Having goldfish can be a fun and rewarding hobby. As with any new hobby, especially one that involves raising live fish, always consider the maintenance that will be involved. If you care for your aquarium, you’re sure to have happy and healthy Goldfish for many years. Goldfish have a life expectancy of between 5 to 10 years. If you do a good job maintaining their fish aquarium, you should have fun maintaining beautiful fish for a long time. Make sure to feed them properly and keep the water fresh and clear.

When you start a new aquarium, you should get everything in place before buying the fish. If you are going to place gravel on the bottom, you may want to put only a thin layer. This will make it easier to keep clean, as Goldfish are usually very messy. Make sure that you rinse the gravel thoroughly before putting it on the bottom of the tank. If you have some decorations for your aquarium, you should add them now. Make sure that you rinse them well before putting them into the aquarium. Also make sure that the goldfish have plenty of room to swim, because they are active fish. Give them a couple of places to hide, and that should do nicely.

Now that you have everything in place, you can add the water. You will need to use a de-chlorinator, as the chlorine in tap water is poisonous to fish. Once the fish aquarium is filled up, you can turn on the filter. Change the water as often as recommended to keep your fish healthy. Goldfish live at room temperature, so you will not need an aquarium heater. Goldfish are quite comfortable in temperatures from 68 to 80 degrees. On the other hand, they should not be exposed to abrupt temperature changes. You should let the filter run in the new goldfish aquarium for a day or so to filter out any chemicals or dyes that might have been left on the gravel and decorations that you just added. Waiting to buy your new goldfish can be one of the hardest things about getting started.

You need to add fish gradually as fish excrete ammonia. If you add too many fish all at once to a new fish aquarium, the water will not be seasoned enough to dissipate it. As the water in your Goldfish aquarium ages, it builds up beneficial bacteria that turn harmful chemicals excreted by the fish into harmless ones. However, this will take some time so start out with only one or two fish. The nitrogen cycle will not begin until you add the fish, so running an empty aquarium for several days without the fish will not help. Since your fish aquarium is brand new, you might want to consider making partial water changes of about 25 per cent of the total water volume every few days for the first week or so.

You can buy Goldfish food at almost any pet shop. Be sure to purchase some when you buy your first fish. Feed them only a small portion, especially at first. Any uneaten food will sink to the bottom and decompose. Try to keep this to a minimal amount. Observe your goldfish the first few times that you feed them. Feed only as much as they will eat in 2 to 3 minutes twice a day, or as recommended on the Goldfish food label. Be especially careful not to overfeed the goldfish when the tank is new. This will cause excess build up of toxic chemicals, and can kill your goldfish quickly.

As the water in your fish tank cycles through the nitrogen cycle, you may notice that it will become very cloudy. This is a normal development and should clear up in a few days. Do not add any more new fish until the water is crystal clear again. Clear water will signify that the nitrogen cycle is functioning and that the toxic chemicals are being converted to favorable ones. Remember that healthy goldfish will eventually grow large and will need a lot of space. Don’t overcrowd the tank if you want your fish to remain healthy. If you follow this one guideline, you will be sure to have a healthy goldfish aquarium.