If the water temperature differs significantly between the two tanks then float the fish in asmall container within the main tank for a fewminutes before letting it swim freely. So, how do we go about cycling the tank? It’s actually really easy. All you need is ammonia in the water (which your fish will naturally provide in its waste!) and the tank will naturally cycle in time. There’s no enjoyment in keeping an animal in poor conditions where it cannot growand thrive, so get a new tank asap. “Sorry but I’m keeping my goldfish bowl!” Generally, it’s much harder to keep the water quality stable in a small tank. Temperature fluctuations are also far more extreme in small water volumes, as there is no buffer to modulate the changes.

Before adding fresh water, ensure that its temperature matches the temperature of the water in the bowl. Also, treat the new water with a product called Seachem Prime before adding it to the bowl.Measure a sample of tank water for ammonia and nitrite – do this before each water change. At first you will only see ammonia readings and nitrite will be zero.

There are over 200 species of goldfish, all of which are artificial, captive-bred creations that you won’t find living in the wild. These popular pet fish are directly descended from wild Prussian carp. If you have a pet cat, the movement of a goldfish swimming around in a bowl can be incredibly tempting. If the bowl doesn’t have a cover, Tibbles could easily hook out your fish with her paw while you’re not around to stop her. Ammonia is a very toxic chemical produced by your fish. The chemical will damage yourfish’s gills and fins and eventually ammonia “burn” will cause your goldfish to struggle tobreathe.Goldfish don’t survive long in bowls or tanks that contain high levels of ammonia. Getting rid of ammonia That is, unless ammonia, nitrite or nitrate spike to high levels – as described above – in which case you should change 50% of the tank water immediately. Filter cleaning Cutfeeding to a minimum and you cut pollutionto a minimum too. We 100% guarantee thatyour fish will not starve. Goldfish can survivefor weeks without food! Step 2:Even if a bowl was a suitable home for any type of fish (which it’s not!), goldfish would be the last on the list.You should plan for fancy goldfish to grow to roughly the size of a softball at maturity, and the single tailed varieties get even larger. Why? Because the more you feed, the more polluted the water will get. But goldfish cansurvive on very little food for a long time. Firstly, well done! You’ve gone from an inexperience goldfish keeper with a fish in atiny goldfish bowl to someone who has: Ideally, you would cycle a new tank before adding any fish. However, as we’re assuming that your fish was already in an uncycledbowl or small tank, it made sense to go ahead and add them to the larger tank anddo what’s known as a “fish-in cycle” rather than a“fishless cycle”. Your tank will go through thecycling process with the fish already inside. Cycling your tank

Scooping the goldfish up in a jug of water(from its own bowl) and then floating that jug in the main tank for twenty minutes or sowill cause the water temperature in the jug to slowly change to that of the main tank. This will allow the goldfish to slowly adapt to thenew tank temperature and minimise stress. What is cycling?Unfortunately, goldfish are often shown in bowls in the media andsold in bowls by unscrupulous or ignorant pet stores, which causes inexperienced fish keepers to think that bowls are an acceptable home for goldfish. For a balanced diet, feed your fish a combination of flakes, pellets, bloodworms, brineshrimp and peas with the shells removed. Testing Of course, there’s only so much information we can fit into this guide – and goldfishkeeping is a big subject!– so keep browsing the rest of The Goldfish Tank for more. You should aim for a filter that turns over ten times the volume of your tank per hour, or asclose to this as possible. So, if you have a 20 gallon tank, the filter should turn over 200gallons per hour. If in doubt, go for the biggerversion!

Pet goldfish should always be kept in groups in a garden pond or large tank where the fish can socialise. Open-Top Dangers Many newbies to fishkeeping assume that a goldfish bowl or small tank is easier to maintain than a large one, but that’s not the case. As your goldfish grows – if it even gets past the first week – the water quality will continue to deteriorate and it will lead to many completely preventable goldfish diseases. Why you should avoid goldfish bowls So, the aim of cycling is to develop a colony of bacteria that will first convert ammoniato nitrite, then convert that nitrite to nitrate. We then control the nitrate levels with regular water changes.

Continue to change 20% of the tank water every day. And 50%, or as much as necessary, when ammonia and nitrite spike above 0.5ppm. Contrary to popular belief, goldfish don’t stop growing if kept in a small tank or bowl. The fish’s growth rate simply slows down. In some cases, the fish’s growth is stunted, leading to physical deformities and premature death. If ammonia or nitrite rise above 0.5ppm or nitrate rises about 40ppm then do a 50%water change. Water changes If you measure more than 0.5ppm of either ammonia or nitrite (ppm = partsper million, this is the same as Mg/l, which stands for milligrams per litre) then change 50% of the tank water until the ammonia spike is under control.