How do you care for goldfish?

Answer 1

A gold fish can not get pregnant but the female is probably carrying eggs so you can do 2 things. #1 you can put the female with the male and he will fertilize the eggs, (but reomove them from the pond/tank cause the parents will eat them) you can have baby goldfish. #2 you can not put the female with the male and she will lay the eggs but they will not get fertilized so no baby fish. Oh and maybe your gold fish is fat that is also a possibility

Answer 2

Buy a rectangular glass or plastic tank (NOT A BOWL)designed specially to accomodate fish and then rinse it with tap water and no soap or other nasty chemicals.

You will now need a filter. They can be purchased at peshops. Fill the filter with filter wool that you have also rinsed with clean water. Stick the filter to the side of the tank with the suckers that should be attached to the back. If the filter produces bubbled when in the water, that is good, if not, you will need a separate air stone to supply the fish with oxygen.

Fill the tank with sand or gravel that has been rinsed thouroughly in a bucket with fresh water. You can buy sand from petshops or garden centres. The gravel must be from a pet shop.

Place a plastic tray onto the sand or gravel and fill a watering can with room-temperature tap water and pour the water from the can onto the tray so as not to mess the sand or gravel.

Fill the tank almost to the top but leaving about two or three inches. The water may be cloudy at first and that is fine. If there is foam on the water surface the sand/gravel must be removed and washed again.

Arrange fake or real plants (real plants must be cold water or they will die and pollute the water) and pebbles or other decorations in the tank. Avoid metals or things that are not specially meant to go in tanks.

Leave the tank for a few days with the filter on so the filter can mature and the water can turn to room temperature.

After a few days and the tank still seems fine you are ready to buy your fish.

Cold water fish can be purchased from petshops but certain petshop fish can be healthy and diseased because the shopkeepers don't want to waste money on treating the fish. Find out about a shop before you buy animals from it and carefully check each fish they have for sale. The chances are that if one fish is ill, they all will be.

Fish may be gaspy or swim upside down or float at the top unmoving. They may also be bloated or sit at the bottom gasping. Check for white sores on the fishs' body and check they don't have scales or fins missing. Watch the behaiviour of the fish and if anyone individual seems to be picked on by others it may be ill.

When you have chosen healthy fish from a good petshop you must decide how many you can fit in the tank you have prepared. The bigger and less crowded the tank, the happier and longer-lived your fish will be.

Goldfish will most likely not each other even if they appear capable of doing so. A similar species (Koi Karp) grow much bigger than goldfish and will eat each other.

Let the shopkeeper catch out the chosen fish and if (after leaving the shop) you might be a while before you get home you must put the bags of fish into a cool box. The bags must be sat up right and not squashed. Try not to splash to water around in the bags andput the bags in the dark so the fish can't get spooked by what is going on around them.

When you get home, put the bags of fish into the tank to float on the top water surface. Leave for just under 15 minutes so the water in the bags can adjust to the water in the tank so the temperature change won't be so dramatic for the fish.

Untie the bag after the 15 minutes and gently catch the fish out with cupped hands or a small net. Don't put the water from the bags into the tank.

Put a secure lid on the tank so the fish can't jump out (the lid can have a light attached or you can have a separate light or even no light at all- it doesn't make a difference to the fish.)

Wait until the next day to feed the fish. Feed them on bloodworms, daphnia, small earth worms, fish-food-flake or pellets.bloodworms and daphnia can be bought alive or frozen at petshops but you can also catch them from ponds in the wild.

If the fish look ill go to the petshop you bought them from and buy treatment after you know what is wrong with them.

If you are adding new fish to a tank that is already set up with other fish, then set up a separate, temporary tank with a filter so the fish can be quarantined in for a couple of weeks.

Feed you fish anything from twice a day to a few times a week. Do not over feed them. If there is food in the tank that the fish will not it them remove it immediately or it will rot and pollute the tank, killing the fish.

Clean the glass of the tank whenever it gets dirty with a scrubbing brush specially designed for this purpose and used for nothing else e.g. dishwashing.

Change the water of the tank out regulary (once a week if you want or even once every two months), do not change all the water out, simply scoop out about half the water using a bucket, jar or hose and pour it down the sink. Refill the tank with cold tap water. You can leave the fish in for this process but try very hard not to spook them. Do not empty more than half the water out unless in very extreme cases e.g. all the fish are ill.

The tank can be placed on a table, a frame, a chest of draws or something similar including a specially-designed stand. The tank can be in sunlight or in shade. Do not put the tank in very strong, direst sunlight as the water can overheat.

Clean the filter wool out occasionally by rinsing it under the tap. You can add other cold water animals like weatherfish, snails, loaches and certain catfish.

Remove dead fish or plants immediately and flush them down the toilet. It a fish is very ill you must remove it and put in in a separate tank with a filter.

Never flush live fish ill or healthy down the toilet and never release pet fish into the wild. If you no longer want your fish they can sometimes be returned to the petshops or you can give them away to someone.

I hope this information has helped. I am a goldfish keeper myself and have put these things into practice. The notes above are from my personal experience and not from any other sources.