GOLD FISH
Introduction:
Contrary to common belief that gold fishes are difficult to keep, they are one of the easiest to keep.
They are not fussy about the food or water quality. They can adopt to different conditions very fast. But it does
not mean that they can be abused. They have some basic requirements that should be met in order for them to survive
long in your tank and grow well. They are very friendly fish, who can take food from your hand and is fearless
most of the time. They are also one of the most attractive fish and is expensive when it comes to good quality
fancy strains.
Common Gold fish also known as Carrasius Auratus, can still be found in streams in Asia where they originated. They belong to Cyprinidae family and are related to Carps. Gold fish are often characterized based on their scales, metallic, matt, nacerous and calico. Metallic fish have shiny metallic scales, which have a crystalline substance called Guanine. The more the Guanine, the shinier the scales are. The matt fish lacks the Guanine and look dull and seem to have no scales. These are sometimes called scale less fish, which they are not. There are also fish which have both metallic and matt finish and such combinations are called nacerous. Calico are not basically scale type as often referred to but basically colour combinations. Calico fish have a mixture or whites, orange, blues, blacks and few other colours.
Equipment:
Tank : Many people tend to put gold fishes in bowls and small pots and those poor fish always
end belly up in a few days. Only advantage I can see in a fish bowl is it looks attractive and easily moved from one
place to another. Only fish I would recommend for a fish bowl is a Betta that would be much more happy in a bigger
space than the usual jam jar in which it is accustomed to live. Gold fish need to have at least 10 gallons per fish for
them to grow to their potential maximum size and also live long. Normal thumb rule of 1 inch of fish per gallon does not apply to Gold fishes. Gold fishes basically need lot of swimming space and also water volume to dilute the nitrates and nitrites since they generate lot more waste compared to other tropical varieties. Some of the common varieties can reach the size of 12 inches or so and for such varieties the 10G rule does not apply. The 10G rule applies to fully grown fancy varieties such as Lion head, Oranda etc.. Smaller fishes can be stocked a bit more but they usually grow very fast and need to be shifted to bigger tanks or other tanks to reduce the population. Common gold fish, Comet and Shubunkin are larger fishes and can reach easily 6 to 12 inches depending on the variety. They do better in an outdoor pond where they can have larger swimming space.
Information regarding tank shape, location of the tank, maintenance etc.. is same as what was described
in the section for Equipment for other tropical fishes.
Filter : Gold fishes tend to generate a lot of waste and a good filter is a must to keep gold
fishes. You can have a power filter with acrylic sponge as filter medium. Since the tank needs to be at least 40G for
keeping a couple of pairs, the water current produced by the power head is usually not a big concern and the fancy gold fishes even though they are slow swimmers, can swim against the current near the filters and are not much bothered. But ensure that you do not install a power head in a smaller tank. You can also have other types of filters provided the capacity
of filter is comparable to a power head. Please refer to the section on Equipment to see more details of different filter types their advantages and disadvantages.
Heater : Gold fish basically belong to cold water category. They normally do not need heaters
in their tanks. But if the ambient temperature drops below say 15 deg C during winter, then better to have a
heater installed. But this does not mean that gold fishes cannot live in warm waters or tropical waters. They
thrive in warm and tropical climates also. You do not need to cool the water in such climates. Some gold fishes such as
Common gold fish, Comets, Shubunkins and moors can tolerate water temperature upto 4 deg C. But they cannot stand
sudden drop of temperature from say 16 deg C to 4 deg C within a matter of few hours. As long as the temperature does
not drop by more than a couple of deg C per day it is acceptable for these sturdy varieties. If you are installing a heater take necessary precautions and see the Equipment section for other details.
Gravel : Gold fishes are very messy feeders and if you have soft gravel, they will dig them for food and make a mess of the water by stirring up the debris. For gold fish tanks choose river bed gravel stones of smooth rounded type with a diameter of 5 mm or more. If the size is too large then food particles can easily get lodged between them since the gold fishes feed with a frenzy always and spill the food all over. Gold fishes do vacuum up the food very soon, but a 5 mm size is preferable. Fancy Gold fish such as Oranda have a habit of taking in a couple of stones into their mouth and move it around before spitting out. So never choose gravel with sharp edges, this will injure their throat. But the chances of gold fish gobbling up a stone or two is rare and I have no idea what happens if they do so.
Fish nets : Gold fish are quite heavy and big and make sure you have a good quality net of proper size. I once had my Oranda drop out of my small net and smash his head on the floor. The crown got split and blood started oozing out. I almost cried for my mistake and took great care of the fish by immediately applying Potassium Permanganate solution and Vaseline to seal the wound. Eventually it survived and lived to grow very big. So be careful. They are heavy and quite slippery. A 6 to 7 inch wide net will do the job.
Other accessories : You also need other accessories for cleaning and maintaining the tank. These
are described in the accessories page of this website.
Water : There are two things to watch, one is the hardness and second the pH. Hardness refers to the amount of calcium and magnesium salts in the water. The pH is the level of acidity or alkalinity of the water. Usually Gold fish can survive hard water in the range of 9-12 dH. All gold fishes can thrive in neutral to slightly alkaline waters. pH range to be maintained is from 7.0 to 7.6. But water must be clean and free from parasites in order for them to grow well and reach the potential size. Gold fishes grown in outdoor ponds can reach a bigger size than those raised in door.
Plants : I am not going to discuss the details of whay plants are required, how to raise them and
varieties here. For those information please refer to section Plants in this site. However I have a few things to mention
about keeping live plants in a gold fish aquarium. Gold fish always are on the look out for food and they always browse
the bottom of the tank digging out the gravel, pulling out plants and even eating smaller leaves. This does not mean
you cannot keep live plants with Gold fish. Choose plants with broader and tougher leaves and plants with good tough roots.
Such plants will thrive better in a gold fish tank. There are many plants meeting these criteria and which grow fast. You definitely need live plants in a gold fish tank to use up so much of Nitrites/Nitrates being produced in the tank.
Food : Gold fishes can eat every thing. They are not carnivorous like some fishes and do not
hunt for smaller fishes. They are Omnivores, meaning they can eat both meat and vegetable matter. They need vegetable matter in their diet and if this is denied they will sooner or later
develop swim bladder problems and soon will be floating upside down. The vegetable matter shall include mainly
frozen green peas, put the peas in hot water for a minute and then pop out the skin. Then feed the peas to the
fishes. They love it and green peas is a good laxative and will prevent gold fishes developing intestinal and
digestion problems which later will develop into swim bladder problem. Their diet also shall include green leaves
such as spinach, lettuce (normal as well as rumani), etc.. which can be blanched in hot water for a few minutes
before feeding them. the leaves can be shred to small pieces and fed. Another very good food is earth worms.
Earth worms are very good laxative and they are also rich in raw protein and fats. Gold fishes love earth worms.
But care shall be taken to put the earth worms in a cardboard box with a wet tissue for two days to remove all
the mud in their stomachs before feeding. Earth worms normally do not carry any parasites. Gold fishes also can
take other food such as flakes, pellets etc.. Main point to remember is to feed them varied diet rich in
vegetable matter. Flakes and pellets containing Spirulina can enhance their growth and colours. Gold fish can
eat non stop, so care shall be taken to restrict their feed and also limit the number of feedings to two or
three times per day. Gold fish some time go on eating until they are so much bloated that they can hardly move. Then
they go down to the bottom to rest without movement. Such kind of eating will soon result in swim bladder
problems, so always feed with varied diet and just enough to keep them hungry.
Common problems : One of the most common problems encountered by all aquarists is the swim
bladder disease. The gold fish finds it difficult to keep upright and normally ends belly up and dies of
starvation. The reason for the swim bladder can be due to bacterial infection, or genetic disorder. Bacterial
infection is mainly due to long periods of poor diet without any green peas or other vegetable matter which,
initially results in constipation and soon develops into serious intestinal problems and infections. Those
with genetic disorders are very difficult to cure and will mostly perish. Those cases due to poor diet
have a chance of getting cured. Such fishes can be immediately identified since they loose interest in food
and tend to stay at the bottom, before they start floating. Remove the fish to a shallow tank with 4 inches
of water height, add salt at 1 spoon per gallon and raise the water temperature to 85 deg C. If the fish
can eat feed it with small amounts of green peas. You can open the mouth of the fish while holding it in a
net and put half a pea. It will be swallowed immediately. You can feed one or two peas and then stop.
Let the fish slowly recover. Have some kind of filtration like corner box filter running. Change water
every day up to 50% and replace with fresh water and necessary salt. The fish may take a week to recover
and once it starts moving well and eating, move it to larger tank but feed with regular diet of green peas
and earth worms.
If at all you feed any gold fish with pellets, always soak the pellets for 5 minutes before feeding.
This eliminates the pellets expanding inside the stomach of the fish and causing intestinal and digestive
problems. Most of the digestive problems are caused due to pellets being dropped into the fish tank
without getting soaked. The poor fishes do not know and they swallow as soon as the pellets hit the
water.
Gold fish some times get gravel stuck in their throat. Gold fish have a habit of taking in gravel in their mouth and spitting it out later. Normally they spit it out most of the time. Some time the gravel can get stuck to their throat. The fish will not be able to close the mouth and will be gasping. In such cases catch the fish in a net. Hold the fish head down and gently press on the side of the lips to open the mouth wide. With the other hand press the throat behind the stone. The stone will come out mostly. If not in extreme cases use a forceps to extract, but this may cause some injury and patience is a must.
Choosing the variety and fish:
While choosing the type of gold fish for your tank the following should be borne in mind.
- Never mix fast moving varieties such as comets, Shubunkins with their slower cousins such as Fan Tails, Oranda's etc..
- Never mix fancy varieties such as fan tail with even slower moving variety such as Lion head etc..
- Never mix fish with delicate eyes such as Celestial eye, telescopic eye, bubble eyes etc.. These need to be kept in species tanks.
- Try not to mix fancy gold fishes such as the more robust Fan tails, Orandas etc.. with other tropical fishes. If you want to then mix only with mild mannered fish such as live bearers, timid tetras, timid barbs such as golden and cherry barbs, timid gouramis such as pearl gourami, any other timid fish. Never keep any aggressive, fin nipping, territorial fish with fancy Gold fish. Comets and Shubunkins are faster and can tackle aggression better.
- Do not keep any Cat fishes with Gold fish. Gold fish themselves are good scavengers and seldom leave any food to go waste. Cat fishes can be a problem even the timid ones such as cory cats. Gold fish some time can such in a Cory cat and its sharp spiny fins can injure the gold fish throat seriously and it might get stuck up in the throat and leave the Gold fish choking to death. Once my Gold fish sucked in a small cory cat along with the food and it got stuck in the throat. After some struggle I managed to take it out. The Cory lost its tail in the process which grew back later. The gold fish has blood gushing out from the throat where the spine had pierced and fortunately it healed, probably the spine did not break luckily. Others such as sucker mouths, plecos can attack the gold fish at night.
- Look for fish that are swimming smoothly and are quick with reactions. They should neither be staying at the bottom nor at the top. Do not buy fish that are swimming sideways, tilted or upside down.
- Do not buy fish with cloudy eyes, protruding eyes(exception telescopes, bubble eyes, celestials) or with obvious eye problem.
- Including the tail fins, the fins should be erect, intact and fanned out. Do not buy fish with split fins or fin disorders. Of course some varieties such as veil tails have flowing fins that are not straight. See the specifications for the particular variety.
- Check if the scales are without any blemish and brightly coloured.
GOLD FISH PROFILE:
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