generally when you buy a new gold fish, then it is better to put it in a separate tank for few days to make sure that it is healthy and once you are satisfied with its health you may shift it to the goldfish tank.

7.       Not performing tank cycling and using appropriate filter: goldfishes produce a lot of ammonia, which pollutes the water very fast. Therefore, it is very important to introduce good bacteria in the water so that it can convert the ammonia into less harmful chemicals. A good tank filter is also a must in the goldfish tank for this reason.

8.       Changing too much water at once: you should not change the entire a goldfish tank water at once as this may harm the fishes in the aquarium. Goldfish keepers are advised to change around a third of the tank’s water at from time to time.

9.       Not treating tap water: you must treat tap water with Seachem Prime (available at barrier reef aquarium store) to remove the harmful chemicals from the tank water and restore the good bacteria in the water.

10.   Cleaning filter sponges, gravel and decorations: the good bacteria in a goldfish tank are generally located in the filter sponges, gravel and decorations like Coral, Sps, Lps. Therefore, cleaning them would result in removing the good Bactria from the tank. So, when you need to clean the world wide corals and other decorations in your tank you must only use a bucket of the tank water for the purpose.