Goldfish for beginners!

bubblicious

Hi,

I decided yesterday to buy some coldwater fish (2 goldfish, 1 black moor) but as I'm a beginner goldfish owner, I bought a fish bowl (guessing it's about 5 litres), not realising that goldfish really need a tank! So just wondering if anyone can advise me how big a tank I would need for my little ones?! Having a little cashflow problem at the moment so is there anywhere I could get one fairly cheap? (Please don't kill me, I do realise they are living creatures, just should have researched them a lot more before I purchased!)

Thanks!

boatbuilder

Well, you need a pretty big tank for 3 goldfish. I have two goldfish in my tank and I think its 45 or 50 litres. I wouldn't like to put any more in there because the fish will get bigger! One of mine has almost doubled in size since I got it (a year ago). You also need a filter and a little bottle of stuff to treat tap water to take the chemicals out of it. Try ebay or buy and sell, you often find people looking to get rid of tanks. I got mine for free from a friend.

Keep an eye on the black moor. He is more delicate than the other goldfish and if there is anything wrong with the tank ecosystem, he'll be the first to go.

My cleaning routine is ...every couple of weeks I scrub the inside of the glass to get the green algae off....then I stir up the gravel a bit...then I get a short piece of garden hose and syphon off 5 litres of the water into a 5 litre water bottle. I get the flow started by putting one end of the pipe up to the filter pump.
Then I use this "dirty" water to clean the filter housing and the sponge inside the filter. ( so as not to kill the good bacteria living in the filter)
Then I top up the tank with 5 litres of fresh clean tap water that has been sitting overnight with a few drops of the treatment solution in it.
Job done. They have to be the easiest and cheapest pets in the world to have.

jkl

Another useful tip is to keep the tank out of direct sunlight, the windowsill will make your tank go green in no time.

You can usually pick up a good size cheap tank second hand, but you will need to give the fish more space as they grow.

My goldfish went form small tank, to big tank, to pond. all 4 of them are about 25cm long now. Very easy to keep, and a nice introduction to fish keeping.

filo87

Tanks come up from time to time on Jumbletown (www.jumbletown.ie) and Freecycle. Worth keeping an eye out.Jumbletown also have a wanted section so maybe put up an ad in case someone has one they no longer want?

bubblicious

Thanks for the replies!

Bought a 15 litre tank in Aldi today so keep them going until I have money for a larger one! The fish are only about 5cm max. so think the tank should do them ok for a while?

jkl

The rule of thumb is one inch of fish per one gallon (3.8l) of water.

This isnt too accurate a rule, depending on what fish you're keeping, but while your goldfish grow its a good guide.

Tips of the day!
If you keep the fish's diet varied they'll be healthier, happier etc.
Natural vegitation can be a bit tricky at first but its worth it in the end.
Frequent water changes stop a lot of problems before they start.