

While you don’t have to add ornaments to a goldfish aquarium, it’s still a good idea to help them feel more at home. I bought one for my first tank and it’s still going strong.Īnd finally, after you have the filter and the substrate, you need to decorate the tank. It’s really easy to use and usually lasts for years without any problems. If you’re going to buy a filter, the writers at Aquarium Tidings agree the AquaClear Power Filter is one of the best filters you can own.

If you don’t keep the water clean with a filter, it can quickly turn toxic and hurt your goldfish. The filter helps to clean out the goldfish waste and keep the water in good condition. Remember when I said goldfish go to the washroom almost non-stop in their aquariums? You need a strong filter to deal with that. Next, you’re going to need to pick up a filter for your aquarium. A lot of people prefer sand since goldfish love digging around in it, but if you don’t want the extra hassle of sand, gravel is still a great choice. The two best options are aquarium safe gravel and play sand. First, you need to buy a substrate for the bottom of the tank. They’re pretty happy being plopped down in almost any water conditions. There are a lot of fish out there who are very picky about temperature, water hardness, and tank setup, but goldfish are so hardy and adaptable they don’t really care about any of those things. The good news is the setup is pretty easy. Now that you’ve ignored the goldfish bowls at the pet store and bought a proper aquarium for your goldfish, you need to set it up. Comets and common goldfish grow absolutely massive. If you buy a comet or common goldfish, be prepared to purchase at least a 55-gallon aquarium. I suggest most people start with a 29-gallon aquarium, especially if you buy one of the fancy goldfish that stay a bit smaller. If the fish are really young, you could probably keep one or two goldfish in a 10-gallon aquarium, but things are going to be tight in there. Goldfish produce a lot of waste (they go to the washroom almost non-stop in their aquariums) and things will get unpleasant quickly if they don’t have enough room. 18 inches! And most goldfish will live for more than 10 years, with one record-holding goldfish surviving an amazing 43 years.īut if you can’t use a goldfish bowl, what should you keep goldfish in? The answer is you need to keep goldfish in an aquarium. Some can grow to a massive 18 inches long – yes, you heard me right. Goldfish can grow incredibly large if you take care of them properly. Which I find a bit weird, since the bowls are literally named after them, but I can’t stress this enough: do not buy a fishbowl for your goldfish. No matter what someone tells you, goldfish don’t like fishbowls. The first thing I did wrong was to listen to the employee at the local pet store.

And now I can share everything I learned to help other people avoid making the same mistakes I did. Looking back, it was a miracle Gorby had lasted as long as he did in my inexperienced hands.īut armed with my new knowledge, I felt ready to take care of my daughter’s goldfish. Even worse, the other goldfish didn’t look too healthy and I resolved to not let anything happen to Gorby (my husband named the white goldfish after a certain Soviet leader for the red spot on its head).ĭetermined to keep the other goldfish alive, I devoured every article I could find online and quickly realized I was doing nearly everything wrong. One of the goldfish died before the end of the week, leaving my young daughter devastated.

Needless to say, things didn’t go too well. So off to the local pet store I went, where on the advice of an employee, I purchased a 0.5-gallon (1.8 liter) plastic aquarium, a bottle of goldfish food, and a cute little net. I had never kept fish before, and I didn’t know much about goldfish other than they seemed to love living in bowls. When my daughter brought home two goldfish from a local fair a few years ago, I had absolutely no idea what to do with our new pets.
